Frantic Assembly - Lesson 3

After the N2C performance, we adjusted the piece slightly. Below is the final product: 

Below is an analysis of the changes we made:

Frantic Assembly - Lesson 2

On the Monday lesson and at N2C we changed the introduction of the piece and made linking scenes between each smaller piece. Unfortunately, I don't have the video of the rehearsal process on Monday but I have the video from N2C where we performed to the Baby BTECs and returning MeganOG and HannahOG. The video of the piece can be seen below and my analysis video is also below:

The major positives of the piece was that we managed to incorporate much of what we had taken from the workshop and adapt it for our needs. The additional lifts that we included were impressive and allowed for there to be a sense of danger present within the piece, playing to Frantic Assembly's style. Although, as the majority of us had a constant blank expression which is something that Frantic wouldn't want within a piece, it took away from the emotion and the impact that we were trying to make on the audience. I do think that I tried to have less of a blank expression in the above performance due to the presence of an audience, however, this could be improved the next time we show the piece which will be our final performance.


After we showed this piece we were shown the lower BTECs and their version of the Frantic piece, one of which will be used in the school musical. These performances can be seen below. During these pieces we were told to imagine that these stories related to our own stories that we had made. I found this quite hard because I felt that these stories were not reminiscent of the one that I was in in the big BTEC piece, mostly because they both involved cheating whereas mine was about trying to find a true love. In some ways this could be related but in my own opinion I felt that they were completely different and thus hard to relate to.

We were then split into groups which would support the lower BTECs performance allowing them to have the major focus and with the inclusion of the table. The group that I was with consisted of: Megan, Disney, Imogen, HannahOG, Izzy, Marlon, Leah, Maya and Peter. The final product can be seen in the video below:

The story portrayed in the piece and how we were told it was showing was completely different to what I originally thought which was that Imogen was cheating on Disney with Megan. The story differs because it shows how Megan sees the relationship of her parents, Imogen and Disney, in the past to how it is now, the tensions of which have been caused by Megan herself. The main theme therefore is that of a parental relationship breakdown by that of a child which in some respects is similar to AOAS.


The initial major change from the piece before was that Imogen and Disney are standing on a table which altered their movement slightly but allowed for Megan to view their relationship on a pedestal. It is therefore significant that Imogen and Disney come off the table/pedestal later in the sequence showing that Megan no longer views their relationship as something good and something to be worshipped. The slow movement at the beginning of the piece is done to show this true love (which is somewhat similar to my piece in the big BTEC performance) which would therefore allow an audience to describe their movements as tender. Megan's facial expressions are clearly seen throughout the piece which is a major strength of hers - the ability to perform Frantic Assembly but also use large and visible facial expressions that add another layer of depth to the piece.


At 31 seconds, Marlon and Izzy walk in and are representative of how Imogen and Disney met. the two are looking down on their past selves and are seeing how happy they used to be before the birth of Megan. When I enter the piece, I do think that this is representative of Megan's presence within the piece especially because Izzy seems completely in love with the prospect of myself as shown by my finger being moved under her chin which is the same movement that we do in our piece in the big BTEC performance. This effect on their relationship by the presence of a child is further shown as we lift Imogen off the table which includes her stretching over to Megan to draw this 'nerve' into her stomach.


 At 1:10 when Disney and Imogen face each other I feel that its supposed to represent Imogen telling Disney about the baby which he then leaves because he can't face the pressure as shown by the following lifts and when we cover him up. The mid-air walk that Disney does at 1:40 which we have used in my Berkoff piece shows Disney re-joining the family and the subsequent issues this creates because he's been absent for so long Imogen has a much stronger attachment to Megan than she ever had with Disney. This lack of a family unit gives a negative impact on Imogen's wellbeing and thus she is much more nervous when Disney touches her than what she was like before which is potentially also caused by the abusive relationship which she is then thrust into which may have started with the influence of Megan - Disney doesn't feel as though he's needed and thus must do anything in his power to keep his grip on the family unit.


The rapid movement of the table at 1:46 and the movement we do with the table after this, is supposed to represent Imogen and Disney's relationship metaphorically as we handle the table with violence and don't care what happens to it which is similar to the story-arc that appears within the toxic relationship at the front of the stage. At 2:10 after the use of the table we take the watching element from our piece and apply it to this piece, potentially to show that society is watching this family and is disgusted which is pronounced when we turn away from the relationship a little later in the piece. This turn is in time with when Megan enters the piece which further demonstrates how society may think that a child has ruined this perfect relationship from before - she has fractured the relationship beyond repair. Disney and Imogen's movements are much faster in this sequence to show the lack of love that is between them - they are now simply just going through the motions and thus this has a large impact on Megan and how she would perceive their relationship.


After c.10 seconds, the people behind the main sequence begin to do nerve work taken from Leah's piece from the main performance. We begin doing them fast at first but slow the pace down as we get exhausted to represent how the relationship at the front of the stage has started to decay and fall apart/not work properly over time. It also allows for the baby BTECs to have the best possible view for the audience to see them allowing them to have much more focus, grabbing the audience's attention, which allows the original piece to show through.

Frantic Assembly - Lesson 1

The day after the Frantic Assembly workshop we had a 3 hour lesson in which we had an opportunity to take what we did in the workshop in order to apply them to our own performance. The image to the right is the things that we remembered doing in this workshop or in the workshop in July 2017. We also included what frantic assembly would add to a piece to make it more complex and add more character which include music/tech/stage design as well as the ability to maintain focus and the ability to be synchronised in our movements.

This image is the parts of the workshop which we really liked and wanted to include in our final group piece of the Big BTECs. As is visible, it would be impossible to include all of the pieces on this board into a small performance so it was vital that they fit with the relationship theme that we decided to go with. The themes that we wanted to discuss can be seen at the bottom of the board which include how relationships change over time and the loss of identity apparently all within a high rise building. This high rise building idea was suggested because all the pieces that we suggested appeared to be of different relationships and thus it wouldn't make sense for the pieces to be mashed together - it is important to maintain the piece integrity of what we had already worked on to maintain the level of emotion that we had in the workshop.

We then discussed the high rise building theme in greater detail by discussing the set that we could have. Although this is not really in Frantic Assembly's style it did give us a starting point for the introduction for the piece which I will discuss later in this blog. We discussed that the set of the risers would represent the windows and a climbing frame for the high rise building so that we could do various lifts after climbing up the risers. Additionally, as the three pieces that we would use - Marlon and Jade's, Hannah1 and Leah's and Maya and Bruce's - all appeared to be in different time zones, it was suggested that each riser step would be in a different time zone. The photo opposite details what we were going to complete in terms of improvisation for the first attempt at an introduction to the piece that will be discussed later in the blog.

The first thing that was done was that we were put into groups so that we could learn the movement that we wanted to use from the workshop. The usage of the title of the music is how I will define the groups:

The Very Thought Of You (TVTOU) - myself, Marlon, Bella, Lauren.
Time - Maya, Bruce, Alex, Izzy, Kathryn, Joel.
Sex for Breakfast (SFB) - Hannah1, Leah, Peter.

