Samuel Beckett

Born 13 April, 1906, in Farrock, near Dublin 

1923-27: Attended Trinity College, Dublin, studying Modern Languages (French & Italian) graduating with BA first class, and awarded the gold medal. 1927  - 28: worked as a teacher of French & English at Campbell College, Belfast. Followed by École Normale Supérieure in Paris. 

                   MODERNISM  

Beckett was part of the literary movement called Modernism. 

Modernism is a series of reforming cultural movements in art, architecture, literature and applied arts which emerged in the three decades before 1914.

Beckett's work represents the most sustained attack on the realist tradition. 

He opened up the possibility of drama and fiction that gets rid of the conventional plot and the ideas of time and place in order to focus on essential components of the human experience. 

His work is stark, minimalist and deeply pessimistic according to sand critics about the understanding of being a human. 

             Theatre Of Absurd 

Named by critic Martin Esslin, after title of his 1962 book of same subject.

Movement designated for plays written by mostly European playwrights in late 1940s/50s/60s, along with the style of theatre evolved from their work. 

Originates from Dadaism, nonsense poetry and avant-garde art. 

The FIVE defining playwrights of this movement are: Eugene Lonesco, Jean Genet, Arthur Adamor, Harold Pinter, and Samuel Beckett. 

Members of the group were not always entirely comfortable with the term, and often refered to themselves as 'Anti-theatre' or 'New Theatre'

Most famous and controversial absurdist play is Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. 

Absurd Theatre is intended to shock the audience 

I think picking up from Beckett we should try and shock the audience. I don't think anything should be held back regardless to how we think the audience might perceive it   

Lessons

               WEEK ONE 

This term we will be making a performance that consists of short scenes in different locations and different locations and different times in England. In particular we are looking at Phillip Larkin's going going.

"  Going, going

I thought it would last my time -
The sense that, beyond the town,
There would always be fields and farms,
Where the village louts could climb
Such trees as were not cut down;
I knew there’d be false alarms

In the papers about old streets
And split level shopping, but some
Have always been left so far;
And when the old part retreats
As the bleak high-risers come
We can always escape in the car.

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about;
Chuck filth in the sea, if you must:
The tides will be clean beyond.
- But what do I feel now? Doubt?

Or age, simply? The crowd
Is young in the M1 cafe;
Their kids are screaming for more -
More houses, more parking allowed,
More caravan sites, more pay.
On the Business Page, a score

Of spectacled grins approve
Some takeover bid that entails
Five per cent profit (and ten
Per cent more in the estuaries): move
Your works to the unspoilt dales
(Grey area grants)! And when

You try to get near the sea
In summer . . .
        It seems, just now,
To be happening so very fast;
Despite all the land left free
For the first time I feel somehow
That it isn’t going to last,

That before I snuff it, the whole
Boiling will be bricked in
Except for the tourist parts -
First slum of Europe: a role
It won’t be hard to win,
With a cast of crooks and tarts.

And that will be England gone,
The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,
The guildhalls, the carved choirs.
There’ll be books; it will linger on
In galleries; but all that remains
For us will be concrete and tyres.

Most things are never meant.
This won’t be, most likely; but greeds
And garbage are too thick-strewn
To be swept up now, or invent
Excuses that make them all needs.
I just think it will happen, soon."

This poem will be our focal point for our piece so I did some added research on the poem. The title ‘Going, Going’ is the key to the whole poem. In Larkin’s view, what is ‘going’ is the landscape of England as a green and pleasant land. It is being replaced by shoddy development, summed up by the auctioneer’s excited cry of ‘going, going’ as another piece of the old heritage falls under the hammer. Going, going, but not yet quite gone. Larkin once thought it would ‘last his time’. Now he doubts that. Right from the start he has a disillusioned air about the future of England. ‘I thought’ – past tense – ‘it would last my time’. There is a comfortable public belief, which he once shared, that traditional England will not be overwhelmed by ‘development’; there will always be an England that even ‘village louts’ – not just those with special discernment – can enjoy.

The question that plays on my mind is that Larkin wrote this in 1972 so how evocative is this now to us in 2014?

This poem is forty years old. So much of what Larkin feared then, has happened. Nevertheless, I’m slightly uneasy about this poem. Decisions about where people live, and what their built environment looks like don’t in my view, just happen. They are a product of a set of choices made by people who control the resources of a society, with more or less input from the people who live in that society. Larkin despises both the young people in the M1 cafe, and the financial types with ‘spectacled grins’. But I don’t think they bear equal responsibility.

