Focus

Activity

AS Element

Looking at themes of play before reading

Parallel improvisations dealing with themes:

• Adult (parent) and young person (child) relationships – conflict around adult wanting obedience in some matter and young person not wanting to comply. Student devised.
• Political necessity versus individual rights – conflict involved in a variety of situations such as an MP voting to ban fox-hunting even though his father is Master of Hounds for local hunt; building a wall to permanently separate two communities even though members of the same family live on either side of the proposed wall (Berlin and Palestine); State and Crown banning a marriage of love because of the religion of the intended bridegroom (Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend); MP giving back a ‘gift’ because it would leave him open to accusations of corruption etc (Hamilton and wife Christine)
• The pointless gesture – tearing up a love poem because one’s boyfriend didn’t answer the phone; man chopping off his finger because his wife has said she will leave, for example. Student devised
• Being ‘fey’ – the way one would behave before a planned death. Doing seemingly irrational acts before one commits suicide – tidying the house, sending off one’s tax demand, planting flowers, etc. Student devised

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Reading the play and making notes on how the themes studied are part of the plot.

Reducing the play to a 10 minute version in order to ascertain what is important and what less so (Key scenes and sub-plots).

Why are these scenes important? What scenes do you wish you had time to include? Why?

Thinking about the work we did on themes – have you covered all the themes of the play?

Written work – make notes on the PLOT and sub-plot including your own understandings and practical experience of looking at the text.

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Staging and scripts

Acting out, with scripts, of key scenes.  Thinking about how the scene will create an impact on the audience – through characterisations and actions. Interpreting the script to highlight the issues, working out the objectives, examination of relationships etc

Various groups given a different stage type to use – in the round, pros arch, traverse etc. Looking at the pros and cons of each type of staging. What sort of lighting? What, if any, sound? In what era is the play set – costuming? Some experimentation with staging:

• Balance game
• Levels for social strata
• Lighting
• Possible use of video projection
• Use of music/sound

Comparing short extracts from Sophocles’ play with the Anouilh version.  What has Anouilh done to ‘update’ the play for modern audiences?

Written work – make notes on the VISUAL, AURAL AND SPATIAL aspects of the play. Include comments on your own experience or views of the staging choices of other groups.

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Close- up on characters actions, movement, attitudes etc

Character identification exercises

• Marching for soldiers
• Elements of royalty
• Playing out the story of Oedipus

What helps us to learn about the characters? How do we interpret them? Are characters ‘static’ in various situations? What attitudes do the characters have when dealing with other characters in different situations? Take two extracts and show the character responding differently in the different circumstances… use carefully chosen vocal, physical and gestural devices to enhance the work.

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Closer look at the plot (and the impact of the play?)

Questions improvisation – what questions are raised by the plot – who might want to ask these questions (eg servants, relatives, the populace etc) Quick series of questions while in a role related to the play.

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Form and Structure

How has Anouilh ‘crafted’ this version of the play? What do you find notable about the way in which the plot unfolds? What scenes do you feel work best and why?

Make a graph of the various ‘scene temperatures’ plotting the rise and fall of tension, emotion etc.

AO3i