We used our lesson today to practice our extract from Lunch and to make any last minute changes before we perform it on Wednesday. Since we learnt the lines over the weekend, we could focus on making them more of a staccato rhythm -as is the Berkoff style.
Additionally, we practiced our movements repetitively to make them snappy; we talked about helping them correspond with the speech and make them see more motivated by what we were saying. How we've been doing this is often implementing the movement immediately afterwards or right as the line has been said. Usually the pose or the movement will take on the form of what we've been saying. One good example of this is when we studied East, when I said the line, "and part the boot in him with shrieks of bollocks". I would a) use onomatopoeia: elongating the 'oo' in 'boot' to sound like I was crushing someone's head in, and b) when we did the movement, we did a synchronised slamming of our feet.
In Lunch, we've been trying to implement that same technique to inform the audience and directly place an idea in their minds of what we are saying, rather than leaving to their imagination. For example, Emily (the female conscious) uses onomatopoeia when she says, " heart aches" and then she thumps her chest like a heartbeat . I think that using physical theatre in partnership with speech like this is extremely effective because it projects visuals to the audience that they can't ignore and it is usually really interesting to watch.
Wednesday
Today, we started the lesson by practicing our Lunch extract and tidying up any last things before we performed it to the class. Here is a video of our final performance:
After watching everyone's performances, we were given an extract from A Woman Alone, which will be the play that we are performing for our final assessment in this unit.
A Woman Alone
A Woman Alone (1977) was first performed by Italian, Franca Rame herself -one of the writers of the monologue (the other being her husband, Dario Fo). A Woman Alone, along with many other monologues, were written and performed in a time of intense political activity in Italy. It was also a radical time for Women's Rights in Italy, when the women's movement asserted itself in campaigns for the right to legal abortion, to divorce and for equal rights at home and work.
A Woman Alone is described by Franca Rame as being "about a housewife, who has everything", as is described in the script, "except the right to be treated by the men of the house as an individual, and respected as such, not only used as a sexual object and an unsalaried servant".
My first feelings after reading the script were ones of anger and sadness; if I was being assaulted and used by the men around me, I would probably be acting the same as The Woman. No person should be treated as a means to an end and all the men in the script treated her as a means to their own satisfaction and personal gain. And whilst it's an extreme example of how a woman's life can be so marred by these things, it can certainly resonate with any woman or even man, because no one deserves to be treated so horribly. It makes one think how lucky they are to have the life that they do have, and despite the fact that I do face some difficulties in this day and age as a woman, it's nothing as extreme as what is in the monologue.
In the introduction to their works (the Bloomsbury Methuen Drama print), it also mentions that Franca Rame was assaulted herself and left bleeding, alone in the streets. I think that this fact alone gives her the platform to write such an underlying sad, yet still poke at the absurdity of her situation --making the audience laugh. It seems in this monologue there's a 'if you don't laugh, you cry' philosophy. It's comical, but it almost makes you cringe and hate yourself for thinking it's funny.
Another thing I had to think about was the neighbor, who she is initially ranting to. At the beginning of the monologue it seems that she is speaking to someone, a new neighbor, and through this, the audience is placed in this new neighbor's position. Because we are in this position, it gives us permission to laugh at the absurdity of The Woman and her situation because how she portrays herself is so charismatic at first. However as the monologue continues and we learn more about The Woman, it takes a darker turn and this is where I question if the neighbor is even real. Is the neighbor only a figment of her imagination? Or is the neighbor there at first and eventually wanders off as The Woman rants to herself?
I take the opinion that the neighbor is completely a figment of her imagination -an hallucination that she conjures up to combat her loneliness and talk things out. After all, it is called A Woman Alone, and although she is not physically alone, why would someone watch a random woman be harassed by a bunch of men and listen to her story, without calling the police? Additionally, there's always the possibility that The Woman has a mental disability that causes her to hear voices and see things that aren't physically there (again, hallucinations). Considering her life story and her current situation, it's almost certain that this is the case.
Here are some performances found on YouTube of A Woman Alone, that I thought were helpful:
YouTube - A Woman Alone 1
YouTube - A Woman Alone 2
Our Progress
We were given an extract from the monologue, and it was explained to us that just like in Lunch, we would be playing the different aspects of one character, rather than separate characters. We would each play a separate element of The Woman's personality.
As a warm up, we were told to make three freeze frames portraying stereotypical females or how a woman 'should be' according to society. Our group came up with: a good mother, a housewife (cleaning and cooking), and a religious/moral/pious person. Our thinking was that traditionally (1950's idealism), women are meant to stay home, look after the children, clean the house all day, and have the dinner ready for her husband by the time he gets home from work. This is influenced many religions, which historically have copious amounts of authority on society. A Woman Alone challenges the stereotype that the man should be the head of the house, so isolating these stereotypes helped us choose the different elements of The Woman's personality.
We talked about how women were portrayed in the past and how they are currently portrayed in TV shows, etc. The Bechdel test came up briefly, which is a test which sheds light on gender portrayal in works of fiction. It generally requires three things: the work of fiction must have at least two women in it, who talk to each other -alone, and they have to talk about something besides a man. If it meets these requirements, the film or play is considered feminist and/or positively portrays women. In A Woman Alone however, ever problem that The Woman experiences is because of a man and additionally, there is the possibility that she is completely alone in the room -not even talking to her neighbor, but to herself the entire time. Therefore whilst A Woman Alone doesn't meet these feminist requirements, it's goal is still the same -to shed light on the treatment of women.
We discussed as a class the irony that women are often expected to be contradictory things. For example, how can a woman be expected achieve being sexy and innocent at the same exact time? Women are expected to be sexy, but not a slut...innocent, but not a prude. How can we possibly do anything sexual or non-sexual without being judged for our actions? I think it's unrealistic and unhealthy for anyone to think that we can find a perfect balance.
After having these discussions, we were given the first few pages of the script, which are pictured below. My group then decided what elements of The Woman we wished to portray and decided on:
- Bubbly (played by me), the uneducated woman who is excited and seemingly happy about everything -from cleaning constantly to being harassed by her brother in law- the perfect and innocent toy for any man
- Housewife (played by Megan), calm and collected, the housewife will look after the children and the home with quiet grace and dignity
- Sexy (played by Emily), incredibly horny, she stays in the bedroom at all times -ready and waiting at your beck and call- sexualise her and she'll be your object
- Psycho (played by Melody), this is The Woman's free will, screaming to be let out of her domestic cage, constantly disgusted by the other elements of her personality and how she is being treated -she is hurt, so she takes action
(In these pictures there have been no assigned lines for Sexy because we originally only had three characters, as that person wasn't there for the lesson.)
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