Vocabulary: The vocabulary in Decadence spells out words the way they are sounded, For example, "Shuch." Also, Berkoff uses old- fashioned language, "I'll make you see just how wondrous thou art to me."
Syntax: The structure of the phrases and sentences is that they're very short, to keep intensity and makes it more sinister.
Images: By telling the stories of the murders allows the interpreter to see in their head as they are reading along, they can imagine who and what they are doing.
Speech Patterns: We don't talk in any accents , only the fact that we talk a lot more clearly. The only dialect we use is what is used in the play. For example, "Cor, blimey."
Sound of dialogue: The rapidity of our interpretation is very quick and fast paced. In the sense of intensity, we over- exaggerate a lot of what we say to sound sinister.
Structure of dialogue: Decadence is structured with no given pauses and is up to the interpreter to who says what. Berkoff has set the play out in one full paragraph. He uses forward slashes to split up sentences as there is no punctuation what so ever included in the play.
Friday, 23 November 2012
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Berkoff: Interpretation
Directoral Analysis and conception: Our interpretation is that we only have two people on throughout the whole extract of the play. We start sitting within the audience and Michelle's first line, "Cor, Blimey!" is said to the member of the audience sat next to her. I then deliver the next line and we both stand up and begin to act out each murder.
We decided to have each line spoken quite over- exaggerated, as it represents how much we loved one person, that we were prepared to kill him because of the mistake he made.
The only props we use are the chairs we sit on at the beginning and the audience. We are also undecided on whether to use fake blood to splatter onto the audience.
Our costumes are very minimalist, like the prop choice. We decided on this because we thought it would be a good contradiction to the over- exaggerated line delivery. Our costumes include wearing all black, whether that be a dress or trousers and a top, but it will have to be completely plain, so the audience's attention is 100% on the acting. We're not sure whether to have one person in black and the other in white, or someone in black and the other in red. We're thinking to use white because the white will show purity and innocence and the black would show evil and darkness, which represent the character's, seeming innocent on the outside, but evil on the inside. This also applies for the red, however the red would represent danger and blood.
We chose to have the set so the audience would be in a scattered semi- circle and nothing else on stage and we would mime if we needed any props.
The lighting for our interpretation will remain the same throughout. It will be quite dull, but bright enough for the audience to clearly make out the performance. Berkoff tended to use spotlights a lot in his performances, but as we are moving a lot in our performance, the spotlights would need to follow us around and that would be too much for the audience to concentrate.
We won't be using any special effects as Berkoff never used any form of special effects in his plays or performances as it would distract the audience from the acting.
We decided to have each line spoken quite over- exaggerated, as it represents how much we loved one person, that we were prepared to kill him because of the mistake he made.
The only props we use are the chairs we sit on at the beginning and the audience. We are also undecided on whether to use fake blood to splatter onto the audience.
Our costumes are very minimalist, like the prop choice. We decided on this because we thought it would be a good contradiction to the over- exaggerated line delivery. Our costumes include wearing all black, whether that be a dress or trousers and a top, but it will have to be completely plain, so the audience's attention is 100% on the acting. We're not sure whether to have one person in black and the other in white, or someone in black and the other in red. We're thinking to use white because the white will show purity and innocence and the black would show evil and darkness, which represent the character's, seeming innocent on the outside, but evil on the inside. This also applies for the red, however the red would represent danger and blood.
We chose to have the set so the audience would be in a scattered semi- circle and nothing else on stage and we would mime if we needed any props.
The lighting for our interpretation will remain the same throughout. It will be quite dull, but bright enough for the audience to clearly make out the performance. Berkoff tended to use spotlights a lot in his performances, but as we are moving a lot in our performance, the spotlights would need to follow us around and that would be too much for the audience to concentrate.
We won't be using any special effects as Berkoff never used any form of special effects in his plays or performances as it would distract the audience from the acting.
Thursday, 1 November 2012
Berkoff: Decadence
Once we had got a general understanding of Metamorphosis and how Steven Berkoff writes and acts, we were given an extract from the script, Decadence. In a previous lesson, we watched the Year 11's perform Sarah Kaine's Crave. Crave has an extremely similar layout to Decadence. Decadence however, was written before Sarah Kaine wrote Crave. Both Decadence and Crave are both set out with no stage directions or anything, only slashes between sentences, to break the script up.
We were given the opportunity to pick our partners and I chose to work with Michelle as I thought we could have our own creative interpretation of Decadence. Our take on decadence is that we are the same person, who loved a man, who betrayed them and now they are planning revenge on him and thinking of all the different ways to kill him. Michelle plays the more evil and dark side of the character, who wants revenge and I play the guilty side of the character and still loves him and doesn't want to kill him as much as Michelle's side of this character. We decided that in the end, the lights would go down and the last scene is me laying on the floor, "dead," where the side of me that wanted revenge got the better of me.
We wanted our performance to be very different from the other groups. We decided to have our audience in a scattered semi-circle, with another behind them and another depending on how many people we will perform for (despite not being examined on the final, polished performance, we decided as a class to perform for people.)
We also wanted to break the fourth wall and really involve the audience. We haven't decided yet whether we want to focus on different members on the audience or on one particular member, therefore they would be the "lover" that we plot against. To help break the fourth wall, we decided that at the beginning of the piece, we would be sat opposite each other, in the audience. To which we begin our lines, "Cor, Blimey!" "Shh! You're putting me off!," we decided that Michelle would say the first line to the member of the audience who is sitting next to her and I would reply, like she is disrupting the performance, to which the audience will be very confused because there is no performance on stage yet.
For our makeup, we decided that for Michelle we would have white face makeup and use black to hollow out our faces and I would have the same but with red features. We decided to do this because we wanted to show the personalities of our characters. As Michelle's is very violent and dangerous and mine is very calm and collected. For our costume we decided to both dress in all black or Michelle would be in all black and I would be in red, including costume makeup.
We were given the opportunity to pick our partners and I chose to work with Michelle as I thought we could have our own creative interpretation of Decadence. Our take on decadence is that we are the same person, who loved a man, who betrayed them and now they are planning revenge on him and thinking of all the different ways to kill him. Michelle plays the more evil and dark side of the character, who wants revenge and I play the guilty side of the character and still loves him and doesn't want to kill him as much as Michelle's side of this character. We decided that in the end, the lights would go down and the last scene is me laying on the floor, "dead," where the side of me that wanted revenge got the better of me.
We wanted our performance to be very different from the other groups. We decided to have our audience in a scattered semi-circle, with another behind them and another depending on how many people we will perform for (despite not being examined on the final, polished performance, we decided as a class to perform for people.)
We also wanted to break the fourth wall and really involve the audience. We haven't decided yet whether we want to focus on different members on the audience or on one particular member, therefore they would be the "lover" that we plot against. To help break the fourth wall, we decided that at the beginning of the piece, we would be sat opposite each other, in the audience. To which we begin our lines, "Cor, Blimey!" "Shh! You're putting me off!," we decided that Michelle would say the first line to the member of the audience who is sitting next to her and I would reply, like she is disrupting the performance, to which the audience will be very confused because there is no performance on stage yet.
For our makeup, we decided that for Michelle we would have white face makeup and use black to hollow out our faces and I would have the same but with red features. We decided to do this because we wanted to show the personalities of our characters. As Michelle's is very violent and dangerous and mine is very calm and collected. For our costume we decided to both dress in all black or Michelle would be in all black and I would be in red, including costume makeup.
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