10th March 2005
4 Classes to go until Easter. Hopefully by this time next week we will have decided which scenes we will be doing for the Showing and have all parts cast so we can go away for the two weeks and prepare ourselves.
The day goes well. We look at the end of Scene 3 (P 107 Methuen Willet trans) between Karpov and Pelagea. Again it's asking the questions that allows us to get under the skin. Some we ask today are:
How much detail does Pelagea know of what's in the leaflet?
Why does she say 'We' in : 'We have our reasons'?
And what does she mean in saying it? Does she mean: she, Pelagea, has her reasons (ie to protect Pavel) which are slightly different from Pavel's and the other Revolutionaries' reasons. Or that she doesn't know what the reasons are but she doesn't want to appear thick in front of Karpov? Or that she's coming more towards the Revolutionary position?
Or a mixture of both?
What she DOESN'T say is almost as instructive. She doesn't tell Karpov she's just doing it to protect her son. She comes back at him pretty strong with: Why are our people being arrested? Note the use of 'our'. But at the same time she uses the 'No, I can't read' - a 'Nothing to do with me, Guv' type of get-out clause.
Something we didn't fully discuss - or explore concretely at all - were the lines 'to herself'. What none of us had taken into consideration was the stage direction:
After she has sold the gherkin to Karpov, 'SHE SITS DOWN TO COUNT HER TAKINGS'.
It is as she does that that she says the lines: ' They can't be allowed to cut wages; it's very wrong, and particularly hard on me...' Brecht has given her a concrete action. She's counting her takings and they probably aren't very much. The men have already decided on a strike so they know that they're in for a hard future. They won't have been splashing out on gherkins, tea, cigarettes and pasties today... So, we can imagine she's not done particularly good business. And the coins she's counting will be few.
At this point then, although Karpov and Pelagea are on stage together and he's just spoken to her to buy a gherkin, each of them is in their own little world: Karpov watching the receding backs of the workforce he's representing - disastrously; they've just told him where to stick it - and Pelagea worrying about how she's going to manage with the threatened wage cut.
It's him seeing the pamphlet when he unwraps his gherkin that snaps him out of these thoughts. And why does he order a gherkin? Is it comfort eating to cheer himself up, seeing how badly he's done?
And why is Pelagea still selling her wares? The workforce have just gone back to work. Is she trying to make that one last sale because trade has been so poor?
A moment ago the stage was full of life; the workforce, united, singing their hearts out for the whole loaf; sod the crumbs. Now all thats left on stage is a couple of isolated and lonely 'saddos' with their gherkin....
We talk about Karpov's objections to the strike. Whether he would betray strike organisers to the Management. Most thought not. He's disagreeing on tactics not objectives. Both he and the workforce know the strike will be tough. The workforce are prepared to take it on. He thinks the human cost will be too great. Maybe he's quietly frightened.
This then leads to a detailed analysis of why Karpov doesn't betray Pelagea to the Guard and the Gatekeeper, instead taking the blame himself. A number of students use the phrase: 'Because Karpov and Pelagea are both on the same side'. That deep down he knows it. She's just an ordinary woman. Furthermore, most students felt instinctively that they too would have taken the rap for Pelagea in the same situation. Brecht humanises Karpov.
At no point does anybody suggest that he's just out to feather his own nest. It's his choice of tactics that Brecht is questioning, not his personal morality or corruption.
In fact he's actually a bit of a hero. He takes a beating for her. Karpov protects Pelagea. It's what most people would do. Even though she's just a moment or so before given him quite a bit of lip.
We then put the thing on its feet. Or rather 'on its chairs'. We sit down. We don't have too much of a discussion about the positions. The chairs are placed oppositionally across the space and two other chairs are placed more on the diagonal. Volunteers are asked to fill the chairs. We stick with Karpov and Pelagea facing one another pretty much all the way through. Gatekeeper and Guard coming in side by side at the angle.
I felt there was some very good work all round from some of the usual suspects but also some particularly pleasing development from Josie, Tom, Natalie and Luisa in Group A and Azuraye, Grace, Jordan, Carlos and Rebecca from B, giving, I thought, their best work on the course to date. Very heartening to see such step-progress from so many: vocally strong in their delivery, direct and absolutely in top gear with their energy.
As a result the passion and intensity of the scene came through, and caught fire on all seven occasions it was performed.
