Session 7: Performance and Politics

Desmond Jones exercise

In this exercise we looked at exploring different states of tension and explored different physicalities. Some examples are "be hot" "be a fire" or "be jelly". With embodying these images, we moved around the space exploring the physicalities of them. We looked at seven different states of tension inspired by Lecoq. We explored these levels and had to consider the extremes of each level. When I was "being" a fire, I focused on firstly being a huge out of control fire, and then lowered the energy of my physical movements until I became a small camp fire, or a lit match. It was interesting to see different interpretations of my colleagues and see how we all respond to images in a different way. When we were responding to the image of Jelly, i noticed that my movements were quite slow and sluggish, I used flowing movements to travel around the space. However other people responded in a more fast way, they quickly threw their arms and legs about and at some points were almost running around.

Liz Lerhman- Cutting exercise

For this exercise we had to use our bodies to "cut" the space we were performing in. We started off fairly small and used movement to disect small areas of the space, before taking this idea further and creating bigger physical movements. We then tried cutting our own bodies with other parts of our bodies, and then looked at cutting others bodies. As i'm not a dancer I sometimes struggle to create flowing movements that are performed gracefully and seem dance-like, however in doing exercises like this it became easy to create a dance-like piece because of the image I was responded to. It took away the element of me thinking about my next move, and was much more instinctive and spontaneous- which is for me, what made it most successful.

Poems

We looked at reading poems aloud and physically responding to them based on how they are read. Lines of poems were read to us, and as the actors we would have to establish how we should move based on how quickly or slowly they were read. When the lines were read fast, most of my movements were rigid and quick. In contrast, when the lines were read slowly I found my movements to be quite flowing and subtle. I took my time with it. We also explored non linear structure and read certain words of the poem randomly and not in any particular order. This made my movements a lot more random, and I would respond to each word at a time because I couldn't make sense of it as a sentence. Because of this I wasn't able to fully rely on the text so I found that I had to think much more about what I was doing. It was interesting to use the poem as a basis for a performance, but also have the freedom to build upon it on my own and respond instinctively to each line, and even each individual word.

Reading: Kelleher, J (2009) Theatre & Politics, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 16-31

This reading talks about the relationship between performance and politics and how we can use performances to understand the political context of our world and make sense to it. It also explains how we might use political events to make sense of a performance, and form an emotional response to it through association.

One of the performances mentioned is the Sacha Ware production of Debbie Tucker Green's play "Random". The play has one character who emerges from the audience to tell her story, making the audience believe she is "one of them". She plays all of the characters in the play and tells a story about a violent killing that she has experienced. One of the reasons the audience are so engrossed in what she has to say is because she appears to be an audience member herself. There is a blurred line between what is real and what isn't. The story that she tells about this tragedy she has experienced is very politically relevant to our society. We have all heard about crimes, some of us may have experienced them. There are tragedies happening every day in the world as we know it, and although we may hear about someone getting murdered on the news, we usually have not heard a first hand account of the events that took place. Political theatre is a very effective means of putting a face behind the story. It allows the audience to gain an emotional understanding of events that are happening in our world. There is also some cultural relevance to the story told in this performance because the crime was committed by a black man. In today's society there is a strong association with black communities and crimes, particularly in London. This makes it all the more culturally relevant.

Political performances are an effective way of raising awareness about current events as well as potentially creating change. The emotional performance of these events on stage and the effect it may have on the audience could inspire people to change the negative things that are happening in society today and do something about it.