Theatre of Cruelty: "Rituals of cleansing and Sacrifice"

Theatre journals “Theatre of Cruelty”

Today in class we experimented with a mixture of music, body movements and most importantly: interpretations!

Our directors, Katy and Lloyd, divided us into groups and each gave us a piece of music, and we had to come up with a sequence of movements and create a structured “cleansing” dance. This was all inspired from our current topic of theatre of cruelty, and from our idea of incorporating the “Cleansing For Celestine” in our final performance.

This activity reminded me to a similar activity I did with my dance group in Dubai, at a workshop. We were given different moto’s, such as mine which was “Discovery” and with our song, we had to create movements that would express this. We all became discoverers in the search of a magic ball (invisible) and through our dances we expressed the changes in pace and the loss and gain of power by the loosing and regaining of the magic ball.

The video below is the final outcome of the other group.

Things I really liked:

·      The beginning, when they are all in the ground.
Justification: I really thought that that idea was effective as it had a double interpretation. I thought that the starting on the ground created the idea of Celestine’s disciples being “awakened” by the music, which symbolized for me “Celestine’s voice”. This was very effective as once the music started, they looked up, and this for me showed how they respond to their gods orders, and since the very moment she speaks, she hypnotizes them.
However discussing it with Juliana, she said that she believed they chose to start in the ground to show the power of her words on them. By starting on the ground and then gradually growing and standing up, it showed how Celestine’s power gave the disciple the energy to follow her. In any case, both interpretations are effective for the piece.

·      I like the segregation between the males and the females in the group shown by the differences in the movements. Chaewon, Amanda and Ali started used more head roles, swaying of the back and uplifting’s and drops of their body, to show weakness and loss of control. Tony, Daniel and Mike used stronger poses, by the squared arch they formed with their arms to stand up, to the sounds and the use of the sticks as a form of aboriginal and savage percussion. I liked the idea, and I think it is a good concept to use in our cleansing scene, as it shows different statuses and states of power, supporting the idea of “survival of the fittest”.

·      I think the whole grouped approved of the idea of the lift, as apart from it being aesthetically appealing and a shock factor for the audience members, it successfully symbolized the idea of “exhibiting” the “price” (as a way of calling Chaewon) to Celestine; a formal way of presenting her as an offer to the god. By this, the figure of focus was highlighted to the audience, and therefore I thought we could use this to present Natalia in our scene.

·      I personally really likes Cheawon’s “worm like” movements of the contractions of her back. I think that not only they are disturbing, as they could be associated with feelings of pain, revulsion and torture which match our topic of “Theatre of Cruelty”, but also really demonstrate what the person is going through; that change in her body and soul as a result of both the poison and the power of the cult.

Things I didn’t like:

·      I believe that when Chaewon was being lifted, the rest of the group remained very static. This could have maybe achieved power, as silence is again a way of engaging the audience and if used properly it can even convey a climatic moment, as was the occasion in the piece, however the lack of sounds or even facial expressions from the characters I believe lost force in the scene. This made me realize how crucial it is for us, the followers to always engage with the cult’s ceremonies to really show that the power is always present.

Our development in class:

·      Personifying Celestine- I made the artistic choice of personifying Celestine, to give the audience a figure of focus. I chose to be her, and enter on top of Natalia, to symbolize power though status and body language. Although I stood on my feet later, I came in in a hunchback position, to look more unattractive and creature like. The idea of the animal was also mine, as chariots in the movie “Gladiator” inspired me. In this movie, a grandiose entrance and the actor’s voice when screaming to the audience achieved force, motivation and power. We chose to mimic this, through the use of a projector. By this I amplified my voice and made my commands stronger. I wanted to show by amplification that my voice is very loud more my disciples, that it is engaging and difficult to avoid.

·      In class Natalia and me thought of dance movements for the disciples. Everyone agreed that there should be some uniformity in the moves, and then again we followed the strong, disciplined movements of arms and body, inspired from martial Chinese arts. However, when doing my speech for Celestine, I incorporated a line from the play that I was currently taking part in: “The Book Thief” By Marsha Hilman; a line from Hitler saying: “Will you come and join me, so we can beat our enemy together?!”. I adapted it to fit our performance, making it: “Will you join me, Celestine your leader, to save our sisters soul?!”. At this point in the performance, I remember working with the cast and asking them to fully respond to his commands by shouting and jumping into the ring that the scene was set in. Although there has been a build up of energy throughout my speech and my disciples have become more and more aggressive in their movements and sounds, I chose that to be the point in which they break down from “uniformity” and show another side that is very important in cult member worshipping’s; a complete involvement of mind and body with Celestine. All of the members agreed that this was a good idea.

I enjoyed working in a group very much, and it was a very entertaining exercise, in which I got to apply a lot of the new techniques I had learned from Mr. Atwood’s movement workshop for “releasing tensions and liberating your body”.

Ideas development

From this idea, we moved forwards. we then incorporated the whole group for the sacrifice scene, in which the disciples must take "The mint" as a form of showing their commitment.

In the video below we can see out final outcome as of now. We worked with out choreographer Cheowan to help us build our movements. i though of it as two types of movement:

Attraction/ Release. I gave the group the idea of Lloyd being a sort of Magnet, that attracts the disciples from scattered parts of the room. i thought this would be effective for staging and therefore discussed it with the people that were going to be in change of they (Daniel and Juliana), as it would look as if the force and power of  Lloyd was bringing us together, as if he was sucking us in.

Form here we used the movements I mentioned above, and which are present in the circle too. Attraction is created when we extend or hands to touch Lloyd (although respect and status prevents us from actually touching) and when we sway our bodied to follow  his movements. Release is gained when we find ourselves more and more engaged with the movement and we push our chests out to show how energy is coming outside of our bodies. This exercise is quite intuitive i must say, as the music plays a very big role. we follow the music's changes of tone, beat, acceleration and climatic points, as as shown in the video, we all collapse to a prayers position (child's pose) when the beat drops, to symbolize what i like calling "surrender" of our souls, and how we have given everything to our faith to Celestine.

People moved in different ways, following their characters. I decided to approach Lloyd's in a very sensual, upright position of my body, seeing my shoulders and hips as I walk towards him, to represent physical attraction as well as emotional attachment. I did this because that is a trait that my character shows, as she likes showing off her beauty and feel loved and wanted. 

Also, the director noticed that I did head rolls, which again is a sensual ways of portraying the moving of power, and falls under the category of release. we will continue working on this in class!!