It was Marlon and Jade's piece that we used for TVTOU. As seen in the video opposite, Marlon was partnered with Bella and I was partnered with Lauren initially because out of all of us in the group, myself and Marlon are probably the strongest and heaviest, both of which contribute to the lift. I found it somewhat easy to copy what Marlon was doing with Bella but in some respects (i.e. where to put Lauren down after the lift) were harder to remember. The switching parts were done to highlight Marlon's role in the piece because he dances with all females in the group. This links to what I was saying about Flirty Disco in the previous blog whereby the movement could be showing someone going around a club and hooking up with every person - this is the vibe that we were trying to achieve with this piece. However, with the music and as our piece is the earliest in the History of Romance (potentially the name of the piece which hasn't been strictly confirmed) it didn't fit with the time period. This theme that we were initially trying to go for is enhanced by Marlon walking away at the end of the video, leaving myself, Bella, and Lauren alone. To be honest, this didn't work very well as Bella and I continued with the movement even when Marlon had moved onto 'dancing' with Lauren. For me, the hardest part of the piece was having to learn both parts of the movement as I move from being the man within the piece with Lauren and Bella, to having the woman's role with Marlon. I think that in future rehearsals this, alongside trying to shorten the length of the piece down and adapting it slightly to show romance in a much more positive way, should be something that we try to improve.

The next piece in the performance we thought should be Time as it has elements of old style dancing and a modern interpretation so we thought it would be an appropriate linking sequence between TVTOU and SFB. The use of three pieces occurring at the same time not only allows for a quicker rehearsal period, it also has more movement, keeping the audience entertained for longer. A major criticism of the piece would be that the three couples hadn't managed to coordinate where their impressive movements would be and thus some of these would not be seen by an audience. I do, however, like the way that different relationships are portrayed. It is clear that Kathryn's and Joel's results in tragedy even though their relationship is loving. Izzy maintains her cruelty and manipulative behaviour with Alex, her grip becoming stronger with each movement - this clearly shows an abusive relationship and shows how romance can turn sour. It appears that Bruce and Maya's piece is the one that lasts even though there was a lot of both of them trying to leave but staying to make the relationship work which it clearly does. In order to maintain the impressive movement on the wall by Kathryn and Joel it would be important to have a Promenade theatre whereby the camera would have to move around to capture this movement.

The final piece in the performance is SFB which is shown in the video opposite. Leah and Hannah1 had to teach and adapt their movement around Peter and thus have created a rather impressive cheating storyline that also uses some of the workshop parts from Maya and Bruce's line drawing exercise (as they work-shopped their piece on the floor and this can be seen in this piece at the end where Peter rolls over Leah).  This piece brings a much faster paced piece of action compared with the slower pieces before it which alters the pace of the emtire performance. Moreover, with the implementation of this piece, it allows for another interpretation of a relationship to be shown as mentioned above. This means that a large number of different interpretations of relationships will be shown and thus the performance will appear to tell the story that we want it to tell. We decided to put this piece last because the music sounds much more modern than the previous two pieces of music.

After a break, we experimented with the introduction to the entire piece. This was the hardest thing to create because, not only were there a large number of us, there were also many conflicting ideas about how to stage the piece which comes with the discipline. We now all realise that the introduction opposite wasn't in the style of Frantic Assembly and seemed much more planned than what Frantic would put on. It also felt like we weren't experimental enough as we used set too much before we had tried to build up an introduction that we wanted.

We started with the slow movement as seen in the video because we wanted a variation in pace to come throughout the piece. Additionally, we were all spread around in interesting shapes that didn't add much meaning to the piece. It felt too rushed and not at all like the workshop we had done the previous day. In the next few rehearsals we will need to severely adapt the piece not only to suit our means but to suit the style of Frantic Assembly much more than we have been doing.

Frantic Assembly Workshop

Frantic Assembly was formed in 1994 by Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett, and Victoria Middleton, who all attended a university in Swansea, Wales. Although they weren't performing arts inclined, having no drama or dance experience, they were willing to learn and pass on what they had learnt to others. They were inspired by other theatre companies e.g. DV8. The main style of the company is that of physical theatre combining movement, design, music, and text, of which they have incorporated into many stage shows such as the renowned "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time". One of their most famous activities are "Chair Duets" which usually incorporate two people and two chairs creating movement, and sometimes a story from the simple movement they have created. They also provide "Ignition" which is a training project for young men aged 16-20 in the style of Frantic. They also travel around the world in order to deliver their style of theatre to more people through workshops.

This was my second opportunity to workshop with members of Frantic Assembly which I think gave me an advantage in confidence and ability to complete the tasks that were set out. I loved this workshop much more than the last workshop I attended in July 2017, potentially because I have gained confidence throughout the BTEC course and as I know the majority of the people in the small drama community very well and thus can interact much better than in July 2017.

The first thing that we did was a warm up, engaging our bodies and minds. Shaun (the member of Frantic Assembly who led the workshop) suggested that one of the reasons why its important to do a warm up alongside making sure we wouldn't get injured, was because in a rehearsal process it can feel as though nothing is getting achieved, but you can set yourself some goals in a warm up and then you feel more successful.

The first major exercise that we did was Slalom where chairs are used to create a running pattern. We had to maintain the same running speed as our partner so that we reached the same points on opposing sides at the same time - this calls for compromise because you shouldn't go at the slowest speed or at the fastest speed and thus this allows for more teamwork. Shaun then added two more chairs to the slalom which made the movement more complex and look more visually interesting. The chairs were then removed but we still had to keep the places where the chairs were in our movement. This demonstrates how Frantic Assembly works in that they start off simply and then make their piece more complicated by adding text. After this, we talked about what this sequence could relate to in terms of scenes - a hospital, restaurant, an actual race all of which were ideas accepted by the group. In order to define this I suggested adding text - this would come much later - as well as costume, props and manner of movement.

A major part of the Frantic Assembly devising process is that of the world before, during, and after any contact made. This allows for an audience to understand the relationships between each character - for example something as simple as holding hands or removing a hand from a shoulder can tell the audience a relationship immediately. A lingering touch after the contact can suggest that the two people don't want to leave each other - it is this concept that i feel defines the majority of their work and therefore will shape our work in this part of the Physical Theatre Unit.

This concept can be seen in the partner work that we did initially with lifts especially when developed into a full piece which we hope to achieve by the end of this unit. We were told to label ourselves A and B - I worked with Megan from the lower BTEC class for this section of the workshop and tried to work with different people at every part of the workshop - and did the Push Hands exercise, which can be demonstrated by the video below (although not of my class it does show the basis for what this entails):

 After this we discussed whether having our eyes open or closed was better for this exercise. Personally, I felt that having eyes closed was better because it allowed for less prediction making movements better. The person leading (with their hand on top) has ultimate control and this allows for development of trust which is important for the next lifts and group lifts that we did later in the workshop. The key points of these lifts is that the partner that you're working with is the same height and that throughout the lift a great deal of surface area is maintained.

The first 'lift' that we tried was the Balance Lift whereby the partnership leans into one another with their hips at the same height and feet at the same place. In this lift, and indeed in all the lifts, it is important to maintain as much surface area with the other person as possible as this allows the leaning to be much more supported. As shown in the photo to the right from last years Frantic workshop, when the balance is correct the middle legs of both partners will begin to rise. Megan and I found this lift the easiest to do as it required little strength which was detrimental to the next lifts that we attempted.

The video to the left demonstrates the first proper lift that we tried (video taken from Megan Allsop who was a BTEC on the course last year and attended the previous Frantic workshop in July 2017). In preparation for this lift, it is vital that the person lifting has their knees bent and has their hip below the other person's hip. First we tried this without the movement demonstrated in the video. This meant that the person being lifted would only move in the air. The pivot was added by some partners later, but Megan and I found this hard as we are both incredibly weak and thus felt as though it would be better if we were in a partnership with someone who was stronger and was more able in lifting.