Excellent dialectical playing. Two hands clapping.
The day goes well. We look at the end of Scene 3 (P 107 Methuen Willet trans) between Karpov and Pelagea. Again it's asking the questions that allows us to get under the skin. Some we ask today are:
How much detail does Pelagea know of what's in the leaflet?
Why does she say 'We' in : 'We have our reasons'?
And what does she mean in saying it? Does she mean: she, Pelagea, has her reasons (ie to protect Pavel) which are slightly different from Pavel's and the other Revolutionaries' reasons. Or that she doesn't know what the reasons are but she doesn't want to appear thick in front of Karpov? Or that she's coming more towards the Revolutionary position?
Or a mixture of both?
What she DOESN'T say is almost as instructive. She doesn't tell Karpov she's just doing it to protect her son. She comes back at him pretty strong with: Why are our people being arrested? Note the use of 'our'. But at the same time she uses the 'No, I can't read' - a 'Nothing to do with me, Guv' type of get-out clause.
Something we didn't fully discuss - or explore concretely at all - were the lines 'to herself'. What none of us had taken into consideration was the stage direction:
After she has sold the gherkin to Karpov, 'SHE SITS DOWN TO COUNT HER TAKINGS'.
It is as she does that that she says the lines: ' They can't be allowed to cut wages; it's very wrong, and particularly hard on me...' Brecht has given her a concrete action. She's counting her takings and they probably aren't very much. The men have already decided on a strike so they know that they're in for a hard future. They won't have been splashing out on gherkins, tea, cigarettes and pasties today... So, we can imagine she's not done particularly good business. And the coins she's counting will be few.
At this point then, although Karpov and Pelagea are on stage together and he's just spoken to her to buy a gherkin, each of them is in their own little world: Karpov watching the receding backs of the workforce he's representing - disastrously; they've just told him where to stick it - and Pelagea worrying about how she's going to manage with the threatened wage cut.
It's him seeing the pamphlet when he unwraps his gherkin that snaps him out of these thoughts. And why does he order a gherkin? Is it comfort eating to cheer himself up, seeing how badly he's done?
And why is Pelagea still selling her wares? The workforce have just gone back to work. Is she trying to make that one last sale because trade has been so poor?
A moment ago the stage was full of life; the workforce, united, singing their hearts out for the whole loaf; sod the crumbs. Now all thats left on stage is a couple of isolated and lonely 'saddos' with their gherkin....
We talk about Karpov's objections to the strike. Whether he would betray strike organisers to the Management. Most thought not. He's disagreeing on tactics not objectives. Both he and the workforce know the strike will be tough. The workforce are prepared to take it on. He thinks the human cost will be too great. Maybe he's quietly frightened.
This then leads to a detailed analysis of why Karpov doesn't betray Pelagea to the Guard and the Gatekeeper, instead taking the blame himself. A number of students use the phrase: 'Because Karpov and Pelagea are both on the same side'. That deep down he knows it. She's just an ordinary woman. Furthermore, most students felt instinctively that they too would have taken the rap for Pelagea in the same situation. Brecht humanises Karpov.
At no point does anybody suggest that he's just out to feather his own nest. It's his choice of tactics that Brecht is questioning, not his personal morality or corruption.
In fact he's actually a bit of a hero. He takes a beating for her. Karpov protects Pelagea. It's what most people would do. Even though she's just a moment or so before given him quite a bit of lip.
We then put the thing on its feet. Or rather 'on its chairs'. We sit down. We don't have too much of a discussion about the positions. The chairs are placed oppositionally across the space and two other chairs are placed more on the diagonal. Volunteers are asked to fill the chairs. We stick with Karpov and Pelagea facing one another pretty much all the way through. Gatekeeper and Guard coming in side by side at the angle.
I felt there was some very good work all round from some of the usual suspects but also some particularly pleasing development from Josie, Tom, Natalie and Luisa in Group A and Azuraye, Grace, Jordan, Carlos and Rebecca from B, giving, I thought, their best work on the course to date. Very heartening to see such step-progress from so many: vocally strong in their delivery, direct and absolutely in top gear with their energy.
As a result the passion and intensity of the scene came through, and caught fire on all seven occasions it was performed.
Excellent dialectical playing. Two hands clapping.
posted by Steve at 10:06 PM
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