Ideas for the Jamie Bulger piece
Ive got an idea where we could have 3/4 separate ideas 'What if' stories, we could use projection we would have a few chances to add physical theatre/ dance for example if the section was 'What if Jamie Bulger didn't die' we could do a movement piece where we see Jamie Bulger rehabilitating from the attack. I thought we could possible have a homodigetic narrator in it ( a narrator who is an active participant in the story) and he could be Jamie Bulger, I think this idea is open for many different ways to interpret it however we wont get the sudden realisation from the audience which we want and also it might just be too boring for the audience.
Robert Thompson- Research
Robert Thompson is the malicious killer of Jamie Bulger. Here is some research :
Classification: Homicide
Characteristics: Juvenile (10) - Abduction - Torture
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: February 12, 1993.0
Date of arrest: 6 days after
Date of birth: August 23, 1982
Victim profile: James Patrick Bulger, 2
Method of murder: Beating with bricks, stones, and a piece of metal
Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to custody until the age of 18. Released on lifelong licence in June 2001
James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was a two-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).
Bulger disappeared on 12 February 1993 from the New Strand Shopping Centre, Bootle, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line in nearby Walton on 14 February. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with the abduction and murder.
Thompson and Venables were found guilty of the murder of Bulger on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on lifelong licence in June 2001. The case has prompted widespread debate on the issue of how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.
CCTV evidence from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle taken on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant from school, which they did regularly. Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen stealing various items including sweets, a troll doll, some batteries and a can of blue paint, some of which were found at the murder scene. It was later revealed by one of the boys that they were planning to find a child to abduct, lead him to the busy road alongside the mall, and push him into the path of oncoming traffic.
That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called "Jamie" by the press, although never by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside a butcher's shop at around 3:40pm, Denise realised that her son had disappeared. He had been left at the door of the shop while she placed an order, and was spotted by Thompson and Venables. They approached him and spoke to him, before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera recording timestamped at 15:42.
The boys took Bulger on a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) walk across Liverpool, leading him to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal where he was dropped on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. During the walk across Liverpool, the boys were seen by 38 people. Bulger had a bump on his forehead and was crying, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene, assuming that he was a younger brother. Two people challenged the older boys, but they claimed that Bulger was a younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the local police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected. Eventually the boys led Bulger to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station, close to Walton Lane police station and Anfield Cemetery, where they attacked him.
At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrol modelling paint into Bulger's left eye. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22-pound (10.0 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate. They placed batteries in his mouth. Bulger suffered ten skull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Alan Williams, the case's pathologist, speculated that Bulger suffered so many injuries that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.
Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, stockings, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin had been manipulated. When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details.
Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later, on 14 February. A forensic pathologist testified that he had died before he was struck by the train.
The crime created great anger in Liverpool. The family of one boy who was detained for questioning, but subsequently released, had to flee the city. The breakthrough came when a woman, on seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, whom she knew had played truant with Thompson that day. She contacted police and the boys were arrested. The fact that the boys were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby, of Merseyside Police. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV.
Forensic tests also confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger through DNA tests. The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, when they were remanded in custody to await trial.
The Manchester Evening News named the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, in possible breach of the injunction against publicity which had been renewed early in 2001. In December that year, the paper was fined £30,000 for contempt of court and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.
The Guardian revealed that both boys had passed A-levels during their sentences. The paper also told how the Bulger family’s lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report which suggested that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. The report was ultimately dismissed. However, his lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel.
Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their Liverpool accents. In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 prior to Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".
No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred" and was unable to confront him.
In April 2007, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirmed that the Home Office had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.
On 14 March 2008, an appeal to set up a Red Balloon Learner Centre in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by Denise Fergus, his mother, and Esther Rantzen. A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in Kirkby. He would have been expected to attend this school had he not been murdered.
Bulger's parents Ralph and Denise divorced in 1995, and Denise married Stuart Fergus in 1998.
In March 2010, a call was made to raise the age of criminal responsibility in England from 10 to 12. Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The Ministry of Justice rejected the call, saying that children over the age of 10 knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".