Another lift that we tried is the one demonstrated to the right, again taken from Megan Allsop. The person lifting has to bend down so that the person being lifted can put their hands on their partner's hips. It is important that the person lifting has a straight back as it will become increasingly harder if they have a bent back as they won't be able to lift the other person. As the person lifting stands up, they support the other person's legs.

The Clamp Lift can be seen as demonstrated by Bruce and Peter below. The partner stand in a T-shape with the person lifting being the top part of the T. The person being lifted puts their arm over the other person's shoulder and squeezes tightly to maintain as much surface area as possible. The person lifting again has bent knees and a straight back with an arm wrapped around their partner's waist for support and to again maintain a greater surface area. If the person squeezing is tight enough then the person lifting will only need to stand up to move the other around and complete the lift.

After a 15 minute break, we needed an activity that would get our energy levels back on track whilst also maintaining the frantic principle of the world before, during and after contact. The ideas that we got around the topic of Flirty Disco was that of a nightclub sequence where we have someone going around everyone showing that the person is indeed flirting with everybody. This would come with character sequencing and development, but I do think that this is something that we could put in the Big BTEC final piece at the end of the physical theatre unit.

The major exercise that we did next was a Line drawing one. I was in the only group of 3 with Nasifa and Grace so our instructions had to be adapted so that it would fit the same time frame of that of the other pieces. We had to find 3 places on each other and repeat these in a sequence that makes sense while drawing lines on each other hence why this exercise is called Lines. We then had to link all the points together by adding movement such as round by through or by just moving but maintaining the physical connection with other people in the group. After practising this for a bit, we were told to add a lift into the piece if it come naturally and to loop the piece. The video is the entire group's pieces - mine appears at 3:14 to 4:17. I think that our performance could have gone a bit better than what is seen on the video - something that affects how effective the piece was is the camera angle which hides the lines that we were drawing and effects the perception of the piece. I do think however, that there was a lack of practise involved in the rehearsal time because we had to include 3 people into the piece rather than just 2 like everyone else. The inclusion of 3 people did allow for a story-line to develop - for me, this story-line is that we were all cheating on each other with each other which meant that we were constantly pushing each other away to the other person because we felt bad. This can be seen as I move Grace's hand to turn Nasifa around and because I lift Grace towards Nasifa potentially showing the guilt that my character may have had.

We then work-shopped some pieces:

Izzy and Imogen:

The storyline that I understood for this piece was that Imogen was in an abusive relationship with Izzy. This was seen in the initial video above because Izzy's face seemed to be stone-like and cold whereas Imogen's felt more warm. Shaun decided to enhance this feeling by slowing the movements down and by having Imogen's touches be light and Izzy's have more of a grip, maintaining as much contact with Imogen as possible. Izzy was to maintain a predatory gaze whereas Imogen's was to maintain as to what it was before. During their sequence, Shaun asked me that when he changed the music (seen at 1:35) I was to stand to the edge of the piece and keep eye contact with Imogen and she should keep eye contact with myself. This brought more to the storyline and suggested that I was trying to get Imogen away from the abusive relationship be it romantic or purely platonic. For me, it was easy to keep the eye contact with Imogen and therefore my focus mostly because myself, Imogen, and Izzy are very close friends. This already close friendship allowed for the onstage relationship to be much stronger. The change in music to something much more slow and soft allowed for a softer storyline to be seen between myself and Imogen even though Izzy was still using her harsh touches.

Jade and Marlon

The major change between this performance and the group performance above was the change in music which allowed for a time frame to be explored. The use of the song The Very Thought Of You allowed for the time of the piece to be placed in wartime Britain which holds some sort of nostalgia. As a group, we compared this performance to the start of the film Up and this is enhanced when Jade was told to leave halfway through the piece, leaving Marlon to dance by himself for a while. As Jade did come back at the end of the piece this allowed for multiple storylines to develop. My favourite of these was that in the first sequence Jade represented Marlon's wife who died and thus when she came back was actually showing Marlon's daughter or granddaughter - he was teaching the dance to later generations. It was suggested that this would be much better achieved if Jade was replaced by someone else who looked younger which would reinforce this idea. Another suggestion that was given was that Jade had again died but when Jade rejoins Marlon it shows that they are both in heaven dancing together because Marlon has also died. The continuation of Marlon without Jade shows that Marlon continued with his life as though Jade was still in it which in some ways made the piece even more sad than previously intended.

Bruce and Maya

The major change that was made to this piece was that Bruce and Maya were told to do the performance on the floor without changing much of the piece. This allows for an audience to see that the two are in a bed without there actually having there be a bed onstage. Not only did this change become much more physically draining for both of them, it seemed to be much more tender than what they had performed before. The storyline was enhanced when Shaun instructed Bruce to either look at Maya or either look away. The major storyline that we got from the piece was that the two were young lovers who were just coming to terms with their love. It was here where I started to see a theme as to what our big piece could be about - potentially how relationships change over time.

Bella and Hannah1

Their initial performance in the main group sequence above was reminiscent of someone going to space as the music that came on was someone talking about flying away. Certainly, within a tech heavy piece about someone leaving this would be very effective. The change of music I think for this piece was much less effective and thus I feel that the previous music would have suited this piece a lot better. The use of the paper airplane and then it being turned into a piece of paper was reminiscent of the passage of time. Maybe Hannah and Bella were in a relationship that was fun at the start but quickly fizzled out when Hannah got a new job. Or maybe it shows how Hannah grew up leaving Bella behind, their childhood's forgotten in a mess of adult responsibilities. Whatever the interpretation, the moment when Bella stops touching Hannah when drawing the lines marks a distance in their relationship from Bella - Hannah had already shown this before, but when Bella does it, it severely shows that their relationship is broken beyond repair. The use of the paper airplane is something that I would like to use in later performances.

The next few tasks involved major group lifts. including the Calippo, forward and backwards, all shown in the photos below:

This photo is Leah mid-Calippo lift. In essence it is similar to that of a Calippo lollipop hence its name. Those at the bottom (lifting) all push on Leah's legs the force of which allows Leah to be pushed into the air. Leah must stay straight in body in order for the lift to be fully accomplished.

 The image opposite shows Joel in a forwards lift. This is the lift that we have done the most of in previous physical work - my group used this lift in our Berkoff piece because both myself and Marlon had been to the Frantic Assembly workshop last July. Alex, the person who Joel is putting his hands on is the rock and is the person that Joel uses to stabalise himself whilst other people hold him by the chest, waist and knees for maximum support. This allows Joel to be easily moved around and manipulated whilst in the air.

The photo opposite shows us in the middle of a backwards lift. The person being lifted is this time supported by 2 rocks whom they put their arms around to begin with so they can be lifted initially. Other people support this lift by grabbing the areas mentioned in the previous lift. When the person is in the air, as shown by Bruce in this photo, they can take their arms off the two rocks and this allows for maximum movement.















The photo opposite is mid-crowd surfing Leah and shows how simple lifts like the ones above can easily mould into the lift of Leah curling into a ball. We also experimented with flipping Leah mid-air which actually worked pretty well all things considered.


















