Dialectical Windowlene

That helped me, Tony, thanks. The only thing I'd like to add to that is that although we can't alter the fact that all our actions are political, that's the only thing we can't alter. Everything else is changeable: the Firing Squad that shoots Pavel; people's consciousness of their true interests; fighting for places in the lifeboats.

Everything is material. Nothing - nothing! - is static.

(Brecht's The RESISTABLE Rise of Arturo Ui. 'You can change the world with your last breath' etc. Einstein's Quantum physics etc etc)

Post from Tony Gardner

Gestus is indeed a tricky one Steve. As i understand it, the notion of gestus is a three-dimensional text that runs parallel to the words on the page. It is the text made physical and it is always political because it belongs to a world where things are learnt and nothing is a matter of instinct; nothing can exist independently of the conditions that influence it. Oooh, I know, this sounds like Marxism and indeed it is. The Mother is a play that seeks to persuade us that we cannot escape the political implications of ourselves - the views we hold, the opinions we express, the bread we eat (or don't eat). We are as political as a bomb dropped on Baghdad, or a donation to Comic Relief and we cannot alter that. Our actions betray our political intent and Brecht calls that Gestus. Phew, this is my first blog!!!!

Originally a comment on the Feb 24th post 'Different Strokes'. Thanks Tony. Very helpful.

Scene 4. Friday March 10

Posture Policeman

PELAGEA'S FIRST LESSON IN ECONOMICS

Good work. Improvement from many.

80% of the group when left to their own devices now know how to sit. Still a few cross-legged slumpers - but their behaviour has been noted by the Posture Police and the necessary measures will be taken...

(Yeah but, no but, I'm knackered, right, 'cos me and Tracy were up all night drinking these Scrumpy Cocktails round Angela's, right, and I can't be bothered, as it happens, if you want to know the truth, and it's all your fault, anyway right, cos you're just boring and I don't understand a bleeding word you're sayin').

Charlene's Transformation: Pavel's speech from a very chopped-up delivery (Mince) when she starts to a totally lucid one at the end of a bit of practice by biting off bigger chunks of text each time before she looks up. (Steak). The rhythm of the writing, the structure of the language is, therefore, allowed to shine through. Great.

This particular day, Joleen and Jordan (the J-Highs) are the Crystal Clear Queens but most other students are only a whisker behind in terms of clarity.

Hannah Patricia can't get her mouth round Suck-Lyn-Off but hopefully she will one day...

The main thing we discover, both Groups, is that neither side (the Mother or the Revolutionaries) get 'stumped' by each other's points. Nobody goes: ' Oh. I'd never thought of that. Duh. That's got me.' No, each one has an answer and in many ways the Mother gives as good as she gets.

Also, that after her actions in the Swamp scene, actually they look up to her: 'Respect'!

They need her. She has some of the experience, maturity and steadinesss under fire that they lack. Not to mention a native cunning.

We talked about this cunning. Brecht particularly liked it: peasant, working class cunning. Well, if you're at the bottom of the shit-heap you have to have something to even even things out.

Also remarked upon the fantastic parts Brecht wrote for women. Something seldom mentioned by academics, critics or practitioners. Pelagea, Senora Carrera, Good Person of Sechuan, Grusha, Mother Courage etc Fabulous strong, complex, dialectical parts for ballsy female actors unrivalled by any 20th Century practitioner.

Both Groups very healthy going into their sixth week and the one before Easter.

Excellent.

Casting

The Casting is as follows. Each Group, A and B, will start with the first speech of Pelagea's. Everybody must learn it in English, EXCEPT those with another language. They must translate (or have help to translate) the speech into their first (or second) language and learn it in that language. This section is called Vlassovas of All Countries.

GROUP A
Scene 1 Vlasssovas of All Countries
Dean, Luisa, Charlene, Amir, Egle and Rebekah plus rest of Group in English.

