Physical Theatre:
We began this lesson by creating a physical theatre section (on Page 86) when we go from Room 101 to the Café. We wanted a fast-paced section that will shock the audience and would look very violent. This would fit with our Artaud theme so far that we have adopted for all of our physical theatre sections so far. We are using Mudvayne's "Dig" again, as we kind of have a running theme of returning to this song throughout our version of this play. We thought this song was ideal for this section as it creates a very manic atmosphere and makes the audience feel uncomfortable and vulnerable.
Our piece begins with Rob sitting centre stage and everyone else in a semi-circle around him. We use four bars to take four steps in towards him, ending with us all around him with our hands on his chair. This builds up a tense atmosphere as the audience realises that Winston is about to be attacked. We then do a lift with Rob in his chair to show that he is vulnerable and has no escape, he is being controlled by the Party. We end the lift with Rob sitting in his chair SL. Everybody then does a different thing to Rob showing different types of torture. Whilst the torture continues (such as Kat and Rob pretending to pull Robs fingertips off, and James cracking his neck), someone else brings on the table that shows he is at a café. Charlie brings on the table cloth - before putting the table cloth on the table, he strangles Rob with it. After this physical theatre section, we all return to our Book Club positions, ready for the final scene.
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We then ran the play from the beginning without scripts. I am pretty confident with my lines now for the entire play, as I recorded myself saying them, and the line before, and I have been listening to the recordings every morning and evening. I have also been writing out my lines too. Lewis and I have also been helping each other learn lines by testing each other on them. One of my fears is that not everyone will know all of their lines in time. Another thing I am worried about is people forgetting where the physical theatre sections go. Moreover, we haven't discussed costumes yet so I would like to do this next lesson. As the setting (both location and time period) constantly changes, I think we should all wear black, and have an accessory to show that we are Winston's memory when we are - for example, I'll wear all black during the entire play, apart from when I am Mother NOT in the Book Club, then I could wear a 1940s headscarf.