After a 30 minute break we applied the group lifts to smaller lifting in the form of an exercise called Bodyguard. As stated previously Frantic Assembly start off with something simple and in this case the simple thing was that of following a person round and when they stop, they fall in a creative way. The challenge is to get the person as low to the ground as possible generating risk which is another way in which Frantic Assembly like to experiment. We then chose someone to pick 4 spots in the room in which they would fall in a creative way to which we would then transform into a lift. The video below shows our (Alex, Imogen, Kathryn, and myself) final piece:

The main thing that we were trying to show with this piece was that Imogen was the main character and thus everyone else was trying to protect her in some way. This developed into Kathryn always being the one to catch Imogen, Alex the one to always take Imogen off Kathryn and myself to always push Imogen away from Alex - this was done somewhat because I felt that I was too weak to do much heavy lifting. Imogen wouldn't look at anyone in the piece, her only focus being on her next point. In the rehearsal process Shaun asked for there to be an element of risk whereby Imogen would fall and at the last second Kathryn would run in. This effect was lost on us even though I tried to stay away from Imogen when she was walking to her next point. This was because I didn't have the responsibility of catching Imogen so in a sense I could take more risks than any other member of the group.

As with the Line drawing exercise, we workshopped a piece. The piece that we workshopped is the one seen below and is the Bodyguard of Disney:

The major change was that the piece was now in the dark, the lifts of Disney only being illuminated by Shaun's phone torch. This was majorly effective as it hid the people who were lifting Disney allowing an audience to only see the movements being made by Disney. Another thing that evolved from this piece was the use of shadows for effect. The main shadow that was the most effective appears at 25 seconds in. This easily shows the effect that shadows can give to a piece and was reminiscent of Gecko's The Wedding (a description of this performance can be found here). The story-line that was produced was something akin to someone being born - perhaps a baby in the womb - portrayed as such potentially due to Disney's newly shaved head. In contrast, the piece could represent drowning due to Disney being brought up and down and only being visible when he was being lifted. this could be emphasised by his facial expressions and by windmilling his hands around as well as the music that could be played to show this.

The final exercise that we did was something called Nerves. The video opposite shows the group practising their own nerve movements about three minutes into the exercise. We were told to turn around as to not feel as self conscious when we were doing the movement which would further enhance our movement to be to the standard of what was achieved. Firstly we were told to experiment with 'pulling' nerves from parts of our body to the heart. Then to find a pattern that we could repeat with a slow, outward movement, one movement where on nerve jolts out and you have to catch it and the other two similar to what we had done in the first part of the exercise. After we'd perfected our sequence we were put into a group of three and told to learn each other's sequences to put them into a performance. I was in a group with Marlon and Lauren and feel as though we all easily grasped the movement. Once in the group it was suggested that we play with the pacing of the piece which is something that Frantic Assembly develop in their own pieces - making something more complex as we go along.

The video opposite shows our final performance. I think that for the most part our movements were in sync where we had planned them to be and in a canon sequence such as the head throw in the second sequence that we did. The constant changing of where we were sat/laid and the use of having back to the audience at some points was very effective because it stopped the piece from becoming too repetitive. The chair was used to give one person their own 'starring' moment. I think that the conclusions drawn from the piece by the audience were excellent as I hadn't really thought of the piece in that way before. For example, someone suggested that we were all the same person going through solitary confinement and were just trying to find ways to pass the time. So the other people in the sequence who were not in the piece were either the future or past self of the character assumed in the piece. Another story that was suggested was that we were inmates in a prison and were bored with how time was passing - perhaps it shows how people commit the same crimes again and again which would allow for the past/present characters would have more relevance. The inmate suggestion was called from the moment in the piece where we pass a nerve to and from each other which was suggested to be people passing notes to pass the boredom.

Overall, the workshop was an incredible experience and hope that in the future I have the opportunity to partake in another Frantic Assembly workshop.

Berkoff - Greek - Final Performance

We performed the Berkoff piece on 26th June 2018 with success. The video below shows our final performance:

There are six distinct sections/scenes within the piece and I will critically evaluate my performance in each of the scenes before coming to an overall conclusion of the effectiveness of the piece.

1) Fortune Teller Part 1 - 0:00 to 1:48

The immediate sound effects in this scene set a good precedent for what was to come later in the piece, despite Marlon's mistake of not splitting up the line "When you were a nipper". We still managed to keep in time so that we went down at the same time. My initial externalisation and reactions are very good, however, as the scene progresses I feel like I lost my reactions at some point. This is because in the rehearsal process I didn't feel the need to add in more facial masks, but as I found in the performance, it transpired that I needed more externalisation of my facial expressions.

A mistake on my part is when Marlon says "His face meanwhile staring into the ball", I didn't make sure I was in time with everyone else. This line for me was always an area of concern in rehearsals because there was a lack of clarity as to when to do the movement. Moreover, at the line of "Course we took no notice" I moved too early with my arm - again I feel that this was because there was a lack of clarity as to when we were going to perform the movement. Despite this, I feel that I certainly had clear movements of staccato wherein my movement was defined.

During the performance, I felt that I lost my Cockney accent on the line "You're having me on". I think that this happened because the line is said as a group so I forgot to add the accent. I also nearly broke character on Izzy's long "No!!" because she hadn't done this in rehearsal so this was unexpected.

2) Fortune Teller Part 2 - 1:48 - 4:57

As suggested in the previous scene, the general succinctness of the scene was lacking as was my own externalisation due to the lack of time I realised I had where I had dead time where I wasn't reacting to any of the action. The first example of this can be seen immediately where the drop of our arms was out of time. I think that this happened because we didn't focus on this small section as much because it marks the border between the previous scene and this scene in my mind certainly so limited time was spent until close to the performance to make the action defined and in time with one another. I have a lack of externalisation as is the same with Kathryn when we make the tent but my facial expressions are contrasting at the line "What a load of old bollocks!" and "And how he upset my Missus" which captures the feminity that I had to give to the Mother and masculinity that I chose to apply to the Chorus.

The strut at the line "We went pale a bit but in we marched" could have been much more exaggerated but due to limited spacing, the movement wasn't as big or exaggerated as I'd have liked. Moreover, I noticed again the lack of externalisation after "Same old schmutter on the table" which is an issue as the audience won't necessarily understand what the Mother is thinking in response to this scene. Despite this, I believe I had great defined staccato type movement after the line "I got his powers now".

During the performance, I was very pleased that we managed to get the timing of the clap after the line "Like a trap" which we had never managed to do in rehearsal. I think this made the piece better as it showed the audience that we could successfully have some moments of synchronisation. Despite this, myself and Izzy are noticeably out of time with Maya and Kathryn at the movement on the floor which could have been addressed by clarifying on what words we were going to be moving - this is an issue that I believe hindered our rehearsal process.

The biggest issue within this scene was the line fumble from Kathryn at "They wanted not to hear the other word so turned and fled". This mistake made us all go out of sync but Kathryn had been having trouble with this line throughout the rehearsal process so it can't be attributed to her alone that she made a slight mistake. The mistake can also be attributed to the whole cast because we always forgot the movement on the word hear especially myself as I didn't realise we had this movement until it was fully ingrained into everyone else's movements so I couldn't ask for an amendment.

 At the line "Ripe to drop" we said that we'd put our arms down at the word drop but it's evident we didn't do this. I think there was a general lack of rehearsal for this section in rehearsal which made us forget when we were going to be moving. Again this is because this part of the scene was in between the big body of this scene and the following scene which meant we spent a reduced time going over this section.

