Saturday, 5 April 2014

'Lovesong' Frantic Assembly

As part of my research I have watched 'Love Song' by Frantic Assembly (Digital theatre). I know that we particularly like the style this company works in- physical theatre! From watching the trailer and deducing from the title I thought this piece might be relevant - as it portrays a couple (past and present) telling the stories of their life together.

Storyline:
A man and woman, caught in a maze of memories, tells the story of a marriage through the recollections – wistful and bitter – of an elderly couple, one of whom is about to die. Their young selves are also on stage: the two couples weave between each other, their words and movements plaiting together to make a lifetime.

I have picked out moments which i thought we may be able to use within our own performance!

1) there is a moment where the older man is speaking about his past, he stands aside as his younger self and younger wife run onto stage ( they surround him and perform whilst he is there, yet the younger couple are unaware of his presence as this is a just a memory/ flashback projected from within the old mans mind).

This 'old man' could be Claudio - as he talks about Hero, the other characters on stage or cast could enter the stage - acting out his memory. Considering that we only have one male in our group we can't really use two Claudio's. However there are ways to problem solve: either one of us could play a male or we could play Hero as a choral character. She could talk and respond as though he's there (she can see him yet the audience can't). Another idea could be that Claudio is present within his own flashbacks- that he talks and responds to a hero that is only present in his mind.

2) there was use of video and animation- this worked well when showing flashbacks (could be another solution for us) and when showing events that physically could not take place on stage e.g. Travelling to another county.

3) there was another moment where the older couple opened the wardrobe ( in their bedroom) and the younger couple ran out - as a transition (the older couple go inside). And continued talking the same speech e.g. The older couple would finish with a sentence that the younger couple would pick up and turn into a relevant situation or topic from the past.

As mentioned in the lesson evaluations, we wanted to use the wardrobe in a similar way. Perhaps this could be part of Claudio's flashback (not just in the bedroom scene). Perhaps when he is packing to leave, he could open the wardrobe and Hero comes out with her 'partner' or talking to Claudio as if he's there - as another flashback.

4) in a similar way, the older couple and younger couple (flashbacks) could interact. For example, there was a moment where the younger and older woman did a duet - the older woman remembering what it was like to be young and reconnecting with her younger self. Also, the younger woman and older man did a duet- he was remembering how she used to be, her youth, beauty and innocence and reminiscing of his past.

We could take this idea so that Claudio can both interact and watch his flashbacks- there could be moments where he physically touches and can talk to Hero or moments where he watches 'himself' and Hero interact.

The flashbacks could represent the Hero of present and Hero of past (could be two different choral groups - three could represent who she is now/ how Claudio made her and three could represent who she was before/ young, innocent, happy, naive).

5) I loved their physical theater dance on the table to represent love- perhaps this could be used in the bed scene. There was also different uses of the bed in dances- people were entering from behind and in between the mattress- we could explore with this to see how we could use the bed creatively and not just using the obvious entrances and exits.

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