In this lesson we went back to the beginning of our script and re-staged it to fit with what we had worked out / decided about the script for our version. To make it clear when we were in the "Book Club" we kept returning to a semi-circle of chairs. The section we went over today changed location six times:
- Page 11 ("In that moment...") - Page 17 ("Written by someone who...") = BOOK CLUB
- Page 17 ("ONE, two, three...") - Page 17 ("Look. You know...") = WINSTON'S MEMORIES
- Page 17 ("How about you? Where are you?") = BOOK CLUB
- Page 17 ("I'm asking where you are. Right now...") = WINSTON'S INTERROGATION
- Page 17 ("Sorry - is there...") - Page 18 ("At this moment he was dragged...") = BOOK CLUB
- Page 18 ("A girl had stopped...") - Page 18 ("Real coffee. Is it...") = PAST REALITY
- Page 19 ("What did you say?") - Page 19 ("Sorry everyone..") = BOOK CLUB
- Page 20 ("Winston. Winston Smith...") - Page 24 ("Through there...") = PAST REALITY
- Page 24 ("Oranges and lemons...") - Page 24 ("Everything's going to...") = BOOK CLUB
- Page 25 ("Attention comrades!...") - Page 27 ("That's better...") = INTERROGATION
After the prologue we form a semi-circle of chairs to be the book club. My character of Voice is reading out loud to the group. Kat's character of Host continues with reading out loud. When she begins her line "This is the moment", we thought this was her character explaining the book to the rest of the group. When James says the line "I had this feeling...", we decided this sparked off the group sharing their opinions. Originally, we performed the section on page 14, where the lines interrupt each other, in a rather poetic and fluid way. However, now we have decided we are sharing ideas in a book club, we are performing these lines more conversationally, as if we have come up with ideas that we need to call out before we forget them. To get Oliver out of the book club so he can enter the next location, he gets up and goes as if to get another drink but stays off stage until he enters in the next scene. All the while, Robert is sat in a chair DSR away from the rest of group. I am directing my line "You are Winston" to the group as if explaining the author's intentions, but I face Winston when I say this (although my character cannot see Winston, as he is just a character in the book I am reading). When the phone goes off we all look through our bags, as we did previously. On the line "written by someone who knew he'd soon be dead" we all look at Winston to bring the audience into his world.
Whenever we change location, the book club location pauses as it were - we all freeze in whatever positions we are currently in (unless we leave - like during the power cut, we all leave to clear the stage space ready for the next scene).