We discussed fundamentally what experimental theatre might be. In my view experimental theatre is every theatre, in such a broad range. Everything is experiemental, everything provokes a reaction, allows the audience to feel emotions that you wouldn't think they could feel. However has a seperate genre in terms of out of the average, experimental theatre to me is a piece of theatre that either provokes a reaction or an emotion using different means that both audience and 'theatre' have never seen before. Or rebels against the normal conforms of theatre, leaving an unpredictable reaction from the audience. I think experimental theatre does well to let you have your own personal connection and imagination. It's much more open to interpretations than conventional theatre. 

Following this we worked on sound and gesture. We used the room to explore each other's bodies, by the end of the lesson I found this was a concept we could explore further. When we created a sound cathedral it was almost another side of me was awoken. Half the group repeated 'crave' 'lust' 'loath' whilst the other half of us sat with our eyes closed in pitched darkness. This took away my sense of sight and because of this my ears were alert more than ever for every sound. I got to the point where I felt uncomfortable and then started to feel scared as, the more the sound scape continued I started to lose my awareness of the space even without light. The unpredictable nature of body proximity and the sound in self suddenly then put me in a mind state that I wasn't too understanding of myself. My senses had been taken away and because of this I started to forget I was in a rehearsal room and this was just an exericise. My imagination and the sound made it seem real and this exploration of my imagination is something we need to get our audience to feel. They need see past it being a performance and engage directly into the piece. I think as well what we need to do is use sounds to create other emotions not just uneasiness and being uncomfortable. 

             WEEK TWO 

Today we did vocal warm ups and stretches and cardiovascukar work to get our energy up and to really focus us. This got out heart rate moving as well. We later laid in the floor and created a sound scape - we explored different parts of voices and then discussed what made it specific to the chosen location. We then developed the idea of how we could change it to the mood of the setting. I think that by developing the skill to play with sound we can evoke a human sensory and give the audience a unique and unusual experience using raw and natural sound.  We then started to spell our names using our body parts in a box. When I sat down and saw the other group perform this I created my only storyline and own theatre. So I can see this exericise that was very simple can be developed to demonstrate different things/ideas and concepts. We then played with the form of this exercise, this was done by being placed in different areas in the room and being put in different groups and facing different directions. I think this further established an imaginative storyline, through use of body and movenent. I like how I could create a piece of theatre in my head without a distinct script or direction.  

Following that we explored set tabloid images and then things that were harder to get a grip of for example ice, explosion, bomb, drowning. These were hard to explore because these aren't generic things we can just be. This meant that we had to think outside the box and actually think of it with meaning or relation in order for us to incorporate it into our bodies. As a result creating a tabloid piece representing the concept because we cannot be an explosion literally. This helped me to understand that you can express anything, however sometimes you just have to find an alternative route to expressing the idea. 

We then read through this quote from Alber Bernel on Artaud's theatre of cruelty. 

'Life has in it a lot of ugliness and evil which are both natural and man made. Instead if shielding spectators from their impact he would expose them, putting them through the experience of the danger, then free them from it. Artaud's theatre was not a form of torture but a facing of the worse that could happen, followed by a freshing realising. At the end the spectator would feel relieved as if awakening from a nightmare evil and until until it clensed away. This was intended to be a cathartic process from destruction to a new set of understanding truths. Artaud insisted that we recognise the inherent ability for cruelty in all of us. We are capable of being cruel and all capable of being victims. Artaud encourages us to accept the darker side of our natures that we daily try to repress and that society encourages to repress. He wants to draw on such ideas within the creation of theatre. Cruelty has nothing to do with cruelty we practice in one another but the far more terrible essential cruelty objects can practice on us. We are not free and the sky can fall on out heads and above all, is theatre is made to teach us this. 

One of Artaud's things is to deal with breaking taboo subjects in terms of matter and the conventions of staying in the theatrical terms. So we then did an exercise exploring the taboo nature.

We first picked a scenario. The idea that was established was a boys and girls changing room. We talked through set rules that society condemns as normal in this space and started to abide by them. Then we started to break these rules. We headed showered in the boys changing room, asked people to shave for us, walked around with no towel. When watching these rules being broken, you can't help but at first be shocked but then slowly you come to except that these rules are being broken and start almost enjoy the performers going against society's norms. 

             WEEK THREE 

These are voicenotes that have been attached via email. 

              WEEK FOUR

This is also a voicenote that I have attached via email. Also there is a video via Google plus. 

