I am very happy with how our performance went. I think all the research I did about the BNP and like-minded people really helped affect the piece positively. It had a lot of contribution towards my characterisation as I understood the kinds of people who take part in these parties. I played the role a BNP supporter. We didn't stick to the character names on the script as we did a lot of editing of the script. I also played the guitar and lead the song that we performed. For me, I achieved a lot artistically. Firstly, playing the song live and it being a part of the scene was very different to anything I've done before, as I did have to interact with the audience during it. Additionally, performing a piece where I had to react with delight when a whole load of crude, racist jokes are said which was also a first, and quite difficult because it's not something that I personally agree with at all so the fact that I had to react in that way proved to be quite a difficult task, however, I think I did a good job of it. As an actor, this is the furthest out of my comfort zone I have ever been and I think that was a very big artistic achievement.
I think our piece definitely made an impact on our audience. We achieved this by using the racist jokes in the script to start off the entire piece. This inflicted shock onto the audience straight away. It was also a good example of Brecht's vefremdungseffekt. We distance the audience by using dialogue that is taboo and it would make them feel uncomfortable. At the same time as distancing them from the world of the play, in the same way we brought them closer to it by involving them as an observer, and making them be part of the scene by interacting with them. It also would have made an impact as people who do not know much about the BNP would have gained knowledge about the party and their beliefs.
Overall, a strength of our piece would be how engraining it was for an audience. I spoke to audience members afterwards and many of them expressed how shocked they were to be hearing such awful things and they have never experienced that before. That really shows that our piece was thought-provoking. Although our piece was not supposed to be too entertaining, we added some comic moments in which I hope the audience interacted with well.
To make our piece better, we could have spent more time on the last part of the scene where there is more dialogue and we use more of the script we got given. I feel like some of it was quite slow especially as some lines were dropped by a couple of people. I don't think the audience picked up on that however.
After all our pieces were shared. We then asked the audience what issue they felt stood out to them and whether they would be willing to do something about it, and if so, what they would do. Here are some of their responses:
Ones that particularly stand out to me is the one that talks about incorporating these issues into a theatre piece of their own. This is particularly inspiring as being able to inspire someone else to go and create a piece that is similar to ours is really rewarding. Another particularly powerful one was in response to the final piece of work that was shared: "To make my dark friends feel beautiful." It was precisely what the piece was trying to provoke and did so perfectly.
Born: 11 February, 1898-1956 Birthplace: Augsburg, Germany Occupation: Poet and Dramatist Education: He studied sciences, medicine and literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, however he had to take a break in his studies to join the army. Brecht was almost expelled from school in 1915 for writing an essay in response to "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" from the Roman poet Horace, calling it Zweckpropaganda (cheap propaganda for a specific purpose)
Early in his life, Brecht's home life was comfortably middle class, despite what his occasional attempt to claim peasant origins implied.
In the 1920s, Brecht met his second wife Helene Weigel in Berlin.
Brecht worked as a medic in the first world war in a medical hospital
Married multiple times but has also has several mistresses (including Carola Neher and Helene Weigel)
He was forced to flee Nazi Germany after the Reichstag fire and went to Prague, Vienna, Switzerland and Denmark. The Nazis prohibited the playing of some of his works, and arrested some of his friends.
EPIC THEATRE
Epic theatre was a kind of Theatre invented by Bertolt Brecht. Epic theatre was different to dramatic theatre. In dramatic theatre (naturalistic), the audience cared about the life of the characters on stage. They are cathartic. Brecht was against cathartic theatre as he believed if an audience got too emotionally involved, they wouldn't be able to think and judge as effectively. He wanted them to keep them from emotional judgement so they could make rational judgements about any social comment or issue raised in his plays. He used different methods such as breaking the fourth wall and the verfremdungseffekt.
Here are some differences between Epic Theatre and Dramatic Theatre:
Dramatic theatre implicates the spectator in a stage situation, but Epic theatre turns the spectator into an observer, so they are involved in the performance.