Scene 2 The Police Raid.
(Starting Page 98 at the point below:)
Anton:I don't think your mother's very glad to see us here, eh, Pavel.
Pavel: It's so hard for her to see we have to do this so that she can buy her tea and pay the rent.
Pelagea: Talk about thick skinned! They're carrying on as if they hadn't noticed.
(Then cut to:)
Andrei 1: Police!
(Then continue all the way to the end of the scene. This is the casting:)
Andrei 1(Police!):Egle
Mother: Josie
Andrei rest of scene: Amir
Ivan: Claire
Masha: Luisa
Inspector: Dean
Policeman: Charlene
Pavel: Vineta
Anton: Natalie

Scene 3 The Swamp
Mother outside the Gates: Louise
Mother inside Gates: Sandra (taking over at 'Just what I told her P.104)
Gatekeeper: Claire
Ivan: Amir
First Worker: Charlene
Second Worker Luisa
Third Worker: Rebekah
Karpov: Claudia
Anton: Natalie
Another Worker: Dean
SONG of the Patches and the Coat. Ensemble.
Factory Guard: Vineta
Mother after Song: Egle
Karpov after Song: Rebekah

GROUP B
Vlassovas of all Countries
Nuria, Carlos, Tanya, Grace. Everybody else in English

Scene 6 b/c The Teacher's Kitchen and the Teacher's Schoolroom.
Woman: Grace
Mother (SONG in Praise of Communism, P.116 ) Abigail
Sostakovich: Carlos
Teacher in Kitchen: Tom
Mother in Kitchen: Hannah
Teacher in Classroom: Chris
Mother in Classroom: Azuraye
SONG: Learn your ABC. Ensemble
One of the Workers: Nuria

Scene 10 Pavel is Arrested and Shot.
Voice saying 'Comrade Vlassova, Your son has been shot': Carlos
SONG: Gabrede P.138. Ensemble.
Landlady 1 Kayleigh
Mother 1 Cat
Peasant Woman 1: Grace
Poor Woman 1: Jordan
(down to: P141. Peasant Woman: I've heard tell of that. Then the cast changes to:)
Landlady 2: Joleen
Mother 2 Tanya
Peasant Woman 2: Nuria
Poor Woman 2: Polly.

HEALTH WARNINGS:

Please start studying your roles from this point forward. Also begin to find costume for yourself and YOUR OWN PROPS. For example, Josie has to find the Dripping Pot, Louise and Sandra the goods they sell plus the wrapping paper. Start getting this stuff as early as possible. Not getting it early, bringing it to rehearsals and using it will be interpreted as lack of professionalism.

All costumes to be dark/neutral; scarves, caps, berets, belts boots, shirts etc AND BE READY TO BRING THEM IN WITH YOU AFTER THE EASTER BREAK.

WE WILL BE REHEARSING IN COSTUME FROM APRIL 4th.

Please be at rehearsals 15 minutes before the sceduled start times, in the appropriate clothing and footware so we can all begin on time. Unless otherwise announced, rehearsal calls are for the entire group. Individuals will be expected to do a physical and vocal warm-up before the class starts either alone or - if the Group prefers, as a Group - BEFORE THE REHEARSAL IS SCEDULED TO BEGIN.

MALE CHARACTERS WEAR TROUSERS, WOMEN CHARACTERS LONG SKIRTS ACCORDING TO YOUR ROLE, YOUR CLASS AND THE APPAREL FOR THE YEARS AROUND 1900.

Kindly do not wear any jewellry or make-up for rehearsal. Women tie and pin your hair back so that the whole face is revealed.

We will spend some time next week (March 14 to 18th) quickly deciding who - if anyone - will be playing a role across their own gender. Women playing any male roles to find ways to conceal their hair convincingly with hats etc.

We will perform in MG80, the audience facing towards the Door so that we can use it practically, if need be, for exits and entrances. There will be identical chairs down each side of the room, one for each actor, facing into the room.

There will be a tressle table. A working duplicator which we will have to find between us; any help on that will be very favourably looked upon (mark-wise).

Please bring a pencil and rubber to each rehearsal. You will be expected to write down, as soon as decided, all movement decisions, energy changes, beats and Gesti. There will be no stage manager on the Book. Failure to mark these down, study and practise them at home and be ready to present, develop and elaborate on them at the next rehearsal will be taken to be obstructive to the smooth running of rehearsals and detrimental to group endeavour. And penalised accordingly in your individual 'Process' marks.