We looked for a distinct performance space that would make the best out of the promanade pieces. 

We wanted to make sure these spaces reflected on our promanade performances, the space had to set the scence for our mini worlds. Also the overall space we wanted to ensure we took the audience on a clear journey leading into the big space. 

               WEEK FIVE 

These are voicenotes that have been attached via email. 

This was my drawing that I imagined in our imaginative exercise. I saw Britian in 1921, the old large roads that were bumpy. There was this guy dressed in black and was smoking wearing a top hat. 

Our groups pictures. 

                   WEEK SIX 

This is a voicenote that have been attached via email. 

Ritual & Group Piece Evaluation

There are voice notes of the evaluation, sent via email.  

This was the old people's characterisation from all of us. We dressed like generic old people to create a sense of reality. 

Promenade Piece

 My initial idea for my promanade was this text, it was spoken to everyone in a pub: a revelation. 

"Revelation Spoken to everyone in a pub

Attention! Attention!

Can I have another pint please. What, what you staring at? Oh ahaha so what I can't piss my life away right. Yeah well maybe I like it. I like to. Who are any of you, yous who don't know nothing about me. Yeah you know nothing. What right do you have to judge me aye. I am sick of this world fucking me over, so I'm just going to get fucked and maybe just maybe the world might leave me alone. 

For once, alright. Don't mind me mate you all have a lot to celebrate, winning the war and all that. So drink up. Cheers I'll have mine here"

This is my second improvement from direction to my script. 

"PLACE - Revelation spoken to everyone in a pub

Pouring drinks in front of me whilst saying 'I'll have another' Keeping the repetition whilst pouring it into the cups. 

'What are you staring at?' *Pause*

*Keep Pouring* I'll have another 

'Who are any of you?' *Pause*

*Keep Pouring* I'll have another 

'You know nothing' I'll have another 

POUR ME ANOTHER DRINK 

'Yeah you know nothing'

ANOTHER DRINK 

'So what'

ANOTHER ME 

'Maybe I like it'

POUR ME ANOTHER

'I like to'

 DRINK ANOTHER 

'Maybe'

POUR ANOTHER 

'I like it'

ANOTHER ME 

'I am sick'

POUR ME"

I want my performance to be staged in a dark area. Preferably around the space. This being said, I think that my underlying message is dark, and isn't at all positive. I think the space around me needs to reflect this to allow my words to give less away and in turn, have a metaphorical meaning. My piece is currently based on the stimulus to be spoken to everyone in a pub. At first I took this literally, I spoke about the pub and how it had become my home and that really I liked my self for the way I am. When read out, there was so much more that this piece has to offer. The potential to create something that allows the audience to imagine for themselves. Taking new direction I decided to actually create a piece of repetitive text, which explored and played on words. After evaluating my initial text and then the second text I created, I decided there was still more to do, there were more ways to relate my text back to Britian. So the new text I created played on the sentence 'Pour me another drink'. From this I still played on the words which I had done previously except this time ensured my subcomments related back to Britian. 

My new Subcomments 

"GREAT BRITIAN THE LAND OF THE GREAT 

GREAT BRITIAN THE LAND OF THE COURGOUS 

GREAT BRITIAN THE LAND OF INDUSTRIALISM

GREAT BRITIAN MY LAND OF SHAME"

'GREAT BRITIAN MY LAND OF SHAME'

 The reason I put this there is to represent the fact that modern Britian now is nothing we can be proud of; as there is a corruption within everything that makes anything we can be proud of so minor on a scale. The use of the phrase 'Pour me another drink' represents the sense of Britian growing to be worse and as we get used to it and see nothing wrong with it. Our view is disorientated and perceptions are different. 

With the drinking I feel that people summit to letting the drink take over them. The same with society people know the corruption but still summit to it. It's a continuous cycle. 

EVALUATION 

On the day of the performance, whilst rehearsing through the pieces, I started to engage my body into my piece. The words had meaning that were expressed through the different shapes I took my body through. I started to think of all the things that makes Britain what it is today and what we as a society have stopped doing over time. Once I had this set, I played around with voice and tone and experiemented how I could say different lines of my text. I wanted to ensure that everything about this performance was engaged experimentally. I looked at the water in my cups and started to explore moving like water - it might of seemed weird but my justification is that we have moved seeminglessly through time without acknowledging the big changes we've made as people in the 21st century. Just like water runs aimlessly I think that of time and nature and evolution. We were all only reacting snippets of life and so we had to keep the energy up throughout the pieces. I found this weird at first during the rehearsals but I got used to it after a while. We didn't get to rehearse our piece to our peers so when it was show time it was show time! For the future I would of spent more time focusing on exploring different ways to push my body and vocal skills to create a meaningful and justifiable experimental decision. 

