May 23, 2017

Fragment Theatre Company was a new and exciting experience that tested and proved to be much more than I originally thought it could ever be. Though I set out with the idea of creating a piece of theatre with a group of friends, it developed into something beyond just purely rehearsals and performance. Though the rehearsal process wasn’t always as smooth as we had all initially anticipated, the creative differences we had as a group ultimately shaped the piece we created and encouraged us to produce something better than we thought we could.

Alexander Kelly, the co-artistic director of the theatre company Third Angel states that when setting up a theatre company the atmosphere and the member’s attitude has to have an element of fun. Though, keeping professional, he suggests ‘don’t let things get to you too much – build a good support team around you and give them responsibilities’ (Kelly, 2013). I feel Fragment has been a journey of learning for many of the members, not just a journey of learning new skills in how to set up a theatre company, but long lasting skills such as the power of social media, ways of getting involved in the community and cohesively working in groups in a professional and sociable manner.

Though our final performance had glitches, as most theatre companies experience on show day, the response from the audience encouraged us during the show and helped each actor bounce off the energy given resulting in the best version of Exit This Way we had done.

Going forward with Fragment Theatre Company, I feel there are many more ideas and concepts that could be created. However, if we were to tour with ‘Exit This Way’ or any other shows, we would have to evaluate the large set and amount of props that we used, as these would not be viable to tour with for quick get ins and get outs. However I believe with slight adjustments to the script and our aesthetic we would be able to keep creating thought-provoking metaphysical theatre appropriate for vast amounts of audience members.

Fragment Theatre Company, from the start to the end.

(Chattaway, 2017)

Works Cited:

Chattaway, A. (2017)

Kelly, A. (2013) The Guardian, 28 August. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/culture-professionals-blog/2013/aug/28/expert-tips-setting-up-theatre-company [Accessed on 23rd May 2017].

Failure ‘undermines the perceived stability of mainstream capitalist ideology’s preferred aspiration to achieve, succeed, or win and the accumulation of material wealth as proof and effect arranged by those aims’ (Bailes, 2011, 2). This perfectly captures one of fragments main aims to deliver the everyday story, one which is often lost within the ‘bigger’ stories portrayed by the mainstream media. We wanted to represent a realistic point of view of escapism, one which the everyday person faces, and this often means the representation of failure.

We furthermore wanted to portray humanity’s love of failure, this enjoyment of watching others fail is known as Schadenfreude (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2017). So why do we laugh at others? is it simply because it makes us feel better about ourselves, or is it something much darker such as a ‘release of aggresion’ such as freud believed – laughter “can often be an act of release of aggression when the individual is perceived as having some form of power over us, hence the slip being funnier the more powerful the slipper is” (Gray et al, 2009, 10). This idea of the enjoyment of failure was enhanced when we performed the show as the audience would laugh at inappropriate moments, and at the characters failings. After all ‘isn’t it just human nature…we love to watch people fail!’ (Fragment Theatre Company, 2017).

In ‘Exit This Way’ we represent this failure in various ways. This can be seen through the characters escapes all ending in disaster, as they realise the magic disappears once they snap back into their everyday lives. Furthermore each section ends unresolved with the characters giving up or being cut off. This can be seen clearly through the presentation of Alice’s internal battle between fantasy and reality and her ensuing breakdown, and also clearly in Ben’s performance as he can’t use his escape to achieve his goals as its not socially acceptable.

Citations

Bailes, S, (2011) Performance theatre and the poetics of failure. Abingdon: Routledge.

Gray, J. Jones, J. and Thompson, E. (2009) Satire TV: Politics and comedy in the Post-Network Era. New York: New York University Press.

Oxforddictionaries.com. (2017) Definition of Schadenfreude. [online] Available from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/schadenfreude [accessed 20 May 2017].

Day: May 23, 2017

The End of Fragment Theatre Company?

Failure, a guilty pleasure?