During a free period on Wednesday, myself and Kathryn created two physical theatre based pieces around AOAS. We decided to use Frantic Assembly methods such as Chair Duets to show the relationships between the characters within the play. Firstly, we created an Around/By/Through piece which showed the relationship between Carol and Anna. We started by creating simple movements which developed more meaning as the piece came together. We also decided to add speech to the piece to further solidify their relationship and their characters. We decided to use the scene where Anna goes swimming when she's still young and Carol seems fairly distant from her, partly because this is a scene that has dialogue between the two women, and also reveals Carol's state of mind. In one sense, I think that this could be described as a physical essay due to the addition of words.
After this, we created a chair duet using the characters of Carol and John which is below. I think that this presents the entirety of their relationship with one another. I played John in this piece and Kathryn played Carol. When John walked on at the beginning, this showed how he has become to understand that Carol is not mentally well, which is when she initially tries to commit suicide. Carol moves away because she is trying to protect herself from the love that John will try and give and also trying to protect John from herself. When we both laid on each other, it represented how both rely on each other; Carol relies on John for financial support and John relies on Carol for emotional support which I don't think he receives much of throughout the play. When Kathryn put her hands on her stomach it represented the pregnancy with Anna, however, when she pushes John away, I think that is could show how little John seemed to be there for Anna which could be potentially due to Carol's influence. Moreover, every time John tried to put his hands on Carol, she removed them which showed how she didn't want his love and wanted to distance herself from him, possibly so that he wouldn't get too attached to her so that he won't become as sad and guilty when she eventually commits suicide. When Carol leaves John at the end, that signifies her leaving for good but as John looks on after her, it could show that he did become attached to her and became guilty for not being there for her as much as he feels as he should have been due to her pushing him away.