3) Before Dinner - 4:58 - 5:53

As with the previous scenes, the section between scenes is largely undefined. This can be seen with this scene as I immediately have a fumble with my arm as I don't put it up at the same time as Izzy does. There was no clarification in the rehearsal process when we were going to do this action - I am beginning to think there was a slight lack of communication in the rehearsal process most probably because we all had a different idea of how we wanted the piece to look which brought up some differences in our performance style.

There are some really excellent parts within this scene. For example, I have good externalisation at the "Go down on Hitler" line shown by an excellent facial mask - I think I definitely embodied the role of the Chorus excellently in this scene as my movements are certainly reminiscent of a stereotypical Cockney man in this scene. Moreover, the vocal contrast between "Aggro" and "Tiz" showed a clear definition between sections. Kathryn and I forgot to put our arms in and out at Izzy's line of "I had to escape this cruddy flat..." which I think reduced the effectiveness of the box/trap movement that we'd encased Izzy in.

At my lines during and after "Her spotty apron.... darkie slave" I think my movement was an excellent addition that I included rather late in the rehearsal process which added a captivating sense to my portion of the scene which was lacking somewhat before. However, I needed to be more defined and succinct with my actions and I should have set words when I was going to do these actions. Although, it should be taken into account that I had to slow my speech down so that my cast members could bring their chairs on. This did allow for a variation in pace between the quicker pace before and after the slower paced section we have here.

4) Dinner - 5:53 - 7:31

The first issue that presented itself in this scene was that Maya placed the chair in front of me the worn way round but this was easily rectified. My own personal issue throughout this scene was, again, a lack of externalisation especially when I wasn't saying any of my lines. My major mistake also happened in this scene where I swapped the lines "More taters love" and "More cake love" around which caused an issue for Kathryn's following line but she easily solved this.

I think my droning tone/accent was excellent in this scene as it presented a direct contrast between the other characters I had. However, I lost continuation as when I was playing Mum in a previous scene I didn't have this droning tone. At the end of the scene, my instant switch from Mum to Chrous was easily identifiable to the audience as it was defined well.

5) Leaving Home - 7:32 - 8:38

I think that in this scene there was a distinct lack of knowledge of what we were doing movement wise because this was the last scene that we blocked and was the one that we rehearsed the least despite there being a rather large lift in. The initial good aspect on my part was the use of Total Theatre as I moved the chair right to the back of the stage which also meant that there would be enough room for movement in the following Sphinx scene. The lack of externalisation is effective in this scene when I'm stood on the chair as it directly contrasts with the externalisation I make after the "Mould on cheese" line.

During the first part of the lift where Kathryn is walking across the stage, I put my hand out because I wasn't as involved in the lift. I thought that this could represent Mum waving goodbye to Eddy as he walks "to the end of the road" and it also gives the added support of me behind Kathryn if we did drop her. We nearly did drop her in the main section of the lift, something which is clearly visible - the lift is hard to attempt when only two people are holding another above their heads.

The last synchronised sequence in this scene was really well done by all and it worked because we spent a lot of time on that particular sequence.

Transition

The transition I think worked well because it was quick and there was no need for any extra lifts or large movement. The simplicity of removing clothes offstage is reminiscent of Brecht which was one of Berkoff's influences where nothing is hidden from the audience. The noises that we made as well easily showed the audience that we were changing character and distracted them from us removing costume.

6) Sphinx - 8:38 - 11:21

The immediate change in tone was brilliant in showing the audience the change in character but I do think it got a bit grating for the audience and for myself as the scene progressed. The death at the end was well thought out especially the added humour with the spurts of blood.

At "Mistake in the middle of the night"  I forgot to do my gesturing at crotch movement and so my timing was different from everyone else's. Moreover, the movement through the legs was not as defined as I would have wanted it to be. We also spent too long in the faces at the back of the stage (using Total Theatre) and I think my facial expression was not as feminine as it should have been which removes the element of character development I had decided on. The facial expression I used does make her look terrifying to Eddy though. There was a lack of clarification at "Who could even kiss that mouth of yours?" which took away from the impressive movement of the mouth.

Overall 

Positives: 

1) The variation in tone was well differentiated between each character I played. I also improved upon the clarity of speech from the previous run-throughs which enabled a greater audience understanding.

2) The costume we used allowed for a difference in character, showing the audience what our main character was in each section.

3) The movement was overall okay as most of the staccato was done at the same time but could have been better if we had clarified what word we were moving on.

4) The sound effects were at the right volume to make an impact but didn't drown out what was being said.

Negatives: 

1) The staging was not as good as I would have hoped reducing the positive effect of Total Theatre. We didn't have that much time in the space so our moved were confined to centre stage when we could have moved out a lot more. During the piece we could have used our initiative to do this.

2) My externalisation was not as good as I wanted. There were some points where I wasn't emanating anything at all or I wasn't reacting to the things that were happening onstage when I wasn't in the main movement.

3) We didn't focus on the transitions between scenes so there was a lack of clarification.

Berkoff - Greek - Costume and Make-Up

Costume and make up are a vital part of Berkovian theatre. Both elements can add to a piece but too much of one can easily throw off the piece's balance.

Costume 

From what I have seen, the costume that Berkoff usually uses, particularly in his plays that take place in London, consists of suits, white shirts, and braces. This can be seen in the image below which is from a performance of East:

Also shown in the image is that each character has a defining feature/piece of costume that lets the audience know who they are playing. We decided to emulate this within the piece - I brought in short length, white dress shirts for myself, Maya, Izzy, and Marlon. Underneath this, we wore black bottoms and black/white shoes. For Kathryn, as the main character, she wore a white shirt and also a jacket which showed that she was Eddy. For my character piece, I chose a scarf which had a floral pattern, showing that my main character was Mum. My costume can be seen in the image below: 

The black base allowed for an easy transition into the Sphinx as shown below. It also shows a large difference between what Kathryn is wearing compared to what we are, making the scene visually interesting to look at.

Make-Up

Berkoff's make-up is generally dome so that it emphasises parts on the actors face that they move the most. He usually does this with a white background, black eyebrows, and black lips with the occasional black around the eyes and red cheeks. Some ideas that I found are:                                                                                           

 The bottom image appears to have excessive black make up which may detract from any facial expressions made. The top image is certainly much more suitable for Berkoff as it allows for facial expressions to be highlighted but not made lost.













The make-up that we decided on can be seen in the following image (please excuse the awful drawing):

Initially, we wanted to use white face paint to make the entirety of our faces white, however, the day of the performance we realised that this may destroy any/all of the facial expressions we were making. We still decided to have black face paint on our eyebrows, as eyeliner, and on half of our lips to accentuate those features. We have a marked differnece on each side of our face for those actors who were playing as the Sphinx. We decided this because it enhances the feminity of the Sphinx but also the masculinity of the other characters that we play. The feminity can be seen by the elongated eyeliner, the rose coloured cheeks, and the red face paint on the other half of our lips. 

Berkoff - Greek - Development of Characters

The three main characters that I had in the piece were Mum, the Sphinx, and Chorus.

Mum

The first scene where I was given this role was in the Dinner Scene where the mother is certainly overly caring and motherly to her children and to her husband, shown to be rushed off her feet but loving it never-the-less. The element of loving looking after her family makes it more of a disaster when Eddy decides to leave the home.

As I developed this scene and her character I was able to vary my tone of voice. I decided to elongate my vowels and lines not just on specific lines such as "Oh, he don't like my cake". I did this because it shows a marked difference between my 'normal' Cockney voice which I used as the Chorus which allowed the audience to easily distinguish when I changed character. This was also influenced by Berkoff's own experiences in East End London as the stereotype of lower-class Cockney women is that they're quite dumb - as shown by the inaccurate grammar in the line given previously in this paragraph.

