Lesson 4 (Political Protest Evaluation) - 22.11.16

Today we had our Political Protest performances. My group created our piece on the mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners/patients. Our piece consisted of me playing a guard, and 5 others as patients, each with a different mental illness showing how they would be affected by mistreatment. On our costumes we had statistics written to really engrain the horrific unjust. We also used some brechtian techniques such as breaking the fourth wall. Some of our statistics were:

• 49% of Women and 23% of Men have anxiety and depression in prisons
• 40% of facilities regarding mental health are understaffed.
• 40% of women experience an eating disorder during their stay in British prisons

I feel like this research really helped affect the piece as it was very relevant. It helped engage the audience and I think it was very engraining. Here is some research about the different kinds of protests there are:

SIT IN - Remaining in one place, refusing to move. People do this sometimes to protest against the removing of nature reserves or people against the war in Iraq.

MARCHING - Walking in groups from one place to another, usually with signs. This has been done by students who protest about the raising of University fees.

BOYCOTTING - Refusing to do business/deal with a certain company. Some activists boycott certain shops in protest against sweatshops or child labour. Some in protest against the mistreatment of animals.

STRIKING - Workers refusing to go to work. Southern trains employees strike all the time. 

Our performance went very well and I feel that we definitely had an engaging performance both informatively and entertainment wise. It is quite difficult when approaching a sensitive subject to not take the real message out of it when putting it into a performance, and I think that amongst the carnage and entertaining violence, there was a really important message about how mentally ill prisoners and patients aren't given the treatment needed to function or progress with recovering to be a fully functioning member of society. 

There was one moment where I heard one of the audience members ask "What do you want me to do about it?" which made me think as I didn't really have an answer for that question,  however, I feel like that's the question we were trying to provoke, as at this moment in time it doesn't have an answer.
To make our piece better we could have maybe made our loop longer, as we managed to get a larger audience stay for longer, which was not what we expected. We also could have maybe had more statistics and facts scattered around as our piece have been unclear to some people, or may not have provided the relevant information just in the physical performance.
For me, artistically I achieved some important things. This was my first ever piece of political theatre I have created and performed. You learn a lot from yourself about how to be sensitive towards the subject. As a an actual theatre product, I don't think that this could be something easily put on a stage as the storyline is very simple and I don't think you would be able to stretch out what we have to fit a full on production.

We also did some rehearsing for our debating chamber performance. My group are using the playscript from "A Day at the Racists" by Anders Lustgarten. We looked at incorporating live music into it and will be using the song "A Whole Lot of Loving" by Beans On Toast, in a pub scene. We are also deciding to use a stand up comedy routine using racist jokes. We will develop this piece further next week. We also discussed the placement of the song and we are unsure of where to put the song as the lyrics are very relevant:

"A WHOLE LOT OF LOVING" - BEANS ON TOAST

Don't blame the immigrants,

The poor, or the unemployed,

These are not the ones who are to blame.

The country's fucked that's obvious,

by the swan song of the NHS,

but the flood warnings came long before the rain.

And it's in these times of trouble,

that fascism rears it's head,

and the UK Independence Party are just the BNP in a different dress

They're still the same old homophobic racists as before,

They're probably sending junk mail full of hate to your front door,

and they've got,

billboards on the high street, telling you you should be scared,

'cause these evil motherfuckers, they capitalise on your fear.

But I'm not worried about the worries of the world anymore,

I'm gonna get in the jacuzzi,

I wish that everybody would just chill the fuck out,

And get busy, being happy

We need a spiritual revolution, I believe you Russell Brand,

We need food and we need shelter, friends and family at hand,

And apart from that we don't need nothing,

except a whole lot of loving

Well the NASA think tanks think,

that we will fall just like the romans did,

and other civilisations before them that are now extinct.

The well runs out, the fuel runs dry,

there's not enough food to feed us all

our leaders blindly lead us,

claiming it's business as usual

while saving up the scraps for themselves,

until the shit falls off the shelves

Well I'm not worried about the worries of the world anymore,

I'm gonna chill in the jacuzzi,

I wish everybody would just chill the fuck out,

and get busy, being happy

We need a spiritual revolution, I believe you Russell Brand,

We need food and we need shelter,

friends and family at hand

And apart from that we don't need nothing,

except a whole lot of loving

And apart from that, we don't need nothing,

except a whole lot of loving.

I did a little bit of character research before we started devising. Here is what I found out.

PETE: White, 50s, Supports labour party, used to work in a factory, now works as a painter/decorator.

MARK: Pete's son, 20s, likes football, vain, also a painter/decorator

GINA: Young, asian, involved in politics.

We are not 100% sure on whether we will use this research to influence our performance at all but it was a good starting point while researching the play.