We have 36 hours to rehearse both goups so let's make a deadline for ourselves of performance-ready by Friday April 22nd (week 9). This gives us only 6 hours of rehearsal for each of the six scenes, starting Monday.

Enjoy.

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.

A Karpov or a Suchlinov?

Blair Caring

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

The final lines of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

It Says Something!

Nuria and Tanya

PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
IVAN: And the wrapping paper is the best part.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
IVAN: And the wrapping paper is free.
A WORKER: Got any gherkins?
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, yes here you are.
IVAN: And the wrapping paper mustn't be thrown away.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA: Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
A WORKER: What's so special about what's printed on the wrapping paper? I can't read.
ANOTHER WORKER: How do I know what's on your wrapping paper?
FIRST WORKER: You're holding one clever.
SECOND WORKER: Quite right, it says something,
FIRST WORKER: So, what?
SECOND WORKER: Good for them, they say if we get drawn into negotiating the more fools us.
PELAGEA VLASSOVA (Crosses the yard): Gherkins, tobacco, tea, fresh pasties!
THIRD WORKER Here they are, with the police after them and factory security tightened up, and here's another pamphlet just the same. They know what they're doing that lot and nobody's going to stop them. There's somehthing in what they say.

Analysis
Cooking on Gas again after Rocky Friday - everyone had been tired and fractious at the end of a long week and we'd bitten off too big and too complicated a chunk of scene to chew.

Today, Monday March 7th, though, we look at 'The Swamp' scene again. In particular the scene between Workers One and Two. By focusing on such a 'detail' we can happily spend over an hour and still not get all the way to the bottom of things. We learn to ask questions: Is the gherkin that Vlassova dropped earlier in front of the Gatekeeper, wrapped? We'd had it wrapped before (we'd been talking about detail, but had we thought deeply enough about it?). We decided, in fact, that it shouldn't. If it had been wrappped the Gatekeeper might have been litererate, read it and the whole operation would have been sabotaged.

We ask, in particular, why the Second Worker says: 'How do I know what's written on your wrapping paper?' We'd already established, through asking a number of other questions of ourselves AND FROM INFORMATION IN THE TEXT ONLY, that

1. Pelagea had delivered to the factory before.

2. That there is, therefore, nothing strange for the men to see her selling stuff there.

3. That the men know who Ivan is. Also that he is a Marxist, a revolutionary and against doing deals with the management.

4. That they all know that the cut in wages is imminent and that at that very moment Karpov is having a meeting with the management and will be coming out shortly to tell them how it's gone.

5. That this is not, therefore, just any old lunch break.

6. That what IS strange and new, however, is Ivan wrapping the Canteen lady's goods.

7. That even before Worker One gets the wrapping paper in his hand he knows that he's getting a leaflet.

8. So does Worker Two. The only problem for Worker Two is: He can't read it.

9. That Worker One will have spotted that Ivan has a lot of 'wrapping paper', that they are all the same and that all the other people who get food will have the same 'wrapping paper' too.

So, why does he say: How do I know what's written on your wrapping paper?

Strange? Not really. BECAUSE S/HE IS TOO BUSY READING WHAT THE WRAPPING PAPER SAYS TO HEAR THE QUESTION. The next line makes it doubly clear: "Quite right, it says something.' And 1st Worker's: "So, what?" also makes clear that she wants to know too. The Second Worker's "Good for them" is actually about WHAT SHE'S READING IN THE TEXT. SHE'S AGREEING WITH WHAT IT SAYS. She then turns to to Worker One and informs her: "they say if we get drawn into negotiations the more fools us."

The picture of Nuria and Tanya shows that Gestic Moment.

Tanya (Worker 2) has the leaflet in her hand; she has the information. She looks strong, clear and determined. Nuria WANTS the information - she appears less strong and she's leaning more than Tanya. However, she's looking straight at her, she's engaged and she looks as if she wants that information. And it's clear that Worker Two is not about to withold it it from her. Both are open to one another.

What is nice here is that this little episode is also an example of Brecht's SPASS, German for 'Fun'. First Worker's response: "You're holding one clever", indicates that both workers know one another and can 'josh' and tease one another. Brecht humanises them. They are not 'cyphers' : The Workers. They are not robotic automatons. They are two workmates with a sense of humour - and are made from real flesh and blood.

