- How is the initial material being researched
and developed at significant stages during the process of creating drama?
- How effectively are you exploring and
developing your roles?
Our stimulus was ‘Eltham high
street’ where we went as a class, observing shops, traffic and people. Over
hearing conversations between the public was the most helpful in providing
ideas for our piece. After hearing a few conversations, one really stood out.
It was a group of middle class women dressed in smart attire, they were aged
between late 40s conversing in drug talk; pussy money weed this made us want to
do our piece on drugs because it surprised us how a group of people can give an
impression that they are ‘normal’ but have a darker side/secrets, this proves
you cannot judge a book by its cover. We began brain storming ideas beginning
with different drugs, possible characters and plotlines.
The drugs we started off focusing on included
cocaine, cannabis, LSD and MDMA because through the research we discovered
these were the most popular. But this was changed after initial preparation,
discussion and rehearsal as we found out LSD was very similar to MDMA. We
therefore changed the drug of MDMA to heroin. We chose to go with heroin as it is
contrasting to the other drugs when we researched were quite upbeat and in a
minor way influential in a positive way. Heroin added to the dark, cynical and
almost a depressing storyline and social realism that our piece needed to show
the audience this is what drugs are and what they do. Our group needed to do a
lot of research as our characters and storylines very much differed to our real
ones and we wanted to show the pros and cons of each drug and so needed to know
the facts. We watched individual documentaries depending on our storyline’s
drug, for example I watched a few cocaine addiction documentaries, Russell
Brand’s war on drugs and films such as ‘Wolf of Wall street’, ‘trainspotting’,
and ‘traffic’. This helped me as I analysed how the characters in the films
acted under the influence, withdrawal and during their comedown, so I could
understand the effects of the drug and therefore communicate as realistic as
possible, for example, overly excited movements, fast paced dialogue and
tremors/jaw clenching. After showing year 11’s our performance halfway through
the feedback we received was quite positive as they enjoyed our storylines and
techniques. For example they pointed out that they really enjoyed the ‘CCTV’
video clip as it made it more realistic. When we asked for improvements they
suggested going even crazier in the cocaine scene and exaggerating my
movements.
My character was Charlie White, a
middle aged man in a metaphorical hole he can’t get out of due to his cocaine
addiction. I got my characters name by using the slang term for cocaine which
is Charlie and the colour of it being white. The character Charlie emerged as
we started off brainstorming what kind of people use the drug Cocaine, and through
research both on the internet, discussions and interviews we found that it is
very common in middle aged professional people who work in the city, the media
and those with huge financial responsibilities who therefore have the money to
access this drug. Cocaine users take the drug to stay in line, expand ideas and
stay awake and have their brain running all the time as well as to gain
confidence. I communicated my character to be very shy; quiet and unconfident at
the beginning of my scene to show my lack of confidence in my own ability and
disappointment in life as he interviews for a job. This was shown through my
slumped body language, mumbling, slow paced words, closed body language,
shifting and nervous eyes. This therefore shocked the audience when my
character completely transformed when they watched a pre-made video of my character
storming into the toilet, emptying a bag of cocaine, cutting it up and snorting
it with over exaggerated movements. My character then came back in the room and
acted completely different, almost like two different people which is how we wanted
to communicate how drugs can change someone like in ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’. I
changed my character by doing the exact opposite as I was doing before. I spoke
in fast pace unlike the beginning, moved around a lot, used hand gestures,
overly confident dialogue and became aware of my senses as my actions were
heightened. I interacted with the audience using direct address, shouting at
them with joy when thinking I had got the job, sitting next to them by breaking
the fourth wall and engaging eye contact to make them think my character was
real and sitting with them. My character then changed again when he is told he
hasn’t got the job he goes into deep depression which completely differs the
overly excited coked out behaviour. We also used hot seating and emotional
memory to explore our characters depth and possibilities but mostly important
to understand our characters to perform at our best. One another character in
the weed scene was very chilled and relaxed in the way their character was
which juxtaposition my character as I was very upbeat, loud and moving around a
lot. This gave the audience a diverse mix of emotions and humour as they got
two different side effects of the drugs we were using.
·
How did you and your group
explore the possibilities of form, structure and performance style?