My movement was more womanly than what I presented as the Chorus - this can be highlighted in the second part of the Fortune Teller scene where Mum and Dad go and see the oracle again. However, my movement was still quite telling of a Cockney woman as it wasn't as slinky as the Sphinx's movement. My facial expressions as the mother differed from general smiles in the Dinner scene to disgust in the Fortune Teller scene, easily showing the audience where her priorities and hatred lie.

Sphinx

This was the first character that we developed. Initially, we created the Sphinx as having a Cockney accent as well as the other characters, however, I suggested that the Sphinx should have a posher, higher tone of voice. The posh voice suggests that the Sphinx is more sophisticated than other characters and also shows a marked difference between Cockney women such as the mother and upper-class women. Moreover, the fact she's clever enough to come up with a riddle that hasn't been solved shows how much smarter she is than other characters within the previous scenes.

The movement for the Sphinx that I developed was slinky and cat-like because she has the body of a lion and she's portrayed as a woman. I, therefore, assumed that she may be slightly sexual in trying to put off Eddy especially as she makes references to brothels and Eddy talks about a "Hong Kong whorehouse" in their scene. I also attempted to make her sassy hence why she clicks at the line "Go now before I lose my cool". She is also much like a predator which is easily seen as she has the body of a lion (a predator) and the wings of a bird (also a predator). This is heightened as we have four people playing her which makes her seem a lot bigger than Eddy. I attempted to make my facial expressions gruesome in some instances to show how fearsome she is.

Chorus

The Chorus in this sense for me is when I say any line when I'm not presenting as the mother or as the Sphinx - for example at the line "mouth open and eyes like a carrier bag" in the Dinner scene. This relates to the traditional Greek Chorus which was a non-individualised group of performers who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. This is certainly seen within this character as the majority of my lines as the Chorus were said simultaneously with the other actors such as "Don't talk to me about thrills" in the Fortune Teller scene.

The tone of voice that I used as the Chorus was more manly to contrast with Mum and the Sphinx. I also attempted to have a broader Cockney accent to make the setting more obvious - this would directly contrast with the Sphinx's accent. The movement I used was more manly and more traditional towards a Cockney man - I had to demonstrate confidence and overall cockiness as this is the stereotype as highlighted in previous blogs.

Berkoff - Greek - Dinner Part 2

We added Marlon and Maya into the piece in about half an hour from the scene we made before. We kept the chair duet that we made but we added some movements behind us which will be made visible to blogs in future instalments.

We finished the last section of the piece just before "Plotting and dreaming of ruling the world". At this point, as we're all in a line again of varying heights, we look at the person to the right of us so in my case it would be Izzy as she is sat next to me after the chair duet. This was done so that Eddy's dream transcends Eddy's head becoming much more real - as Eddy does ultimately end up ruling a small portion of the world in Thebes - resulting in Marlon and his stance of victory at the end of the line. We then move in canon - stomping - at the next word of "So" which we have since changed to simultaneous standing up as the canon never seemed to work during the rehearsal process. "In a ... flash" - at the ellipsis, we move the chairs that we moved during the chair duet to the edges of the stage using Total Theatre once again and making sure that the space on stage is clear for the following lift and Sphinx scene.

The next small section is where Eddy is saying that he saw his parents in the distance as he left his house. At "I waved to my mum and dad" me and Izzy whilst stood on the chairs - gaining height above Marlon and Maya in the main part of the stage - and waved in the opposite direction to what Marlon and Maya do. This creates a nice wave effect and the slowish movement of this contrasts with the next fast movement done by Marlon and Maya - slightly echoed by myself and Izzy. After the line "wed together like mould on cheese" Maya stands above Marlon externalising a facial expression and creating a sound effect that me and Izzy copy. The next line of "Dad was the mould" certainly needs to show that Eddy/Kathryn is correcting us which is highlighted as Marlon swaps around with Maya in an effective and smooth movement.

We then attempted the following Frantic Assembly style lift shown in the video below at 25-33 seconds in:

This is from a Frantic Assembly workshop that I attended last July and is staccato enough to be involved in a Berkoff style performance. I initially suggested this lift be used in the transition from this Dinner Scene to the following Sphinx scene as it would clearly show that eddy is walking away from home and toward the Sphinx. However, we used this lift when Eddy says "as I reached the end of the road". 

We then transferred it to the lift shown below which I also learnt in the Frantic Assembly workshop. This is much harder to do especially as only four people were holding Kathryn and as we immediately did this lift after the previous one which could make the lift unstable at some points. We also hold Kathryn above our heads with only two people maintaining contact with her as Maya says "and lost the figure" - after this we drop her onto mine and Maya's shoulders which allow for better safety. Kathryn doesn't stay in the air for too long due to the immense pressure that Marlon and Izzy are put under when they hold her above their heads.

The section of speech that we used appears to be somewhat too small for such an impressive piece of movement and I do feel like there is rather an extended period of silence as we lift Kathryn in the air.

When we lower Kathryn down safety we do the following sequence:

Again we do this in a line and simultaneously with a defined point in between each action and phrase. This can't be seen in this particular video because I was trying to remember the lines that other people say in this section. The final bit of "Bye boy" as shown by the hissing and clicking is when we turn into the Sphinx as we needed a transition to get from one section to another.

Berkoff - Greek - Fortune Teller Part 3

In this section, Dad is continuing to tell Eddy about the fortune teller. Again, Berkoff's language allows for vivid imagery.

The following short video shows the movement that we choreographed for the following sentence in the scene:

This movement implies that the other person who would be laying on the floor next to me is being controlled like puppets. We did this because Dad has been controlling the scene and I felt that we needed to pay homage to that within the piece. It also allows for greater staccato type moves enhancing the Berkovian style.

The next sentence is "like an earthquake was going on inside his nut". At this point, we all attempt to get up from the floor as though we are the ones that are being affected by the earthquake that is supposedly happening in the fortune teller's head. On the word "nut" we grabbed our head with our hands. This was done in a much more staccato manner than the earthquake part of this line. This allowed for clear definition between a section of movement and a section of acute stillness.

The next few lines that I say - "You see a son of mine..... Like a nasty accident perhaps" - are done as though I'm in the character of the mother. In this case, I would have to elongate my words in order to maintain the same tone of voice that I have for the mother in a later section - the Dinner scene as shown in a previous blog.

At the line "parted his lips enough to mouth the word death" we do a canon whispering of death where we stare at the audience when we say this. This allows for a variation in speech which means that the audience maintains an interest in the piece. The next line (which for me seems to be in the same small section as the previous line) of "he then stared hard at Dinah" is when everyone in the group stares at me as the Mum (we assume) is called Dinah. I haven't yet chosen what facial expression to make at this point.

There is some more movement where we all flee in different directions, "snatch the quid back from the table" and then return to fleeing before standing in a line behind Kathryn who squats down in front of us. The line about "sweet pics you get in Woolies" allowed us to create a nice image behind Kathryn. Myself and Maya smiled at one another whereas Marlon was picking his nose and Izzy was crying at him - this was done because these are stereotypical actions that children do. This image can, therefore, excuse the constant lines coming from Kathryn. The next speech from Dad I suggested be initially quite jovial but when he asks Eddy if Eddy would kill him, Dad should become serious as though he genuinely believes the prophecy - why else would he tell Eddy the prophecy if he didn't believe it would somewhat come true?

