Practioners - Berkoff & Beckett

28/09/17

Today we got into groups of four and we had the task of choosing a fairy tale and telling this story to the class in the style of either Steven Berkoff or Samuel Beckett. In my group we chose the fairy tale 'Alice in Wonderland' and chose the style of Berkoff.

Steven Berkoffs style of theatre is physical theatre. Physical theatre shows that you don't have to use words to express ideas. It uses techniques such as movement, mime, gesture and dance. Berkoffian actors use techniques such as background movement, repetitive actions, and mime to explore further the ways in which Berkoff approaches exchanges between two characters. Berkoff said that it was important “to see how I could bring mime together with the spoken word as its opposite partner, creating the form and structure of the piece” and also stated that the only purpose of a script is to help “minimalise and physicalise” the story.

We started our piece with three of us hanging over 'Alice' with our hands to represent the trees in the forest. I then acted as the rabbit who spoke and ran across the forest in a hurry as I state ''I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!" in a high pitched tone. I then switch to slow motion as Alice follows behind me to create a curiosity for the audience as this is how Alice is feeling towards the rabbit. We then used two characters to create a circle which was the rabbit hole in which I dive into and Alice follows. We then all spun around in a circle around Alice to show she was in a wonderland and each of us represented a house object and portrayed this with our bodies. I enacted a clock and used my arms to show the hands ticking around, another character represented a chair and squatted into a shape to be sat on and another character was a cupboard; opening and closing with their hands. In the next scene, we all created a roof over Alice who spotted a cookie on the floor. We all chanted with a fast pace ''Eat me.. eat me ... eat me" which created a tense atmosphere as Alice grabs the cookie. She then grew tall and we showed this by Alice trying to stand but as the roof engulfing her we pushed her back down. Alice then started to cry very emotionally, to the point she was drowning in her own tears which we showed by having "whooshing" noises and swaying our hands as waves. Alice then notices a drink, so she points as we say in a slower tone "Drink me.. drink me.. drink me" which was effective as the whisper lured the audience and Alice in. After Alice returns to her normal self she passes flowers which we represented with our arms as petals and swaying from side to side. As Alice  skips past and using our hands to open and close our petals we each commented in a squeaky voice ''Go away your not a flower" and Alice runs off. We then transitioned into the next scene, in which I was the house of cards painting vigorously with big motions and Kojo is also painting with me. We skip around in a circle singing "We must paint the roses for the Queen, we must quote the roses for the Queen before she beheads us!" We used big hands gestures and skipped around with a lot of energy to show how eager we were to complete our task. Alice then arrives and asks to join in and we allow her to. We then notice the Queen walks in and we all bow to the floor and start banging the floor to create a suspense as the Queen questions the paint on the roses. We all point to each other to blame one another and then finally we all blame Alice. Kojo and I then say "Let's get her!" in slow motion whilst pointing and Alice and continue to chase her in exaggerated slow motion to create a suspense for the audience. Alice falls on the floor back to her position that we began with, with her book in her lap and we all gather around her as the trees. She then states: "It was all just a dream!".
I enjoyed using slow motion to create tension and using big gestures to create a fun and enthusiastic atmosphere. We then asked the audience to guess which style we had done and they guessed Steven Berkoff which was correct and they stated that the techniques used to give it away to the audience were the use of exaggerated movement and big gestures. Also using ourselves as actors to be objects such as the ticking clock and talking flowers!

We then had to retell the story using Samuel Beckett's techniques. This is based on being vocal and telling a story through the use of words and minimalistic movement. Samuel Beckett also uses the  Stream of Consciousness which is a method of narration that describes in words the flow of thoughts in the minds of the characters. With all these factors in mind, we all sat on the floor around each other and told a part of the story, really concentrating on the words used to create a picture story in the audiences head. It was important to be concise and keep the story simple yet still relaying the story. I found this style difficult as I enjoy using movement to tell a story and prefer to see the story visually and I felt restricted to just my voice, however I can also see how this style is powerful to some audiences as they can create their own image in their imaginations.