Dramatic theatre is a mere suggestion, Epic theatre is an argument.
In dramatic theatre, the character is unalterable however in epic theatre, the character is alterable and able to alter.
Dramatic theatre shows growth, but epic theatre shows a montage
In today's lesson, we did more work on our Debating Chamber piece. Last week we made a lot of decisions on how our scene would go in its basic form. Our piece is from the play A Day at the Racists by Anders Lustagarten. It focuses on people who are involved in BNP party in East London.
Most of the character research I did is most likely not going to be used in our piece as we have devised a lot of stuff off script. Our piece starts with a stand up comedy skit performed by Amaia and me and the other people in the group are the audience. Amaia is saying racist jokes in her piece which are in the script. I am acting as an audience member who is enjoying it. After this stand up piece we go to a pub where we sing the song "A Whole Lot of Loving" by Beans On Toast, which is a contrast to the rest of the piece as it talks about inclusivity and not hating immigrants (which is the side of the BNP that we portray in this piece). Live music was also a very popular Brechtian technique so this fits in nicely with our piece and the themes.
We then go into a scene in a pub where we use some text from the script. We used a technique where we have a repeated motif throughout the scene. For this scene it is all of us drinking a beer in time with each other. We have also tried to use archetypes for our characterisation which is a popular Brechtian technique.
Here is some research about the play we are studying: "A Day at the Racists is a brave piece of political theatre. It both attempts to understand why people might be drawn to the BNP and diagnoses a deeper cause of that attraction: the political abandonment and betrayal of the working class by New Labour" - Drama Online The main themes explored in this play:
Immigration
Racism
Extreme political views
I was looking at the BNP (British National Party) website and one of the most shocking things I saw was this banner:
It is insinuating that if you vote for the BNP party, they believe it will stop white people being a minority ethnic group, basically saying that they will stop immigrants from entering the country.
I also found this video: It shows footage of a BNP lead, anti-mosque protest. The first thing said by a protester in this video is: "Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-white".
In another video, the BNP party are also seen presenting Nazi paraphernalia at a protest outside Lunar House, the Home Office for UK visas and immigration. People are seen doing Nazi salutes.
Now obviously, a play isn't going to be able to take down the BNP single handedly, however what it can do is expose the gulf between the party's emollient tactics and its extremist views.
Anders Lustgarten - The Evening Standard
The evening standard did an interview with Lustgarten, he talks about this play and here are some quotes I found interesting:
“People try to make this point by asking politicians about the price of milk. But it’s not really about facts. It’s about understanding what people tick, their reasons for failure. You can only push the model that we are rational individualists who make rational choices when you haven’t seen people fail. It’s important in whatever field of life to have dirty feet.”
He became involved in political activism, “partly because I think if something’s wrong, you should do something about it - and partly because I want to learn new things all the time.”
“If I had come to theatre through the conventional middle class road, I would never have had any interest in it,” he concedes. “My mum took me to a David Hare play for my 18th birthday and I was sat there thinking: ‘WHAT is this?’” His features contort in disgust. “I didn’t go again for another 10 years.”
When people try to do something political, they usually start thinking either in terms of politicians – the most uninteresting group of people imaginable – or an abstract intellectual idea. But all the good political art to me is people writing about the world around them, and then seeing where it comes from.” (I love this one!)
“Doing something is better than nothing. Always. You need to stand your ground.” - ANDERS LUSTGARTEN
WHAT IS POLITICAL THEATRE AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?
For me, political theatre is a piece of theatre that explores a current social, economical or political issue. It isn't always necessarily about politics to do with government and power, it can be to do with a range of social issues and that is what is so brilliant about it. It means a lot to me as a young actor to be given a chance to really be able to explore the world of political theatre because as someone who doesn't have any choice in anything political, it is useful to be able to express an opinion, and find out a lot more about how you feel about certain issues that you normally wouldn't have a say in.