And so, from our careful - and patient - archaelogy of the text, we have excavated the scene ... The relationships of the characters emerge. But also the economic and historical relationships. The heart of this unit is not where we perhaps first thought it was. That it's not about Ivan and Pelagea but about two (and then three) workers' attitude to the strike.

In point of fact, they are all three for it. And had been even before Pelagea turned up. They haven't been 'converted' to the strike, or tricked into it by the revolutionaries. But they do want to know what the leaflet says.

And that was another thing we discover: the leaflet does not just say: 'STRIKE! TOMORROW! 9.00. DON'T BE LATE'. No, it contains a case. Arguments. Why the strike should be called. What others might say to stop it. Why their ideas have to be resisted.

And the three workers we see are hungry for this information. In the next unit (Karpov's speech) and the following song we can deduct that these workers are ALREADY highly politicised (not by the revolutionaries but by the situation) and in the next scene Ivan tells Pelagea that the strike vote was almost 100%.

Furthermore, in Scene Five we can see that the whole economic and political situation is highly volatile. There are troops on the street. The police are armed. And they shoot. All these 'little' events in this one 'little' factory are not isolated but part of something massive, perhaps cataclysmic that's sweeping the whole country, unless the authorities can keep the lid on it.

Even in Russia, even in 1900, troops didn't shoot people in the street every day of the week. In good times, a good worker can eat. And so can her children.

It's interesting to think, by the way, that these event are taking place at almost the same moment in time as the events in The Seagull, Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya.

In the same country - the same country, which is another country.

While Vanya is bleating on about the fact that he's 47 and hasn't done much with his life or Nina dreams of being an actress, the Suchlinov workers don't know whether they eat tomorrow and Smilgin lies dead in the street, a police bullet through his heart.

Black Friday

Laura Van Dolron

What's Laura Van Dolron, got to do with last Friday? Nothing - directly - apart from me trying to cheer everyone up with an eyecatching photo, but I've spent most of my weekend organising a showcase of her work in London at the end of the month.

Laura recently graduated from De Toneelacademie Maastricht and has been carving out a successful career as a theatre maker in Holland and Belgium and this month starts a tour of European cities. My theatre company is very pleased to be hosting her visit to London.

So, if you're around on April 1st, in the evening, in Covent Garden, there a special performance of the show to which London Met Students are invited. There'll be some wine type stuff there as well. Not a date you're likely to forget, April Fools Day Evening...

And the show is particularly of interest to students - I'm inviting my third years as well - because Laura was a student herself until three years ago. And yet she has made, with the barest essentials, really exciting theatre - on a shoestring.

So, Sunday night. No blog from Friday. Slapped wrists. But there will be. Briefly:

We look, both groups, with our 'director's hats on' at the beginning of 'The Swamp' scene. How, in partiuclar, to place the participants in the scene in such a way as to tell the story well and economically. We wonder whether all the workers should be sat together or more spread out. We look at where Ivan should be when Pelagea comes into the yard. We allow ourselves to fall into the trap of wondering where to place Ivan so that his lines can be heard, rather than analysing the scene for what is happening - and, therefore what it means.

And therfore how to present it.

Nonetheless, despite my pre-weekend dopiness, some very good student contributions. Dean for directing work on the scene. Charlene for a brilliant - and truthful - portrayal of Hitler writing his favourite poem. To Cat in the other group for her brave taking of the bull by the horns and giving us a stirring Karpov speech off a chair (reading off the 'autocue' of the OHP). George Bush could have done no better.

This is the second time that Cat has overcome reluctance, either her own or someone else's, to say: 'I'll do it'. Someone stepping forward. A volunteer for a suicide mission which turns into a hero mission worthy of the Victoria Cross. And I have to say most people admire such bravery.

Bravery not unlike Vlassova picking up Smilgin's Flag...

This followed by similar bold work by Abigail, Tom and Chris. Grace also had a shot at it, carrying on Cat's baton. Chris, please remind me if I've missed anyone out - or misremembered some names. I'm losing brain cells by the handful, remember.