Introduction to Experimental

To begin we had to walk along a grid, helping to instil initial focus, by making us spatially aware of the others in the room, and it also highlighted an interesting way to move around the space. Then told that what we most desired was at the end of it, it gave us an objective to focus on, distracting us from our thoughts and making the movement more natural. Similarly the use of music helped to stop our brains from thinking too much about the task at hand, which as well as creating truthful movement also set up an acceptance of the later tasks and a willingness to attempt them without becoming too self-conscious.

The music helped to create a faster pace too, me believing that this aided Sarah’s wishes for us to work harder as it made me walk and an energised speed that increased my heart rate, consequently giving me energy to fulfil this.

The next task was knee fights, where having to touch your partners knees gave you something to focus on. As Sarah told us to work harder, the more focus we gained and we stopped over thinking it, making the movement more natural and animalistic. I found that when Georgia was able to hit behind my knees it spurred me to become more competitive, making me more determined to win and encouraging more focus.

We then pretended to been fishing which I found helped encourage the use of tension in my body. Exploring the different levels of tension is something Artaud wanted to explore often referring to seven levels of tension. I find that by exploring these different levels you find new ways to use your body as well as improving physical limits.

The task "lover trying to leave" task gave you an objective to focus on helping you not to think. It therefore became more instinctive. Every time we were asked to work harder, it became more difficult because having two contrasting objectives meant that it wasn't only myself increasing the intensity. I found that when Olivia held me in an incredibly tight grasp I began to panic slightly at the idea of not being able to move. This evoked natural, instinctive emotions which encouraged me to work even harder and almost build up with adrenaline. It made the movements more animalistic and created a raw emotion. However we could not push it too far and completely forget where we were because it was constantly in my mind not to injure one another.

We next began by doing alphabet boxes which I found gave me new ways to move my body, finding movements that could be interesting for future devising, therefore a useful devising method. 

Once I knew where the letters were it became a lot easier and you could move without having to think, your body just reacting to the music.

This task was repeated but in groups which I found was slightly easier as you could react of the other peoples movements and respond. As well as using their bodies to reach your letters which I found gave me more interesting way to move so I wasn't thinking as much as I had been when doing it solo, therefore making it more natural. Again it could also help group devising tasks in the future for physical theatre work.

Being in the dark with our eyes closed meant that there were no fears of people judging you so you could just react to the music. I did find it difficult not to think about what I was doing at points. I was more cautious of hitting or getting hit by someone which did restrict some of my movement.

Artaud heavily relies on music as a basis of his work, often using it as a stimulus for pieces and movements which I think he does because it helps keep a tempo for movement and ensembles in time, as well as encouraging actors to not get distracted by their thoughts. I think we did it in order to become more comfortable with allowing our bodies to move in different ways to what we are used to without the fear of others judging us. It also helps us become more instinctive and work naturally with moving to music.

We read Artaud’s play "A Spurt Of Blood" and initially I was excited as I've seen an A-level production of it, however I was confused because I hadn't previously realised how open to interpretation the script was. I found myself wondering how difficult it might be to have to produce the play, although I feel as though with the openness of the script you could do nearly anything which poses both pros and cons. It may be difficult to pick one idea from the many that you might've found, however it also means that you can’t get anything because it is so open and bizarre.

I got the impression that the play was an exaggerated portrayal of society and the stereotypical characters that we see were heightened to the maximum.

After briefly acting out the play, to get an idea of what it’s about, we chose to a small section to perform in detail, being asked to consider music, sound, lighting etc. My group chose to focus on Artaud's stage direction “He hides his face in horror. A multitude of scorpions crawl out from beneath the Wet-Nurse's dress and swarm between her legs. Her vagina swells up splits and becomes transparent and glistening like a sun. The Young Man and Bawd run off as though lobotomized”. I had the idea to perform in darkness, the audience also closing their eyes so that they would be completely unaware of what was going to happen. It also restricted their senses, heightening others and making them more cautious. This linked to Artaud's ideas that there would be a greater effect on the audience if they had to imagine what was happening because work can often be limited by the restrictions of what the actors can show. We then created a sound scape of whispers, insect type noises to give the impressions of the scorpions. We also chose to blow across their necks, gently scratching and touching them because from previous experience it makes people uncomfortable which is a exaggerating the reaction we'd had to reading it. The scratching was also able to imitate the feel of cockroaches scurrying about.This all showed Artaud's theory to assault the senses which I find is often more memorable for audiences because breaking the fourth wall between actors and audience isn't that common within "typical" theatre. 

I thought what we did was successful as it helped us make the audience feel vulnerable. However I found that the lack of focus from the audience slightly ruined the tension, as well as some audience members not following what we'd asked and not closing their eyes, this meant that they didn’t get the full effect.

As an audience member I found the use of loud music in some of the pieces was disorientating, adding to the effect which made me feel vulnerable. The darkness also helped to heighten senses, aided by the loud music I it was unnerving to not know what was going on and fear of the unknown.