Performance Evaluation

Yesterday, we finished the performance of  'The Most Horrific' from our classes interpretation. I think the performance was a success for the most part & I learnt a lot throughout this term about Brecht & his techniques. We utilized music throughout to indicate transitions on stage & cause movement 'behind the scenes' during performance. This worked effectively, in my opinion, as it gave the real sense of environment that was being carried throughout the piece & how it was fixed together through this one device. I think it showed to me how with Brechtian work, all elements must somehow be cohesive in order for the piece to stay together. I also thought the labelling of character & then their creation on stage by just the labelling gave a real sense of abject action to the audience. Showing that the actors within the space only became the characters once the letter had been assigned to them. This always worked best when actors went more extreme with their characterisation &I tried to push myself in that respect to emphasise the language to be effective inside the character. This forced me to make definitive choices for how the representative group would act in my opinion (C & D) & what movements and vocal quality suited the character. There was a need for surface performance though, with no added depth or clarity throughout the course of the play as they remained consistent representations without any sort of transformation or objective change. I also found the reading of the stage directions from a stage hand very impressive as another form of removing the audience from the environment & having them evaluate the situation from an exterior point of view. The addition of having the audience reading out the final section of D as the rest of the performers were inside of the space was a gorgeous piece of direction. Making the audience consciously consider the issues one another were saying with the performers in a state of gestus culminated the piece perfectly. Showing that the issues raised are completely outside of the performance reality created & are relevant to every single person in the audience made the message as clear as it could be. Then the final dispersal of all D's from the space with A & B rounding the piece together sent the message we wanted to portray. The audience are the one's in control of the reality that we presented & change starts with them.

I thought that the something that could have been improved through performance would have been actors understanding & comprehending the issues they raise in line with their characters objectives. this would have raised the performance of the piece even higher than already set & made the message more definite. Overall, however, I was very pleased with the piece & can use everything learnt in this term to future effect in performance. The ensemble energy & passion throughout performance was fantastic, I was privileged to work with them & thankful I could perform with them in this Brechtian term.