Here is the exo-skeleton of our show:
My contribution to the piece consisted of many things, and a lot of what I did was also done by the ensemble or with another one or two people. The very beginning of the piece starts with us in Science lab, with some Scientists wandering about contemplating big ideas. Surfin' USA by The Beach Boys starts to play and we did short routine. We then go into separate groups and play out some rehearsed scenes, telling stories of the different people featured in Oliver Sacks' book. My group told the story of the doctor who was struck by lightning when using a payphone, and all of a sudden could play the piano. We used music, song and movement to portray this.
After this, we would lead our audience to our second space. When we got to the second performance space, we started off by doing some Misorgi, the same way we would start every rehearsal. This helped us prepare for the show and cleans away any previous emotions towards the last piece, as we have to have an empty head for this piece. We did some ensemble stretching and progress to the Octopus, Dolphin, Moonfish exercise that we also used in every rehearsal. I found myself committing more than I ever had before, I think mainly because before the show, Stuart had told us to identify what it was we didn't think we did very well in the show and try and commit to it even more during the performance. This particular part of the sequence went well for me.
After this, Michelle walks across the room in a twister mat and we all turn away from her. We then partake in a "funeral of childhood" which is a solemn occasion, which turns into the Hokey Cokey. We then played a game (this time it was Stuck in the mud) and turned into aeroplanes. We shot each other down and played the number game. The number game was probably one of my favourite parts of the show. The fact that it was created as something totally random, and still exists as something random just makes it so brilliant. Another brilliant part after this was when we did small solo sequences as teenagers in summer. There was a totally amazing atmosphere that came with this part, maybe because it was one of the first exercises we did as a company so it felt a bit nostalgic maybe. Another one of my favourite parts is when Eden starts to sing like a siren, and everyone gets sleepy and falls into a big "cuddle train", which is quickly disrupted by Joe's awful screeching. The next part of the show was the part I was most skeptical about. We do an exercise (Unsure if it is Artaud or if it is inspired by Artaud) called "Mummy Help Me". I consists of the actors sitting on their knees, stretching as high as they can up to the sky, pleading: "Mummy Help Me!". I didn't take part in this exercise in the actual performance but I did in the rehearsal process. For me, it's quite a heavy exercise and the connotations of it imply something to do with heaven and death, which is quite uncomfortable. As I was the only performer who watched everyone do it in the performance, I still found it uncomfortable. My job was to bring Jimmy down from the stance as he carries on after everyone else finishes. I found watching him cry and sob in pain very disturbing and uncomfortable, and it is difficult to not let personal feelings seep in when watching something such as that, even when you're "in character". I had to let him get to the edge before I could go over to him and relieve him. This was the most challenging part of the play for me and as an actor I really believe I developed from such a harrowing experience. It helped me learn the importance of shutting out personal feelings in times such as then.
After this exercise, we do, however, embrace and shake out these horrible feelings and me and Jimmy played "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" by The Beach Boys. It's a very soothing song and I think it really grounds the piece and neutralises the carnage we just ensued. We start to move to Jake who does a really brilliant speech about the difference between the real world and the theatre world.
Joe starts to play his harmonica and our movements start start to become fragmented and we physically react to his harmonica playing. Lloyd joined in with playing some Jimi Hendrix along with the harmonica. Slowly, Jimmy, Jake and I joined in with the music with our guitars and drums. Every time we did the show, the music we played was improvised and totally different so that added an edge of excitement for me as a musician. Towards the end, the music we make builds up and becomes louder and faster and all the cast reacts to it and the entire show turns very suddenly tribal. There is a sense of euphoria as everyone does call and response and improvised movement.Strengths of the piece :-
- We had a great feel of ensemble
- The improvised music
- The improvised movement
- Group focus
What we could have worked on :-
- Performing for the audience instead of ourselves, sometimes we were a bit selfish at times
- Listening to each other a bit more - sometimes communication was lost during the performance, nothing noticeable, however.
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