Ideas and decisions: After deciding we would all read different parts of each of the sins, we discussed how we would go about presenting them. We read through the first sin and on the line "Work? Why Bother? When someone else..." I came up with an idea. This line made me think of an advertisement or a cheesy car salesman, as each of the sins are very persuasive. Therefore I thought about a television - Faustus could be sitting on a chair watching the television and each sin could be an advert. The group seemed to like this idea so we discussed how we could do this. The line before the sins enter is Faustus's: "This experience will be likened to Adam when he first tasted the fruits of Eden, show me". We thought we could add in an extra line for Mephistopheles where he could give Faustus a TV remote. The idea of a TV would make it connect to a modern audience - we then discovered we could make the whole section fairly modern (for example, for gluttony we could have a KFC bucket passed around).
Line dividing: We then came to working out how we would split the lines up. We worked out an order and would kept to this when splitting the piece up (Lewis, Charlie, James, Robert and I). We split the lines up in such a way that whoever had the first line for a sin, would have the last line of said sin (for example, Lewis has the first line of Sloth so has the last line of Sloth as well). Lewis had the first and last line of Sloth, Charlie has the first and last line of Gluttony, James has Pride, Robert has Wrath, I have Lust, Lewis has Greed and Charlie has Envy. The group thought that Lust needed to be read by a girl as to tempt Faustus and to not make the section comical (as he is supposed to give in to the sins) - as I am the only other girl in the class, I am reading the whole of Lust - therefore, I didn't give myself any line in Greed as to make the split more fair.
Staging: Before blocking any of the play, we had to decide how we would stage the play so we could consider the view for all audience members. As it is an abstract play, we didn't want to use proscenium arch as it feels to normal. We wanted to use in-the-round or traverse as it less common and can create an uneasy atmosphere as the audience members can see each other. We eventually decided on traverse as we could use the two ends - especially for the sins scene. We thought that we could seat Faustus in an armchair at one end and have the sins on the other. This would create a different feeling for all audience members. The audience members nearer the sins would feel a part of the action, whilst the audience members nearer Faustus would feel like they are watching the TV with him.
Physical theatre: We aim to have really smooth transitions between each sin so that they flow seamlessly. However, to show that each sin as a separate section, we shall change the music underneath them. We didn't manage to complete all sections this lesson so shall continue working on these next lesson. Below is what we have worked on so far:
- Sloth: We all lay on the ground and lay across each other. Whenever anyone has a line we all stretch and move to a slightly different position - whoever's line it is works their way nearer the front of the heap. There is minimal movement in this section as we are supposed to be lazy.
- Gluttony: Mephistopheles enters with a KFC bucket. Each of us smell the food and snatch a piece of chicken from the bucket and start eating it on stage. We aim to make this section quite disgusting by eating with our mouths full. Again, whenever it is someone's line, they move to the front middle.
- Pride: We begin this section in different poses as if we are models. We may take selfies or change positions, or adjust clothing, etc. Whenever it is someone's line, they walk down the stage space towards Faustus and back, as if it were a catwalk (the staging therefore works perfectly for this section).