Clarifying Confusion

Initially, we thought that the fortune teller scene was described by Eddy's biological father describing what he had learnt, however, we soon understood that it is Eddy's adoptive family that go see the fortune teller. In the original myth, Oedipus' adoptive parents hear about the prophecy and so defer Oedipus to the oracle. This is why Eddy chooses to leave home. This would mean that the characterisation of Mum on my part would be slightly off especially in the following sequence, Mum wouldn't be as predatorial. The interpretation of her about cake and tea is still accurate because stereotypically mothers do like to look after their family. Berkoff's influence here is of his childhood where presumably it was very traditional London East End background. This is suggested in an interview with Berkoff where he said he saw burly men walking down the street pretending they were tougher than they actually are, something which is stereotypical of Cockney men in particular. This toughness can be seen in both Eddy and Dad.

Berkoff - Greek - Fortune Teller Part 2

In this section, Dad is telling Eddy about the second time they went to see the fortune teller. The fortune teller repeats what his father had said about Eddy and how he'll kill his father and have sex with his mother.

The first line follows on from the previous blog about the fortune teller - "Course we took no notice. Forgot about it like" which shows that Dad is being casual and that he forgot but doesn't really care about what the fortune teller said because it doesn't affect his own life. The next section of movement is shown at "fair is back in town" where me and Kathryn make the tent like she did with Marlon earlier in the scene. This is easier for the two of us to do because we're in the middle and frees up Marlon and Izzy to do their next series of movement where they stop her from speaking. An interpretation that I took from this was that we are in her mind and we're saying what her character wants to say. I'm not too sure about this though.

I do a quick movement in the next section where I turn into the mother again. I will need to show a greater variation in facial expression to show the change in character. This gives me the perfect opportunity for further externalisation and the range of facial expressions I can create which will be enhanced by the make up that we use.

The movement and sound at "pack of dirty lies" was done to show that we think that the fortune teller was disgusting for insinuating his prophecy. The following movement after "So off we went" allows for further staccato and definition. Total theatre can be seen after "but we waited our turn" when our hands became the clock behind Marlon. This obviously shows the passage of time but by doing this movement in multiple directions indicates that there is more than one time stream at work as shown by the prophecy.

At "it was the same name" we all pop out and gasp to show that we're shocked that its the same name as before - perhaps Mum and Dad weren't expecting it to be the same name. At this point, I think me and Kathryn should lunge out a little further than we did in this video so that our facial expressions can be seen much easier. The next line of "Have your future read Fantoni's magical crystal gazer" I suggested be shouted like newsboys calling out the headline as this is what it would have said outside the tent. In this video we definitely need more definition in this line and in other lines as they tend to get muddled up and confused otherwise the audience ins't going to know what we're saying. Even though we are speaking in a Cockney accent where movements are more vital than words, it is vital that the lines are pronounced correctly especially ts.

At "In we marched" I attempted to do a strut but the lack of spacing made this difficult in the room that we were in. I will have to make sure that my steps are exaggerated but not so much that we lose space on stage. The lifting of arms in front of us shows the tent and gives a nice visual of us moving into the tent and the tent moving over us.

The "same old shmutter on the table" uses Total Theatre as we use actors to be the table and the mess that is on the table. Mine and Maya's movement draws attention to this movement in the middle. "The beads we walked through" gives a nice point for us to walk to where we need to be in the next sequence. These points have limited big movement which allows for a defined moment where there is limited movement compared with the larger movement earlier in the scene.

The creativity to have Maya speaking for Marlon but have Marlon be in front of her is outstanding. Marlon should definitely be in front of Maya so the illusion of Maya being Marlon's voice is hidden. Moreover, this emphasises that Marlon is the real Dad and that Maya is the body that we're using to present this part in the story. This illusion is better seen when Kathryn speaks for Izzy - Izzy comes to the front of the stage and this allows her to be the centre of attention without having to speak. I think the following section after Izzy goes onto Marlon's back is particularly messy because the moves aren't defined and we don't do the movements simultaneously. Certainly, the choral singing after Izzy died is unnecessary as it takes away from the piece rather than adding to it.

The imbuing of the fortune teller's vision is a big deal hence why we made the transfer of power a large movement. Despite Dad still being sceptical about the vision, the fortune teller is telling the truth and by passing on his vision the prophecy can still come true. Just like in the previous payment of the fortune teller we do another 'ching ching' which allows a theme to run through the piece which I think is quite effective even though we don't do it every single time money is mentioned.

The sentence of "So Ed, your mum and I sat down just like before" is done incorrectly in this video as it shouldn't be split up it should be one fluid sentence. Despite the gestures that are made this sentence's movement should be removed so that the grammar becomes correct again. The movement to the back of the stage after this suggests the use of more Total Theatre as we use more of the stage than we had done before. When we run back to the front of the stage we're still cramped up - it could be more effective if we spread out when we run forwards and then come together when Marlon says that the tent was small. The hurtled back shows clear definition between a slower section and faster section.

"The whiff of stale grass" should be a louder, longer sniff instead of putting our faces on the floor. The trap line always results in us getting out of time with the claps that we do - the inspiration behind this was a Venus-fly-trap.

Berkoff - Greek - Sphinx Part 2

We only had a small amount of the Sphinx scene left to choreograph following on from the last blog. Straight from "Men need killing off before they kill off the world" which is said simultaneously, we go into the following video:

This video is not of all of us doing the movements, but should give a fairly accurate representation of what we did. Again we came to the front of the stage, partially in a line - I'm still getting slightly frustrated that most of our moves are done in a line as I feel there should be more elements of variation. These initial four movements are done at the same time - the challenge here was making sure that we were doing exactly the same movement as I especially wanted the Sphinx to have accurate movement as we're meant to all be one character.

At "You are so alone and pathetic" we tapped Kathryn once with one finger which made her drop to the floor showing the power of the Sphinx. We then walked far away from Kathryn, making use of the entire stage showing Total Theatre. This was also done for a pragmatic purpose as it allowed more room to stalk towards Kathryn in a later section.

We then included a fight sequence. In the original myth, Oedipus answers the Sphinx's riddle and the Sphinx then throws herself off a cliff. However, as we didn't have all the scripted parts for the Sphinx we had to improvise a fight sequence so that it was definite that Eddy himself has killed the Sphinx. This certainly makes Eddy more of a hero than before, perhaps even the tragic hero - a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is destined for downfall, suffering, or defeat - as he end up winning his biological mother's hand in marriage due to defeating the Sphinx which is why he is a tragedy.

Kathryn hits us all in succession and we maintain our position and sound effect for definition purposes. We then, at the last moment, included the line "To love is to enslave a woman" which suggests a personal vendetta against men from the Sphinx. We then returned the violence to Kathryn via the audience, again breaking the fourth wall. After this we stalk towards Kathryn hissing who then strikes us at the throat meaning that we all squeal and die. We have a final staccato section where we freeze in the Sphinx with our arms extended as though we are the bird part of the Sphinx again. The fighting sequence was especially hard to choreograph in order to get it much more defined and staccato. 

Berkoff - Greek - Sphinx

Sphinx 

The first scene that we attempted was the scene in which Eddy goes and defeats the Sphinx by solving her riddle. We wanted the Sphinx to include four people because it allows for bigger and more exaggerated movements which enhanced the Berkovian style. We found the Sphinx lines quite repetitive so have had to cut out sections of her speech in order to reduce the amount of time our piece lasts for.

