Theatre
of Cruelty Reflection
The project of theatre of cruelty was truly an unforgettable experience.
From the very start of the topic, I was closely engaged into Antonin’s concept of acting: “Theater of Cruelty as a “spectacle,” in the sense that there must be an “element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle” (The Manifesto) and I was very excited to learn about it. I believe the reason for what I preferred to learn more about Theatre of Cruelty as supposed to Theatre of the Oppressed was because Theatre of Cruelty had a factor of fear and experimental drama that was appealing for me, as I was used to work with more realistic drama.
The project of theatre of cruelty was truly an unforgettable experience.
From the very start of the topic, I was closely engaged into Antonin’s concept of acting: “Theater of Cruelty as a “spectacle,” in the sense that there must be an “element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle” (The Manifesto) and I was very excited to learn about it. I believe the reason for what I preferred to learn more about Theatre of Cruelty as supposed to Theatre of the Oppressed was because Theatre of Cruelty had a factor of fear and experimental drama that was appealing for me, as I was used to work with more realistic drama.
I
proposed the idea of Cults, as a theme of inspiration I had from past
experiences, and the idea was well accepted by the group. The conception of our
theme was a collaborative effort from the class, in which we started off
branching ideas about cults that we knew about, documenting ourselves with
factual knowledge, and studying in depth the aims of Antonin Artauds drama. From
this information, I got a better understanding of our performance aims, which
was to answer the recurring question of “How
far would you go for power?”.
The
rehearsal method I believe had very strong elements to it. Hot seating exercise
were extremely helpful to make us think of elaborate stories for our
characters, assuring that we wouldn’t end up with default/flat characters. It
helped me personally to internalize myself with my character and to discover
what it was that most frightened me, and what it was that I most desire. I came
to the realization through this that it was these questions that would drive an
individual into a quest for acceptance into a cult, and therefore were of vital
importance to constantly think about them. I also believe that this exercise
helped the group come together as a “community”, as we were all involved with
each other and we came to understand each other’s vulnerabilities.
Much
of our rehearsal methods aroused from physical stimulus, or other wise mental
stimulus that made our bodies react, such as the “pills”. To understand what it
felt to be possessed and abducted by a community required the experimentation
with our bodies and movements, to make it as realistic as possible and thus
make the audience feel uncomfortable by the sight, which was our main
objective. I strongly believe that the musical elements in our rehearsals
encouraged movement, and with exercises such as devising our own “cleansing
ceremonies”, incited us to recite symbolic movements showing the possession of
power (swaying our bodies to the rhythm of the music and raising our arms up),
the identification of the figure of power (the Prophet) and it also allowed us
to experiment how we would act if we were under the effects of a drug, which
was essential for conveying our message to the audience.
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| Figure 1: Image of Scene 3, "Cleansing" in the day of the production. Our body's look weak by the posture, and show how we loose our balance. Also status is created by the levels. |
Something
I didn’t think worked that well regarding
our practicel rehearsal methods was the way in which there was no
ambience of community, discipline and devotion towards Celestine established
since day one. We were asked to learn our commandments, however there wasn’t a
constant and strict reminder of them in every rehearsal, and it was more a last
minute preoccupation. I believe that, if we were to redo our rehearsal
preparation, the directors should make the actors come in to class and recite
the commandments, and follow this with a mock “ceremony” to show our devotions
to Celestine. The director could even approach us as how the Prophet would in
the real situation (similar use of diction, language, tone), in order to
already establish this powerful devotion to Celestine which we wanted to
achieve. I believe remains truthful to Antonin’s intentions of creating pushing
our rehearsals to the extreme, and by this it would be easier for us to
remember our commandments and it would become a habit, just as how it would
happen in a real cult.
The prerformance itself was very exciting. I chose to portray my characetrs passion as a ballerina by dancing while my projection was on. Although I have background knowledge with musical performances, I wanted my dancing to evoke the feelings that my character felt when dancing. I believed these to be those of release of tension, and passion, as Katerina had a conflictive personality, and dance was her non-verbal mean of telling her story. For this, I choreographed my dance to the script, making the dance lyrical. As my projection was stating my early story of how I became a dancer, I made the artistic decision of making this point of my dance delicate to bring the audience close to my story. I started of dancing gently around the audience, with graceful moves of points of the foot, frappes, developes and saltes, to symbolize benevolent intentions, and that I wanted to seem approachable and intimate with the audience.
