As we are producing a completely original piece of theatre we do not have the security of performing a well known play, which audiences may have preconceptions of characters backgrounds, personalities that the play therefore can miss out and take as a given to their audiences. I therefore believe it is important to offer the audience more of an incite into our characters, each having important back stories created in our casting session workshop that i believe we need to bring to the audiences attention.
It is a difficult task trying to relay information without making it seem as a necessary scene in order to continue with the rest of the play. I therefore believe that to contrast the naturalistic setting our script has created quite reminiscent of a fairytale, we can have a parallel surrealist movement woven into the play, representing a cryptic look into each characters pasts or current issues that have made them the the way they are today, without looking too matter of fact. The following scenes will be completely comprised of stage directions and no dialogue to play to the ‘tech heavy’ side of our production.
(See ‘Appendices Character Development Scenes’ for the script i produced of these)
I feel the idea of corruption is a theme we should really play with, in acting, set design, lighting it can all tie in together.
“And for the first time in my innocent and confined life I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.”-(Countess Bloody Chamber)
Exploring the idea of ‘corruption’ under and positive OR negative light in opposition to the ‘perfect’ fairy tale endings. If we explore the effect of corruption on the countess it actually pulls her away from the fairy tale innocence archetype.
“He sensed a rare talent for corruption.”
Exploration of gender binaries, fairy tale literature representation etc.
E.g. the mirror scene in the bloody chamber shows the sexual awakening of the young woman, she herself views her corruption as positive as she looks at her reflected body.
“Elaine Jordan suggests that the death of the virgin girl is the symbol of ‘killing masculine representations’ not a ‘killing of women’ – (Regarding the Snow Child, Deconstructed masculine evil in Angela Carter)
How do you feel about this?
Why is there a feeling that this image is not correct?
What sort of message have fairy tales inadvertently been creating?
Do you feel Angela Carter represents a female awakening in her tales?
I place the countess as having just finished her fairy tale ending and married the count – and what we are left with is the ‘reality’ of her situation. What glitches are created between the fairy tale and real worlds that can transcend into more than just a spectacle. E.g. fairy tale vs. reality becoming childhood memories vs. adult life.
Character Breakdown (various interpretations for you to choose what you feel suits the character you visualise playing)
Count
A typical villain or simply perceived this way through the countess subconscious desires to ‘be free’ from her innocent confined life? Is he used as an excuse for the countess to be corrupted?
Where do you feel the evil really lies in this tale? If any true evil at all?
The Count Vs. The Piano Tuner
As the inversion of binaries is something we are definitely approaching (on what scale remains to be explored, but im thinking big!) I do not necessarily see the count being your typical stalking, dark, piercing figure as like so many other traditional villains. He could perhaps be the most unsuspecting looking character who the audience feel truly shocked when faced with his actions, it challenges how they should feel and what stereotype they have come to expect … even when told that this is dark fairy tale, they still come with certain expectations.
Countess
Is this girl really innocent?
Does she herself have villainous qualities?
Does she become her ‘own woman’ through corruption?
Is this positive or is this negative?
How does it make you feel to think about something positive coming from such a deeply negative scenario
She has stepped out of the fairy tale, mundane world of her life and into ‘reality’, with this she welcomes her sexual female awakening. Some arguable villainous qualities that outrank the count. She takes the innocent image of the fairy tale character no longer in a positive light but as female repression. She becomes her own woman after marrying the count. She has longed for excitement and actually places herself in the situation. She is not ignorant or naïve to her marriage. She is curious.
The House Keeper
The house keeper keeps things ordered and is constantly trying to ‘maintain’ relationships, I vision her constantly trying to fix the corruption around her by fixing cracks in the sets, putting paintings back together, hiding broken mirrors etc She is very much part of the furniture, set in her old fairy tale ways – a character who refuses to leave the fairy tale setting but who finds herself placed in this new age of corrupt independence. The world, even this mock-fairy tale world is moving on and she is left behind.
The Piano Tuner
The blindness of the piano tuner gives him insite, as he is blind to the corrupt world around him – he is in his own world and this gives us room to explore what sort of world he imagines himself in
e.g. should it be a fairy tale like most people or should it be a version of reality?
He is in love with the countess because of her desire to be free, not because she is reserved or innocent. In some ways she is the very opposite of this innocent piano tuner, he is attracted to the differences between their two worlds.
I vision him being unable to tune the piano so even the music he plays is corrupted, as a literal representation of a dislocated time but which at the same time holds elements of truth and beauty to it that you would not get with a perfectly tuned piece of music.
The Ghost/ Spectre/ Mother/ Ex-wife/ Nature
This character is very much open to interpretation and it is something I want us all to explore in the casting session and reach a decision with.
Should this character act as a warning? If so, to who?
If it in an ex-wife character did he count truly love this woman?
Do we want a supernatural element heavily involed? It was very common in gothic literature to have characters representative of nature. Reflective of mother nature, human nature etc
I imagine this character to be heavily linked with the design, almost a ‘Puck’ like character from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – containing mystical, supernatural elements but with a rational truth or warning attached to them. (Also can help if any narration is needed, although I don’t want It to be heavily narrated!)