My performance I felt was engaged right from the offset, at first I was scared to fully commit to it during rehearsals but on the day I created my own living world with the piece. I hadn't use the pouring water concept until the performance so I think, I could next time incorporate props into my piece in rehearsals as this could have gone terribly wrong on the night. Lucky I was fortunate that it didn't happen and the water into the cups was a success. My vocalisation was varied and I established two set voices. One to which was rich and strong the other which was staccato and was less supported. I probably could of taken these voices further but with the limited rehearsal time we had, I had no chance to. 

What worked well with the promenade pieces is that we all related back to our stimulus'. We engaged in creating an atmosphere about the place. With this atmosphere it allowed the audience to explore in ways they wouldn't imagine. We allowed them to create their own individually story lines. I think in terms of a group performance we all came with the same understanding in delivering our performance. I think we could of all pushed ourselves to relate it back to the stimulus of Britian better. But with more rehearsal time and direction we can improve this in the future. The main improvement of our piece would be just experimentally engage our voices and bodies. This was probably the one thing I can't say everyone did. Overall, it was a perfect sense of life that we all created which was more metaphorically than literally. 

Antonin Artaud

A French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director.

         Realism vs. Surrealism 

Artaud's work provides a vision that stems from his violent hatred of realism.

He represents the other end of the performance scale from Stanislavski

He wanted to 'transcend' realism in his productions and produce a theatre that 'challenged' his audience forcing then to see new ideas and values 

          Life and Background 

Artaud was born Marseilles into a trust religious family which he found suffocating

He had a troubled childhood, suffering from meningitis and depression the symptoms of which led to him being isolated at school

He was extremely strong willed and reluctant to conform to the conventions of society: as a consequence of this his parents arranged for him to be incarcerated in a sanatorium in 1915.

During this time he was prescribed opium and this was the start of a long-standing addiction to drugs. 

Once released, Artaud embarked on a fascinating series of experiences that helped him to formulate his extreme views on both society and theatre. 

He was a prolific poet 

1942 he became an active and influential member of the surrealist movement

He and the surrealist shared a political viewpoint based around anarchy and free thinking, and a vision of the theatre as a place not for bourgeois entertainment but for emotional discovery 

However, the relationship between Artaud and the group was often strained and two years later he was expelled 

He acted in many films and celebrated for his non-realist style. 

             Balinese Influence 

1931, Artaud witnessed a performance by Balinese dancers in Paris that acted as a catalyst for the development of the theatre 

Balinese dance-drama is religious in nature and involves the acting out of Hindu legends in a stylised way, with the use of deeply unrealistic makeup, symbolic masks and hand gestures 

Artaud was struck by the magical quality of the work. The dancers' dependence on gestures, facial expressions and visuals created a physical language that appealed to the unconscious 

The focus was not on verbal communication 

Artaud argued that it was to offer something that could not be offered by novel or poem, or any other medium 

             Other Influences 

Two other influences affected the development of his ideas: 

1. The painting 'The Daughters of Lot' by Leyden. The violent images in the painting had a theatrical quality to them and he considered the impact that such still image could have on stage. 

2. Film, in particular the work of Marx Brothers. Artaud was fascinated by the manner in which they juxtaposed images to create humour. 

          Theatre of Cruelty 

Artaud organised his ideas into a manifesto called the 'Theatre of Cruelty'

His aim was to reinvent the theatrical experience, abolishing the traditions of realism and allowing design and performance skills to work together to maximise the sensory experience of the audience 

Before we can experiment with practical ideas it is important to understand the essense of Artaud's theatre. It was revolutionary which partly explains by he was unable to achieve a production that did justice to all his aims. 

            The Auitorium 

To break from the restrictions of psychological theatre started with the nature of the performance space. 

The stage should be a single, undivided locale, probably a barn or a hanger, which would allow direct communication between the actors and the audience. All decoration needed to be removed from the space so that every area could be used.

                The Audience 

Would be in the middle on swivel chairs, while a walk way would be built around the edges of the auditorium to enable certain action to take place above the spectators. The show as Artaud called his performance, would fill the space using different areas and levels to engulf the audience and assault their senses. 