One of the first issues that was raised was that Marlon, a male, was included within the Sphinx. The Sphinx in the myth of Oedipus Rex was a female. This allowed us to play with the idea of femininity and make the Sphinx be more sassy to suggest that Marlon was playing a gay man who has a more feminine side. The issue that then stemmed from this was that Marlon's characterisation stood out more than mine, Maya's or Izzy's which suggested that we had decided on different characterisation which wasn't what we were trying to convey. From this feedback, I decided to be slinky and predator-like toward Eddy to show that I was more feminine than any other character I play within the piece.

We also have an issue with where Kathryn is stood at the start of the piece. Initially,we had the Sphinx facing Kathryn which meant that her back was faced towards the audience, hiding her facial expressions. Because of this, we then decided to move the Sphinx round so that she was talking through the audience so was then stood facing the audience allowing facial masks and therefore greater externalisation to be seen.

I suggested that we change the accent of the Sphinx to one that is posher. This is because Eddy and his family speak in a Cockney accent. So not only will this show a variation in our voices, but it will also suggest that the Sphinx is smarter than the other characters. This can be proved as the Sphinx has a riddle that no one has ever answered until Eddy eventually answers it.

We spend most of the Sphinx scene thus far in a line facing the audience. I feel that of the sections we have done so far, we do too much of standing in a line meaning that we're not always using the entirety of the space, neglecting the use of Total Theatre.

We begin the scene Marlon saying "Who are you little man?". All the people playing the Sphinx say the bolded word as it allows for greater emphasis and shows more intimidation. At this point we point our hands forward, gesturing out to the audience and towards eddy, breaking the fourth wall again showing a Berkovian technique. The next line is "Pip squeak scum!" which is said by Maya. At this point I don't do any movement I simply stare out into the audience. I think I would need to use a facial mask in this section that differs from what I used in the previous line to show more externalisation, allowing the audience to understand the Sphinx's intentions. The following line is my first line within the Sphinx section and is "Drip off the prick!". Here, the Sphinx is suggesting that Eddy was a mistake (the bolded words are the words which I have chosen to emphasise). At the word "drip" I push Izzy forward as she's in front of me. At the word "prick" I hold my hands out, as shown in the following video:
The emphasised words are emphasised both by the tone of my voice and by the movement described above. The next line spoken by Izzy "Mistake in the middle of the night" is the concluding sentence of the Sphinx's insult about how Eddy was mistakenly conceived. At the bolded word, I gesture to my crotch area to image what Izzy is doing in front of me.

The next line is said by Marlon: "You've come to answer my riddle?". The emphasis here is put on the my because I think the Sphinx would be quite proud that no one has ever managed to solve the riddle - What animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening? (correctly answered by Oedipus as Man).

We then moved around in a large and threatening shape whilst clicking and making whooshing sounds. In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sometimes has the wings of a bird, so this sound effect signifies the bird clicking its beak and attempting to fly. Our arms are also outstretched to show the wings - we are also on different levels showing a use of proxemics. I am on the floor between Izzy and Marlon's legs - I think I need a better way of getting through them because I currently seem to wiggle through without any allusion to defined movement. Perhaps I could try two defined pulls through legs, but this would need to be done when we have access to the performance space.

The next line of "Fuck off you maggot" is said in canon, starting with myself on the floor and flowing up through Izzy. The variation in speech allows the audience to maintain interest in the piece. The words bolded are again the words that are emphasised but simply by voice and not by movement - by me at least as I can't see what other people are doing in this movement. The next line is part of the same sequence: "Before I tear your head offffff". The off at the end of this section lasts for longer showing variation in tone and is something that we do throughout the piece. This also demonstrates an element of creepiness to the Sphinx as well as further intimidation.

The following video shows the first demonstration of a section of the piece:

The first line that I say in the video is one that I have trouble remembering - the line in the script is actually "Rip your eyes out of your head and roast your tongue". This is because this line is between two sections that we worked on so I feel that the movement is also a little off on my part. I think I could say this line a bit differently to how I said it in this. I think that the line should be said quicker because the speech in this scene up to now has been slow. This would allow for more definition between sections and improve the pacing. The 'scream' at the end of the sentence is reminiscent of Australian rugby's Hakka which is used to terrify their opponent - I suggested this to add to the piece which would make the Sphinx seem more terrifying to Eddy. It shows that the Sphinx is more of a gruesome creature.

"You nothing, you man?" is said with an element of confusion because Eddy is played by Kathryn who is clearly a woman. The ideological approach is that the Sphinx is questioning Eddy's masculinity, something which is damaging to the character of a tragic hero - Oedipus is the traditional tragic hero.

The slow lean forward and sharp pull back on "Go now before I lose my cool" definitely shows some element of definition. I personally don't like this movement because I feel that its too fluid for Berkoff. However, Berkoff does allow for elements of fluidity as long as it is in a defined section which this move is to some extent. I think that the movement should be more threatening because the Sphinx is supposed to be a large body that everyone is afraid to combat. 

Something which is not as visible on the video is that Kathryn moves to the back of the stage during this section. We keep having issues with Kathryn's blocking but we should be sure to rectify this in future rehearsals. As seen, Kathryn comes through the middle of the Sphinx, effectively splitting her up into her counterparts, potentially making her less powerful without her being intact. The hissing that we do is inaccurate because we seem to be constantly getting the Sphinx confused with Medusa which is something that we will again need to rectify. The grotesque faces we pull at the back of the stage show greater externalisation through the use of facial masks, however, I do think that we maintain this stance and facial expression for much longer than needed. 

We then all stalk toward Kathryn like a predator. An adaptation that I suggested which has since been cut was to walk fast in a straight line towards the front with neutral expressions before quickly turning and grabbing Kathryn. However, as shown in the video we stalk towards her losing the definition that I had suggested before. 

After this moves in this video was shown we continued to devise movements for this section. When Kathryn says "Because you can't love, loveless" me and Izzy at the front throw her back where she is caught by Marlon and Maya. This shows that the Sphinx is violent but may also have been affected by man in the past which is something I think we'll develop later in the rehearsal process. Kathryn's line of "Who could even kiss that mouth of yours?" is enhanced by the creation of an image of a mouth, encompassed by a sound which I think is one of the most impressive sections of the piece so far due to how defined it is. This can be enhanced further by externalisation of bearing teeth emanating the larger image we created. 

At the line "Hong-Kong whorehouse" me and Izzy on the floor become the women in the brothel and Maya and Marlon become the customers. We vary our tone of a 'scream' so mine would be more feminine. This is vulgar but is just the kind of thing Berkoff would like to see from one of his pieces, especially the language is something that allows for the large movements which should tell the story more than the words (partially due to how complicated they are for the audience). 

The line "You make me laugh you fool man" is emphasised by us stalking around Kathryn. The laugh that we used initially was harsher and we didn't time it together, showing less definition. I think that the laugh should be much more condescending and be in time with each other which would show the ultimate power of the Sphinx. Something that is much more condescending is Maya's line of "You should know about brothels" where we do a slight lift of her over Kathryn. 

The final line that we have choreographed for this section thus far is for "Men need killing offff before they kill offfff the world". Again, these words are elongated to show that the Sphinx is predator like and more condescending. 

In the next sections with the Sphinx, we should definitely block out the movements before going over what we have already done so that we don't run out of time in blocking and to give us enough time to perfect the scene.