Harry MillsDocumentary Response27.01.14

On the 14th of January I participated in a workshop based on the play Two written by Jim Cartwright in 1989; a play of fourteen characters but only two actors multi rolling. My initial understanding on my first read through of the script was the use of fast paced, witty dialogue between the Landlord and Landlady with a vast use of subtext. This happens in the opening scene especially, creating atmosphere by the constant orders and also the continuous row with each other, whilst leaving the customers oblivious, leaving them to believe in their fake external personalities.

We started our workshop with a freeze frame exercise displaying a false relationship such as the relationship between the Landlord and Landlady. This exercise really helped to discover the true contrasting emotions and tension in the sub text between the two owners. This image of Natasha and Maria demonstrates the fake smiling indicating their false persona towards customers. This freeze frame was their last of three and it stood out as it contrasted vastly. Their previous freeze frames were the owners having a dispute without their customers seeing therefore indicating the contrast between their interior and exterior facades. This use of gesture combined with facial expression really worked well together to pursue this counterfeit personality saying an artificial goodbye to their regulars.

Another exercise we completed was two freeze frames presenting the ten-year ago past compared to the present of the relationship between the Landlord and Landlady. We created one freeze frame of the family that consisted of three and then one of two when the child was a part of a car crash. This worked well representing, again, the hidden tension between the couple with the first freeze frame showing the anger of the Landlord towards the Landlady without the child knowing. Then again in the second where the Landlady has a dirty look at the Landlord. We figured these two freeze frames worked really well showing the past and present telling the audience a lot about the shared tension of both characters. But to analyse and critique this wasnt hard as we realised after, that in script the child constantly haunts the Landlord and Landlady so it would have been really powerful to have the child in the background with a gap between the couple showing their separation through the ten years but also presenting a metaphorical meaning of the continuous presence of the child in their thoughts. Our next exercise was to use the shapes; square, triangle, circle and squiggle to represent the movement and personality of Moth and Maudie, this technique was similar to the theories of the practitioner and theorist, Rudolf Von Laban. We came up with these words that epitomise these shapes:

Square- Confined, Caged, Organised

Triangle- Egotistical, Irrational, Controlled

Circle- Natural, Harmony, Empathetic

Squiggle- Childlike, Lost, Out of control

For the character Moth, I thought it would be appropriate to use squiggle, as he is drunk therefore out of control. This worked really well in the performance as it portrayed his movement and personality trying to get Maudie to dance with him. Peachy, my partner who played Maudie chose to be square therefore very controlled and confined movements, which really contrasted well on stage with my loose and out of control motions. This contrast, I felt was successful as it stuck to the roots of the theme of the play with the contrast between Two people in a relationship.

Our next exercise was to explore Jim Cartwrights use of text and tone to create power and patterns of behaviour in relationships by using a behavioural therapy quadrant: AssertiveAggressive

Roy

Passive

LesleyPassive Aggressive

We started with Francesca playing the role of Roy, and Peachy playing Lesley. They started in the latter part of this scene after Lesley comes back from the toilet before she tries to regain some power. By reading through the scene and using the explorative strategy forum theatre, we discussed the different emotions and where they should stand on the quadrant to decipher their behavioural pattern. By using the strategy of forum theatre I was able to replace Francesca and add my own interpretation of this overpowering character. Francescas interpretation of this aggressive character I thought was quite under toned so I replaced her by adding more anger to emphasize the over powered relationship to the audience. I also used gesture and levels to indicate the power and tone change throughout. I found this explorative strategy useful as you could change and adapt ideas to create the correct message to the audience. The set up of the quadrant, in Roy and Lesleys scene could of signified a boxing ring and the movement of Roy from aggressive to passive aggressive, left Lesley cornered in passive which gave this behavioural pattern a metaphorical and literal meaning, shown on the diagram. Although forum theatre, I found, was a good explorative strategy I also found it quite challenging, as you had to adapt to your new partner if they were swapped in, which may effect your interpretation of the character. Such as, when I swapped in I was with Natasha who gave a very timid side of Lesley which made me more aggressive towards her to really show that vast contrast whereas when Maria was swapped in she gave more of a brave Lesley which changed my view on her as a character and I had to change more to passive aggressive to suit this other side of Lesley. This exercise was a good way to explore the emotion change and pattern in each character to develop our understanding of this scene by having many actors interpretations.

In conclusion, this practical exploration really enhanced my knowledge and opened me up to the subtext of each respective story, all-fusing together under the main theme of relationships. All characters had a journey throughout their scene within their relationship from Fred and Alice being a tight middle aged couple to a very dominant Roy standing over Lesley. All these contrasts between the characters and between scenes are an overall reflection of the main protagonists of the play, the Landlord and Landlady.

4