As soon as we came up with
the idea of exploring the theme of drugs we knew that we wanted to create an
abstract piece in which to communicate the effect drugs have in a more
successful way. Through research and interviews with people we found that drugs
can make you ‘alive’, ‘paranoid’ ‘energised’, ‘thoughtful’, ‘relaxed’ and
‘confused’, as there are so many emotions and feelings linked with drugs we
thought that an abstract style will add in the communication of these feelings
and would also begin to make the audience feel like they are part of this
journey of drugs.
We were instantly drawn to
the theatre company Punchdrunk who create immersive pieces of theatre in which
the audience are allowed to move freely around the space; going from room to
room. We thought that this style would suit our piece with having each room
representing a different drug. We initially thought that the characters could
be linked through working in a café and that the café would be our opening setting,
with the audience being our customers. This would ultimately get the audience
involved and they would begin to question who the actors were and who was real.
However, as the play developed we found that a café was too lose a link for the
characters and had the opening scene take place out in the corridor waiting for
the rehab session to begin. The audience stood around us, not sure on what was
going to take place or happen next. We saw this used when we went to see a
production of “The Waiting Game” by Kazzum Theatre Company and liked how we
were involved and taken on a journey.
Our piece followed a nonlinear
narrative; jumping from one drug to another. Between some there was a smooth
transition; staying in one room so that the audience were slightly confused.
They knew that there had been a switch because the tone or pace had changed,
but they were not instantly sure on what drug they were now being introduced to
and it was as if their brains were slowly catching up with what is happening.
From undertaking research, this is how drugs can make you feel.
We had some naturalistic
dialogue but performed it in in a non-naturalistic style being influence by
Brecht and Frantic Assembly, as well as Artaud to aid in communicating the
crazy world of drugs. For example we had Lee symbolise heroine in my bum hole;
pulling the characters back and drawing them in. Also in the LSD scene Frantic
Assembly movements helped us to communicate the excitement and fear you feel
when on a trip.
Our piece had a mixture of comical
moments and more serious moments to show the ups and downs of drugs. For
example in my scene, my coke character appears down and unmotivated at the
start. After taking the drugs I was hyper, talkative and jumpy. This was over
exaggerated to add humour and to highlight the power the drugs have over you.
We also used digital technology in this scene by pre-recording me taking coke
in the toilets. This looked like CCTV footage and highlighted that drugs is
being taken behind closed doors.
·
How did the work of established
and recognised theatre practitioners, and/or the work of live theatre,
influence the way in which your devised response developed?
There were a huge range of theatre practitioners
and live theatre experiences that influenced our work including the following:
- Punchdrunk
- Frantic Assembly
- ‘The Waiting Game’ by Kazzum
- Brecht
- Artaud
Punchdrunk and Kazzum: Both companies create
immersive pieces of theatre. We were influenced by the performances we have
seen, and the research we have done, in creating our own immersive piece by
having the characters interact with the audience and by using a promenade style
with the audience walking between rooms. We felt that using this style would
help in communicating the journey you go on when under the influence of drugs.
Frantic Assembly: We were inspired by a workshop we
undertook in Year 12 and how they use movement to communicate meaning. From
research we saw that when under the influence of drugs you can’t always
understand what people are talking about and what is going on and therefore we
felt that movement would be a good way to communicate this. In the ‘Weed’ scene
each one of us represented a different side effect to taking weed; munchies, talkative,
laughing, paranoid. We were inspired by Frantic Assemblies chair duet and
created our own to show that when taking weed you have no control over any of
these and neither one is more dominant.
Brecht: we used a range of Brechtian techniques to
add in distancing the audience and getting the audience involved in the
messages of our play. For example in the heroine scene when Marley gave birth
we used monotone voices to distance them from the emotion and emphasis the
numbness that her character was feeling due to her addiction. We also wanted the
monotone to emphasise the hard hitting fact that ‘if you fall pregnant on
heroin your child could be born an addicted and go through the same painful
symptoms of going ‘cold turkey’ as they hospital wean the child off the drugs.
We used direct address during the game show scene
and this helped to make the audience feel involved in the show. We also took if
further and used audience participation this would make them feels involved but
also unnerved as they don’t know what will happen to them just like the
unpredictability of drugs. We used placards in the weed scene to show the side
effects of weed which were munchies, talkative, giggles and paranoia. Whatever
placard we had we would in that certain way which reinforces Brecht’s technique
of using placards to making it obvious to the audience. We broke the fourth
wall many times such as in the classroom scene to make it more realistic and to
make the audience think they were actually in a class room. We also broke the
fourth wall in the scene were mine and Lee’s characters drop a tab of LSD and
reach out and touch the audience. Our sounds were quite natural to explain our
surroundings and environments for example the forest scene and the classroom
bell sound. We also used quite naturalistic lighting and ambient lighting to
make it more realistic for the audience such as in the school scene to
reinforce the regulated school environment and to let the audience feel as if
they were in school again.
