I felt that it was important, given my development of ideas, to restructure my script. I sat in the space I will be performing in and began to shape my script around my new ideas. I started by thinking about how Tim Crouch in An Oak Tree used the background story of the man whose daughter had died. This gave me the idea to add intertextuality within my piece.
I have now included excerpts from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, to capture moments of heightened characterisation. From Hamlet I have chosen the moment when Ophelia turns mad.
“There’s fennel for you, and columbines.
There’s rue for you, and here’s some
for me. We may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays.
You must wear your rue with a difference! There’s
a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they
wither’d all when my father died. They say he
made a good end –[Sings]
For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy” (Shakespeare, 1992, 4.5: 180-187).
This part in the play shows Ophelia move from verse to prose, losing her status as a character. I chose this to attempt to show the challenges of taking on this character and also to create a contrast between me (the performer on stage) and the character of Ophelia.
From Romeo and Juliet I have chosen the moment when Juliet drinks the poison to end her life to be with Romeo, who she believes is dead.
“O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefather’s joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some kinsman’s bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point: stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here’s drink- I drink to thee” (Shakespeare, 2000, 4.3: 49-58).
Within my performance I want to play around with the perception of character and stage performer, the intimacy between the audience and the performer and how close they feel to what is being presented to them. I have chosen these excerpts in the hope that the audience recognise the characters, but see that these are characters that can be performed by many actors. This is to test whether the true intimacy is limited.
The media elements to the performance, using projection and sound, will add to this in modern contrast. This again will test how close the audience feel to the performance. With how accessible media representations of performances are, I would like to test the old with the new. There are many ways we can view performances, in theatres and on the computer screen via tools like Youtube. How many times can we watch a different version of Juliet’s balcony scene and feel the same emotion we did for the first time? If we have not seen the balcony scene, how do we feel the first time we see it if it is through Youtube or the medium of a screen?
This is the video version of Romeo and Juliet’s balcony scene performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Within there are close-ups, which manipulate the view (2min 16sec). This is how viewing on Youtube can differ from viewing in a theatre.
Works Cited
Royal Shakespeare Company (2011) Royal Shakespeare Company – Romeo & Juliet, on stage footage – NY. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHoaPLO6Zd [Accessed 7 April 2014].
Shakespeare W. and Watts, C. (eds.) (1992) Hamlet. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics Ltd.
Shakespeare W. and Watts, C. (eds.) (2000) Romeo and Juliet. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classic Ltd.