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.