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| Figure 2: Image showing my projections on the day of the final performance in Scene 1. Unfortunately, the video didn't record the performance of the dance in between the audience, however it is at this point when my dancing is very gentile. |
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| Image showing me rehearsing for the "soft dance". This image is of a point and 5th position, with the arms on the form of an arc. It is one of the basic steps in ballet. |
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| Image showing me rehearsing for the 'soft dance" The movement is an example of a Develope |
When
talking about Katerina killing Natalia out of spite and jealousy, the pitch of
my voice became much stronger and my mood aggravated. Here I decided to
incorporate rapid turns along the stage and therefore further away from the
audience to represent the break of the bond I was creating with them. By this I
expressed my lost of control and my true nature of being someone decisive and
powerful. The change of proxemics between me and my audience made my character
more distant, as though it was difficult for my audience to recognize my true
intentions. At the point in which I say “to die”, my actions follow my diction and I fall to
the floor. I chose to do this to represent the literal fall that is a
consequence of my actions (someones death), as well as the physical and mental
draining, as I killed a person. From here my heavy breathing shows exhaustion.
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| Figure 3: Image showing the final performance of Scene 1, at the point in which I went up on stage to dance. |
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| Figure 4: Image of the dance at the pint in which I am about to fall to the ground. |
At
the end of my speech, my characters resolution to the problem was “And now I am happy, so happy”.
I chose this particular ending to highlight my normality, and how my conscience
is not affecter by my wrong doings. In my dance, I chose to slowly incorporate
my body to a stretching position, from which I deeply inhaled and started
stretching my legs.
Although
this action is stereotypical for dancers, it had a deeper meaning I had
prepared. The act of stretching is used at the beginning of each class in a
dance class, and therefore my intentions as an actress were to show that after
each of my assaults, I would starts anew, and cleared my conscience completely.
This idea sustains the whole objective of Celestine and the Prophet, of
forgiving the disciples and creating a false idea of perfection.
In
scene 6, the killing scene of Natalia, I found my self very engaged with my
actions. I made my body movements increase with strength as Lloyd fed us words
of anger. I found that I really engaged with my bodies actions, by dropping to
the floor, using my nails to scratch the carpet, using my fists to hit the
floor our of anger and by making noises of convulsion. It was a very intense
moment, in which I would look around and saw everyone exhibiting these emotions
of anger and accumulation of power, that made us look like animals. I achieved my main aim of marginalizing
Katerina from the rest by performing actions that were personal to my
character, such as the ones mentioned above, as I knew that my character
reacted differently as supposed to the rest because of my personal background
and my personality. However I managed to still keep up my strength and involve myself
with the other characters, by interacting with those close to me with the
nodding of my head, the grabbing of their legs and arms out to call for their
support and attention when attacking at Natalia. This was an example as to how
I grew as an actress through the physical expression of my characters feelings,
as I felt like I transformed into a wild beast from a delicate ballerina, and
that was exactly the aim of Atrud. I noticed I elicited the reactions of fear
and dare from the audience by this transformation, and their reactions made me
want to further exaggerate my actions. I also felt like I stayed truthful to
the methods of the practitioner, as I managed to arouse fear in the audience
with out breaking the barrier of safety by touching them.
I also believe i was of great contribution to the ending of the performance, when i proposed the idea of "adding" blood to Natalia as an abstract way of representing her death. On the day of the performance, i was very happy to see that it worked brilliantly, as me and Amanda filled the blood bags with more syrup, and when bursting, the grotesque imagery of the red stains of blood was a great show factor that really gave strength to the performance.