The Snow Child
Starting off as a pure innocent picture of perfection. The snow child almost seems out of place in our production because of her links to the traditional, but this is something that will work in creating and blurring the borders between the two worlds. I see the snow child as almost another narrative going on within our play, her own journey could perhaps mirror the passage from child hood fairy tale to the adult world?
What happens to the snow child in the end?
How do you think we can show this journey?
Workshop Tasks (some of this can be done in preparation for the workshop/casting session)
Try to come with answers to all the questions I have posted above, I think it is important to have different perspectives put forward to create the best possible production. We will begin by discussing these so we have a feel for what sort of character we are pushing for in the casting session.
As a short exercise, (if like you can prepare this beforehand alone or in pairs, and you will be given some time on the day) in order to explore the passage of time and the corrupt ‘fairy tale’ image I feel it would be useful to see where these ideas stem from. Take a well-known fairy tale character and move them on 15 years in their life to after their fairy tale ending.
What has happened to these characters?
Has there been a corruption?
Do you feel they’ve maintained the perfect fairy tale ending?
What images of corruption can you see?
This can be a short improvisation; perhaps the character simply reflecting like we will have the countess doing in scene 2, or it could be a quick scene from a day in their lives.
(for inspiration see the video below, a new film based on Hansel and Gretel 15 years into the future)
After this we will turn to the characters in our production and discuss how the previous exercise can be applied to the lives of our characters.
Have an idea of the character you want to play and why you want to play this. What experience can you bring to this character?
What corrupt images/symbols do you see in your character that you feel can be explored?
You will be given a short extract of your character from the script with someone to read with you if need be, to get a feel for the role and to see if you suit it well and how you feel in this role after the workshop today.
Of or relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process.
Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.
“A kind of liminal experience undergone by audience/participants when engaged In the brief liminality, drama and film. Turner describes these aesthetic forms as representing ‘the reflexivity of the social process, wherein society becomes at once the subject and the direct object” (initiation and disobedience)
“the act of reading a story can become a small initiation, a movement away from old patterns of thinking into new and, ideally, better ones.”
In all of Angela Carter’s tales there are version of “The Bloody Chamber” usually represented through the idea of a room or a space. I think this would be a good concept to adapt in our piece, taking something simple such as a room full of mirrors and exploring what truly occurs in a space. In most of these spaces there is as a paradox between enlightenment and violence, innocence and experience – which is something we as a theatre company have been exploring in the children vs adult theatre.
Throughout all of Carters stories there is the idea of social change represented through a Gothic and almost timeless tradition. Something that i think lends itself perfectly to our manifesto as a tech heavy, spectacle group. It also is worth noting that to create a spectacle does not necessary mean there needs to be a stage full of props, elaborate lighting plans etc. Less is more when it comes to creating something symbolic of a time, a memory trace or even a simple border between two worlds, theatre vs reality, audience vs actor, young vs old, past vs present …
Many of the stories focus on the idea of liminality, of existing on the threshold between two places or states of being. This is something we can take, easily adapt, create something totality unique adapted from a small influence of Angela Carter, the threshold can be physically represented if we look back to the idea of the room that all her stories contain. A liminal space.
In literature, liminal spaces traditionally give the occupant both power and torment. At the same time, he or she is condemned never to be fully accepted in either state. What does it mean to separate the fairytale from the real life, why do we aspire for the ‘fairytale’ ending when what we are seeing is something of our own creation?
The two halves of the liminal being’s experience do not seem to make a satisfying whole. Carter explores liminality primarily through half-beings: werewolves, vampires, and the special case of Wolf-Alice, the hyphen in whose name pronounces her liminality most definitively. – Exploring the idea of the half being, why do we use metamorphosis in literature to address issues that we as human beings experience? Is there a truth we are trying to avoid? Why does Carter avoid using human beings in these roles?
Her more radical statement, however, is that all women are forced to live life as a liminal experience. The heroine in “The Tiger’s Bride” realizes this when she considers that men consider women as soulless and incapable as animals.” She is a human who is treated like a beast, and is therefore living as liminal and unfulfilled life as The Beast – as these themes are recurring in all of her stories, we do not necessarily have to restrict ourselves to three, if we are adapting and (rights restricted) then why not create our own concept of what it is to experience the fairytale, with echoes of traditional stories to make the comparison, creating ANOTHER liminal space not only on stage but between action and audience, what has happened somewhere in between the memory trace of a fairytale and the acceptance of more darker themes on stage and life.
The two worlds – the fairy tale world and the world of touristic experience – share the fact that in the ‘other’ world the hero behaves in a manner which differs from his or her usual behaviour. Both an act of storytelling that traditionally would take place in a liminal period of time and a journey away from one’s home convey the impression of being on the border of several different worlds.
“The transition from the ordinary environment to an extraordinary one is a
typical feature of fairy tales; the protagonist enters an unpredictable world, although
its beginning is familiar for him/her” (Liminality and the imaginary)
