Posted on No Comments on How Do You End a Postdramatic Show?

How Do You End a Postdramatic Show?

A challenge we have recently faced whilst creating our show, which has now been titled Exit This Way, is how to end it. As the show has developed, we have become aware that it can be classed as postdramatic or postmodern. By this, I mean to say that our show fits into the theatre that Hans-Thies Lehmann ‘identifies as postdramatic [as it] […] focuses on exploring the usually unacknowledged anxieties, pressures, pleasures paradoxes and perversities that surround the performance situation as such’ (Jürs-Munby, 2006, 4). For this reason, we were adamant that the ending could not be generic. For example, an early idea for the ending of our piece was to have Rob and Brodie switch the lights off on stage and then start cleaning the stage space. When we became aware that our piece was showing aspects of postdramatic theatre, we knew that our ending needed to change. This is when we had a discussion as a company where everyone had their say on how the show should end. One of these ideas was to have every member of the company interviewed about how they think the show should end and for these interviews to be played on the TV screens that are scattered around our stage as part of our set. Hearing all these ideas from the ten different voices of our company coupled with this idea of interviews is what formed the ending to our show.

We wanted to ensure every member of the company played a part in the ending so I organised for a friend of mine, Jack Kirsop, on the Media Production course here at the University of Lincoln to film the interviews for us on Sunday 7th May which he then edited for us too. Here is an example of one of the interviews.

Video of my interview that played at the end of  Exit This Way (Workman, 2017)

We thought that to just play the interviews one after the other would get repetitive and boring, but also that it seemed too final. For this reason, we decided to have some of the interviews play through, then start having multiple interviews playing on different TV screens at the same time which would end in a cacophony of our voices which the audience would then walk out to when the house lights would eventually come up, with the interviews still playing. This fits in with the postdramatic feel of our show as it is us, as company members, talking as part of the show, about the show. We feel as though this is a ‘deep and thoughtful ending to a metaphysical piece on the world of escapism and human nature’ (Anthony and Atkinson, 2017).

Works Cited

Anthony, R. and Atkinson, B. (2017) Exit This Way [live performance]. Performed by Fragment Theatre Company. Lincoln: Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, 19 May.

Jürs-Munby, K. (2006) Introduction. In: H. T. Lehmann Postdramatic theatre. Oxon: Routledge.

Workman, L. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company Interview – Lucy – Exit This Way [onilne video]. Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie6I4YAQJaI [accessed 29 May 2017]

Posted on No Comments on Influences and Developments?

Influences and Developments?

Whilst developing ideas and the story of our show, we discovered that the script was becoming more metaphysical than originally expected. This is because we decided it would be interesting to have all characters on stage at all times being themselves and then every time a section was picked so would an actor to portray the character in that scene. This contributed to the game show style that we wanted to portray as it suggests that each actor is a contestant on the game show who gets chosen for the chance to win.

Metaphysical theatre is the ‘physical fact of spectators watching the performer who is in the same room, while, there was also the sense that fictional spaces [are] being created’ (Power, 2008, 3). This is present in Exit This Way as both the actors and the audience know that there is a show happening and the characters that are introduced are fictional and don’t identify with them as they would in a conventional play.

Due to this idea, and after talking to the technicians regarding the set of the show, we decided to use a scaffolding type cage at the back of the stage and two smaller roasters at the front. This created an interesting allusion as the 5 actors on stage were placed under the cage at the back whilst being controlled by the two hosts. The messy style setting of the aesthetic also gradually got more and more chaotic throughout the course of the show which symbolised the failure and deterioration we wanted to show through our theme.

First Sets  Initial designs of our set designed using TinkerCad software.

(Goddard, 2017)

 

 

Last SetsFinal designs of our set after developments exploring metatheatre

(Goddard, 2017)

 

Show day set

Photos of the final set on tech day

(Goddard, 2017)

This idea was also shown through the costumes we ultimately decided to use. We all had matching t-shirts with our logo and production role on them for fundraising purposes that we wore as part of marketing our show. Consequently, we decided to use these in the actual performance to emphasise the fact that the actors were themselves. As we wanted to make it obvious that we were ourselves, we added personal touches such as our hairstyles and coloured shoes that symbolised our personalities as the show had a personal element about it.

During the creation of each character throughout, we used the technique of layering the costumes on the actor. This creates the allusion the actor is now some form of character, and makes it apparent to the audience they are now not playing themselves. The audience are always aware that though the actor’s t-shirt is masked by a costume, simultaneously the actor is masked by a character and both the character and costume are easily removed at any time during the performance.

Along with metaphysical elements, our show also held a strong post-dramatic sense throughout. A post-dramatic piece of theatre is the idea of a performance that displays ‘the breakdown of dramatic conventions’ (Lehmann, 2006, 1), and one of the main themes throughout ‘Exit This Way’ is this prevalent idea of failure and deconstruction. This was an idea I wanted to show through the set of our show as we wanted to portray this world that looked like it had been made during the show, and letting the audience watch this development or deterioration allows them to understand the positive and negative influences that escapism can have on someone.

group 3

An example of the final costumes

(Odonnell, 2017)

 

 

 

Works Cited:

Goddard, C. (2017)

Lehmann, H,T. (2006) Postdramatic Theatre. Oxon, Routledge. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=63KBAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Postdramatic+Theatre&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Postdramatic%20Theatre&f=false [Accessed on 1st April 2017].

Odonnell, S. (2017) Fragment Theatre Company. Lincoln: SO Photography.

Power, C. (2008) Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre. Rodopi. Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MbJzjYU10TsC&pg=PA135&dq=metaphysical+theatre&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=metaphysical&f=false [Accessed on 1st April 2017].