·
How successfully did your final
performance communicate your aims and intentions for the piece to your
audience?
The message of our play was to show the pros and cons of
drugs. We wanted to show that drugs are a big part of today’s society and that it’s
not a stereotypical druggie that takes them. We wanted to create a didactic
piece of theatre in which the audience would be able to leave from able to
inform judgment and decide it drugs are positive or negative. Through feedback
from our audience’s reaction we could tell that we met our aims, as laughter
and shock was evident We directly addressed the audience by using eye contact
which ultimately made them squirm as it seemed that we were aimed towards them.
The dark and intense themes which were in our scenes alongside the eye contact
made the audience feel uneasy as it made them feel as if they were in the
situation. For example we used direct address when mine and Lee’s characters
drop a tab of LSD and we get really close to the audience and up in their faces
with a glazed over expression to show our mind was somewhere else and to make
it more realistic that we were actually on drugs. The lack of structure we had
in our piece gave an awkward atmosphere as the audience were nervous to enter
the different rooms and spaces and didn’t know where to exactly sit which reinforces
the themes of our piece which is paranoia, not knowing where you are, suspense,
and confusion. We had normal room lights instead of spotlights in the interview
scene to include the audience into the scene to make it more realistic and to
make it as if they were going to get interviewed as well. In the forest LSD
scene we had the curtain pulled across when entering the room to make the
setting more realistic in a way that a forest is hard to enter, and also
reinforcing the themes of confusion and entering a strange world.
·
How effectively did the social,
cultural, historical/political context of the piece communicate to your
audience?
The language used communicated modern society as we used
informal slang words to refer to drugs such as, ‘Charlie’ for cocaine and
‘skag’ for heroin. Drugs have been around thousands of years since the Stone
Age for medical reasons such as herbal mixtures to cure certain diseases or to
ease pain. Drugs have also been used for its artistic reasons such as for art,
literature and music as certain drugs such as marijuana and LSD have influenced
certain artists like Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe to produce certain
photographs and art through their experiences. Bob Dylan and the Beatles also
used substances such as that to produce certain iconic songs such as ‘Lucy in
the Sky with Diamonds’ which is about their LSD experiences. Drugs are used for
recreational purposes and provide a sense of escapism and peace especially in
the 1960’s during the hippie movement all around the world. The hippie movement started in the 60s because
there was the Vietnam War going on so drugs were a way to escape from the
horrors of the war. The drug culture brings people together as they all take up
the same hobby of experimenting with drugs. For example people who are known as
stoners smoke weed to feel relaxed and peaceful and to keep a steady mind
whereas cokeheads take cocaine to stay excited and energised which can help
with their busy lifestyle such as busy jobs like in my character in the play,
or hard parting, or simple addiction to how it makes them feel. Junkies on the
other hand are groups of people that take hard drugs such as heroin and crack
and completely zone out for the whole experience of it. Stereotypically poor
people take up these drugs due to its low market cost but also because it
sedates them in a way that they think nothing matters anymore and slowly kills
them without any pain. Drugs have always been around and always will due to the
fact that no one can stop them being made or even grown. Drug money keeps the
world going round in a way that not many people know as in a few places
cannabis is legal and crime has lowered due to the fact you can buy drugs from
a doctor or shop and not a dangerous drug dealer. For example in Colorado, due
to the high sales of cannabis, money was returned to the tax payers of that
state. The war on drugs in UK is different as all drugs are banned and the
politics in UK has shown us that they give no sympathy to drug addicts or
legalisation for any drugs. In the programme Russel Brand’s ‘War on Drugs’, he
states we should put more money in rehabilitation as drug addiction is a
disease which is cured with help and not prosecution. We therefore wanted to create a piece that
showed the pros and cons so that the audience could make their own make their
own informed judgement on the war on drugs. The impact drugs have on society is
very delicate as it has it pros and cons. Peer pressure is a massive factor in
society as people think it’s cool to take drugs and not cool to follow the
rules showed in the school scene. But drugs bring people together socially in
such scenes such as in festivals and concerts as people share their experiences
with drugs all with each other which relates to the hippie movement from the
1960’s.
