To call this laboratory a Cake-related one might be a mistake on my part. It took characters from Natalie's extensive creative work as director of Cake Theatre Company as one of its starting points, but the process and exercises used had little to do with her previous work. Both participants and laboratory leader learnt a fair few things during the process of these three days, as we all delved into new material and ways of working. Natalie took the notion of the laboratory as a place of experiment and ran with it, creating a real experiment on her way. This may well be the starting point of a new style of working for her, which seems to tend more towards what Western performance tradition would call 'devised' theatre. For the participants, the chance to see and participate in this exploration was a great chance to learn and examine our own background and work.
The first day started with a warm-up based on sequences of action, from name to movement and song. Afterwards, we played a game of catch where Natalie had the power to stop us at any time, or make us sing either alone or with others. A constant break of flow and change of rhythm occurred, as the group had to heighten its awareness of others and idea of itself. Work on a physical vocabulary was equally pivotal, and we spent a long time with a vocabulary consisting of walking, running, rolling, crawling and laughing. A sense of the group was developed, as we alternated between moving together and moving seperately, always staying aware of the others in the group.
Another set of movements we worked on was household chores. The physical composition was put into practice through a text about love and loneliness from Natalie's work. We used them as a vocabulary to create a dramaturgy which also included song. It brought out unknown layers of the text, and also a surpringly strong sense of community. Natalie took the time to put some direction to the work we created, which gave us a feel for her ideas about directing and added new layers of meaning to what we had put together.
Moving into the second day, we picked up some bits and left off others, mostly working on the movements from the day before, but with the addition of stillness. We then moved into the character-work, with a wasteland of chairs and overturned tables as our backdrop. We started developing our 'character' from a picture of the original one from Natalie's work, and the title/name of them. As we took them on in the improvisations, we experienced that they had conflicting needs and trajectories that caused conflict of will and made real communication very difficult, and made the moments of real contact even more precious. We were completely free to shape them ourselves, and after having given us a title, Natalie left us to elaborate as little or as much as we wanted. Working with a fixed vocabulary of sentences, physical movements and song, these characters developed organically through interaction rather than psychologically.
Christ and a terrorist, two main figures from her plays, were the pivotal ones, whilst others were added later so that all group members had their own character to work on. We spent long stretches of time with group improvisations, which to begin with were bound by a text from her work. It took sentences from mythology, science, humanities and novels in an interwoven web of disparate meanings, and each performer found her own way of exploiting possibilities. With the restriction of vocabulary, we had to express ourselves just as much through movement and shifts on position and gestures.
During the improvisations, Natalie preferred to observe rather than interfere, and was not afraid to let each one run much further than other directors normally would. The risk that was taken allowed for some incredible moments to be created, that would otherwise not have taken place. This demonstrates how important it is to dare explore, risk failure, and indeed to have dead or uninteresting moments on the path to greater ones. Because we were given the time and forced to go on, we collaborated to reach these greater moments either as a full group or in smaller pairs.
Working more on the character, each one told a memory from their early life that was then transformed into a song by the rest of the group. An intimate, but shellsetting task that brought out some unkown responses and helped us get a closer connection as a group. Song formed a large part of the work over the course of the three days, and was explored as another way of expressing ourselves when the 'freedom' of saying what you please was taken away. It was therefore interesting to see how the dynamics changed when we were given permission to speak our own text and not just from the playtext – some characters really opened up as a result, others shut themselves down, and not all relationships were maintained as efficiently through their own words. The contrast was a fruitful one, however, as it brought the characterwork into a new light.
The final day arrived far sooner than anticipated, and was spent exploring more around the work from the previous days. We developed the improvisation around the table, finding and solidifying the notion of the character outline and the relationship with the other members of the group. Finally, we did an exercise inspired by a book of children's Jungle Book Exercises: Drawing Faces. A lesson in cartooning. This gave us the chance to play around with the relationships, character roles and a different social setting, amplifiyng some of what had been developed previously and giving us a new means of expression. We also created a dance based on movements and postures we had created that were fitting for our character, in the search for different phsyicalities and ways of moving in the space. All these different vocabularies expose the work in different ways, and carry great potential for developing further, had time allowed it.
The three days ended with an invaluable discussion and exchange of experiences that lasted over an hour. Natalie, as a laboratory leader, gave us herself and her work in a unique manner, completely exposing her background, working conditions, creative choices and – most valuable of all – uncertainties. Working in Singapore, she is subject to strict rules of what can and cannot be put up on a stage, and this has also conditioned much of both content and way of working. In an environment that demands a constant production and innovation, she has impressed and maintained a high standard, but is now moving in new directions to prevent herself from 'getting stuck', and to explore new horizons to keep evolving as a creator and director of theatre. What will remain most strongly with me, is Natalie's level of sincerity and openness about her work. Without this open, questioning approach and the confidence to let the laboratory find its own trajectory and pace, we would not have reached the same results and insights. It has been a great learning experience for all involved.
- Ragnhild Dale
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