Heart's Desire - Part 2

A major part of the discussion after the first performance of the piece on Monday was that of differentiating the characters and how we use the props that are specified within the piece. In sticking with the Brechtian technique that we want, we decided that simplistic costumes should be the way forward with major characters having simple but defining costumes/props that add to their character.

For Brian, this was made easy because it says in the script that he either enters wearing a cardigan or jacket of some kind and thus we procured a variety of jackets from the store cupboard. The major issue that we have is the number of people that enter as Brian with a jacket throughout the piece. Not only does this render us incapable of having the exact same jacket each time as this would complicate transitions, but it also means that there is a build up of jackets/cardigans on the chair that Brian sits on. The idea behind this as well as from a technical point of view was to show the alternate realities crashing into one another, reminding the audience of what has happened before. Moreover, it creates an element of spass because the actor playing Brian has to sit on a mountain of jackets in later scenes.

For Alice, we wanted something quite feminine and thus chose the prop/costume of a scarf. The scarf is much more transferable between scene changes so the technical element is all sorted. It also clearly defines the character just as simply as Brian's jacket does and allows Alice to throw the scarf around her shoulder at some points and have something to straighten out.

For Maisie, we chose to use glasses and a book. The book is significant because when Marlon is Alice for the first time, Alice talks about platypi and thus we assumed that she was reading from a book about animals. In hindsight, this may not have been such a good idea because it ignores the stage directions that Maisie is fretting about the room. Moreover, in the script, it never mentions anything about the use of a book. However, it should be noted that the task is to have a piece that is script motivated and thus there is the ability to have some level of devising. The glasses provide an interesting touch as they are often perched on the end of our noses which allows the audience to see Maisie's age. However, the glasses may suggest that Maisie is older than Brian and Alice which is not exactly the case so something should be done with trying to make Alice and Brian seem a bit older which is something we can incorporate in later rehearsals. We also added a chair for Maisie downstage left for Maisie to sit on as it felt awkward having Maisie stood at the bottom of the stage alone.

In this rehearsal, we managed to block the last portion of the play. In this, we added the sound effect of a ding using a phone which shows a Brechtian technique of using modern technology. Whenever the ding sounds, we are to pause what we are doing in/out the scene, turn and look at the phone and then move which allows better synchronicity when transitioning. Unfortunately I don't currently have access to the video but these elements will be seen from future rehearsal videos.