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| Figure 5: Image showing Scene 6, the Killing of Natalia. I am in the floor licking her flood. |
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| Image showing the final result of the blood! |
I was
very proud of my overall performance, however as a group function I believe we
were at times uncoordinated. It was vital for us to create the atmosphere of
fright and anger, especially in the last scene, which I think we did
brilliantly, as made more eye and tactual contact with each other when about to
attack Natalia, to show animalistic characteristics of the preparation to
attack a prey. The energy was high and the deliverance was therefore more
vibrant, and the positive feedback I got from our audience noticed it.
Nevertheless the exponential tension created was broken at some points because
of incoordination in scenes such as in scene 1, when some members forgot their
commandment, or hesitated and had less emphasis and direction when delivering
it. Again, relating to my previous recommendation about our rehearsal methods,
I believe that would be a way in which this problem could be solved for next
time.
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| Figure 6: Image of Scene 1, the "Commandments". |
Being
the head of props changes my direction and mentality towards the preparation of
the performance. I became much more aware of the necessity of making the actors
accustom to their presence in the performance and use them as a part of their
everyday lives, such as with the masks. The idea of the masks sprung to my mind
in a discussion with the group, as I found through research that Artaud would
often use them when incorporating concepts of Balenese theatre. The Balenese
mask prototypes I researched upon were very elaborate, and had each had a
character type. According to Artauds Manifesto;
“Manikins, enormous masks, objects of
strange proportions will appear with the same sanction as verbal images”. My aim for the masks was to show that the Happiness said to be
experienced in the cult, although appearing to be embracing the new beginning
of its followers, it is merely a crutch; a temporary fix for their respective
issues. Underneath the masks lays the
ugliness that is their reality, and therefore we used ideas from other inspirations
such as porcelain dolls to create our own personal creative product.
I
believe that this research and alterations were truly influential to my understanding
of my role better; as a props manager I must be able to adapt to all the
materials I have and the theme of the group, however still staying truthful to
the practitioner. I also believe that the rehearsing with the masks since an
early stage of the development of the production had very positive outcomes in
the performance. By doing this, the actors understood that the masks
represented their image as members of the “Children of Eternal Happiness”, and
therefore they were their new, improved face. As all members want to follow the
orders of Celestine, their masks are their sign of acceptance, and thus it was
necessary that in order to perform this relationship truthfully, the masks were
to be used in rehearsals to make the relationship between the practitioner and
the mask grow.
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| Figure 7: Final Scene. It shows the final outcome of the masks use din performance. The lighting as explained in previous blogs in shown to unify with the uniform, showing how we worked together to create the effect. |
Within my work with the props, I was exclusively in charge of the appearance of the cult as an organization and the responsibility was intimidating, as it was my first time in charge of this aspect of performance. In this aspect I had to work with sets, as our aim was to create a juxtaposition of ambiences, between the outside world of the cult, and how it wants to be perceived, and the truth found inside. As my aim was to lure my audience in, I looked at advertising and promotion diction specifics when creating the brochures. Following the color code I has set when designing my sigil, I kept the same colors for the “Welcome” banner outside and the brochures as they give our positive connotations of happiness and calmness. I used photographs of the cult members to make the feel more realistic, as well as contact details for the opening days. After the performance, I managed to get critical feedback for my for my collaboration to the aesthetics of the play. I was told that this juxtaposing feel was successfully achieves, specially with the contrast of colors from white outside, to red, and the bloody handprints covering the sigil. The warmth, normality I had created was replaced hastily by the isolation of the seats and the masks, and this was of aid for representing the idea of cults being organizations that are associated to having something to hide. The toys I provided furthermore highlighted the disturbing mixture of tastes, from youthful to alarming, and furthermore created unease in the audience. In terms of the mask, I was told that the idea of the masks was successfully communicated in performance, as a strong sense of uniformity and community was achieved.
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| Figure 8: Image showing the effects of the toys and us playing with them on the day of the performance, as the audience was being seated. |
I
believe I made a very big progress across the unit which enhanced my
development as a theatre practitioner in areas of both physicality and the
consideration of rehearsal methods.
If
I could be in charge of something new for our next project, my close
involvement with the seats team made me want to learn more about it, as it is
an area that I have still to try, however the multimedia experience of the
projections is also very inviting, and I feel like it would be very interesting
as well.