                     Sound

Artaud believed traditional theatre was a slave to dialogue, so he tried to redefine the aural experience. He focused on sounds rather than words. Screams were extremely important to him since they represented the most primitive emotion. 

Musical instruments were used in experimental ways. 

           Costume and Design  

All costume should be devoid of any contemporary relevance and should be specifically designed for each show. However, he felt it might be appropriate to look at images from the past and designs that might take their influences from certain cultural rituals. Masks and even puppets were encouraged as a way of moving away from realism 

             Technical Aspects 

Technical equipment was limited for Artaud but he saw that the need for more technical equipment was necessary 

He thought about subtlety of use of colour to communicate complex images. 

                  The Double 

 Fascination by the concepts of dreams and reality. 

                   The Plague 

Artaud used the metaphor of the plague to relate to his ideas about theatre 

'Theatre action is a beneficial as the plague, impelling us to see ourselves as we are, making the masks fall...' (theatre and it's double)

                      Ritual 

He was fascinated by their mystical quality and their ability to generate a heightened level of engagement from those who participated 

In terms of Artaud as a theatre maker I feel as though his past influenced his work. I feel that undoubtedly had he not suffered from mental illnesses he might not have been influenced to rebel against society's normal conformaties. I feel as thought his illness helped create theatre of cruelty. We will be focusing a lot on Artaud and using a lot of his exercises to help develop our piece. I definitely agree with the aspect of pushing boundaries that are meant to be broken. We have to ensure that we don't feel restricted as performers and just go with anything that we think we can't do. 

Forced Entertainment & Complicite

These two companies are companies in the UK which are experimental artists. They are currently performing as the most diverse and exciting experimental theatre companies.

Forced entertainment seek to question theatre as an art form, inspiring audiences by making and remaking theatre to speak about the times we live in. 

         Tomorrow's parties 

The piece we went to see was on a makeshift fairground stage, wreathed in coloured lights, to which two performers from the company battled about what tomorrow might bring. Exploring utopian and dystopian visions, science fiction scenerios, political nightmares and absurd fantasises. The two sometimes were collaborative, sometimes competive, contradict and invent. I think the company wanted to take the audience into a state of imagination and dreams. For me I feel that this engaged the audience to take a journey through all different emotions. It forced you to imagine and explore but also battle with the feelings of frustration and anger. I do like the concept of a journey for the audience but I don't want the emotions to take over the concept or message of the piece. With Tomorrow's Parties it got to the point where your emotions were much stronger and therefore paid little attention to what the performers started to say. Although, I do want the content just like Tomorrow's Parties to offer excitement and creative new ideas. 

            COMPLICITE  

The company is based in London and use extreme movement to represent their work. Their productions often involve dazzling use of technology, such as projection and cameras, as well as lyrical and philosophical contemplation of serious themes. 

The company's lineup changes frequently, though McBurney continues to be the artistic director. Complicite is currently more active as an international touring company than within the UK. 

Their main principles of work are "seeing what is most alive, integrating text, music, image and action to create surprising, disruptive theatre." 

       MEASURE FOR MEASURE 

Measure for measure is a play written by William Shakespeare. It was (and continues to be) classified as a comedy, but it's mood defies those expectations. The play deals with the issues of mercy, justice, and truth and their relationship to pride and humility. I think, like Complicite, we should work with a text and develop it into a piece. Using a structure of a story as a stimulus means that you can make the piece have a journey that follows a path underneath the experimental subtexts behind it. 

Introduction

Let the experimental term begin...

This term for me will challenge me as a performer. I don't know how I will see experiemental theatre by the end of the term. However, I want to explore and understand a new creative process. I think this term will allow me to mentally and physically push myself in performance creatively. 

The practioners and modern day directors of the genre we will be looking at are Antonin Artaud (Creator of Theatre of Cruelty); Samuel Beckett; Bertold Brecht (Creator of Epic Theatre); Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski (Creator of Poor Theatre). From these practioners and directors I feel as though we'll understand experimental theatre from these interpretations on the art. I think these ideas and concepts we can use to explore in our final piece. Personally, I feel as though having a grand understanding and solid grounding of the genre will give our piece direction. 

From the last two terms I have learnt what works well for me as a performer and what doesn't. I want to achieve my best this term and make sure I make use of everything that we do, so I achieve the best performance I can possibly offer. I want to leave this term knowing I can leave Brit and perform my own experimental piece. My log book will consist of research, ideas, rehearsal process, pictures and a personal journey from my perspective engaging with experimental as a theatre form as an actor.