In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the Isle of Man was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for claiming in a Facebook message that one of his former work colleagues was Robert Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomery said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.
Jamie Bulger inspired piece
As we discovered that comedy wont work we decided that we should change our plot so we decided that we need to sit down and see what we can do, there was a lot of arguments but eventually we cam up with a brilliant idea; the idea is based on the horrific murder of Jamie Bulger (I'll do some research in a different post) We have a vague idea for the opening scene of the piece:
- Ollie and I would run on as the two children who murdered Jamie (the audience wont know this as we want a sudden realisation)
- Ollie and I would be watch a projection of a chucky doll advert, a brick advert and a Duracell advert ( we chose to do this to as to give a suttle hint to the audience of what will come - Jamie was killed with bricks and batteries, and people think the chucky inspired them to do it)
- At the end of the projection we want a sound of a train on tracks coming (as Jamie got dumped on train tracks and got his body ripped in half by it)
- Whilst the projection is happening Ollie and I will be like best Friends and laughing, this will make the audience think that we are innocent.
Ollie decide that I will be Robert Thompson( the one which they suspect that there is something wrong with him psychologically) and Ollie will be Jon Venbles ( the one who got caught with pornographic images of children after his release)
For next lesson I will conduct some research into Robert Thompson.
Morgan Freeman's narration
I decided to pick Morgan Freeman as an inspirational narrator. I think the reason he is so popular is because of his unusual tone, this allows the audience to concentrate on this odd tone which immerses them into the narrative.
In order to improve my narration technique I need to approach a different route with my tone of voice, this will intrigue the audience and hopefully they will enjoy
In order to improve my narration technique I need to approach a different route with my tone of voice, this will intrigue the audience and hopefully they will enjoy
Brainstorming
Today we brainstormed ideas for our new devise piece. We came up with three main topics which we were all interested in this was:
- glamorization in the media- this piece would consist of how crimes are glamourized , for example Madeleine McCann was all over the media only because her parents could afford it, so this piece could lead into what we don't know this will be an interesting piece if we could explore crimes which we haven't heard of however there is a limit to what we can do and I haven't really got a clear image of what we can do.
- What if?- this would be another piece exploring on what if a crime didn't happen I thought this would be practically good with Madeleine McCann as it has revolutionized the way security now day, this idea has limitless of what if's however will it confuse the audience?
- Crime- this would be exploring the crime caused by people know as 'phsyco's' this would be interesting to explore different mental illness' , however we worried that this might be to cliché.
- Projection/ multimedia
- soundscapes
- chair duets
- Brecht
- Burkoff
Ian Brady- research
Birth name: Ian Duncan Stewart
A.K.A.: "The Moors Murderer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 5
Date of murder: July 1963 - October 1965
Date of arrest: October 7, 1965
Date of birth: January 2, 1938
Victim profile: Pauline Reade, 16 / John Kilbride, 12 / Keith Bennett, 12 / Lesley Ann Downey, 10 / Edward Evans, 17
Method of murder: Cutting the throat / Strangulation with a piece of string
Location: Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment on May 6, 1966
Moors Killings
Brady was responsible for the murders of five children during the 1960s. In August 1987 he claimed to police that he had carried out another five killings and even said where he had buried the bodies, but the police were never able to prove whether these claims were true.
The five murders that Brady admitted carrying out were committed with Hindley as his accomplice. These were the infamous Moors Murders, which are still some of the most reviled crimes in Britain decades after they happened. As a result, Brady and Hindley became two of the most hated individuals in British criminal history.
On July 12, 1963, the couple claimed their first victim. 16-year-old Pauline Reade was enticed into Hindley's minivan while Brady followed behind on his motorcycle. They drove up to Saddleworth Moor where Hindley asked Pauline to help her look for a lost glove. They were busy "searching the moors" when Brady pounced upon Pauline and raped her. He then smashed her skull in with a shovel and slashed her throat so violently that she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried Pauline's body on the moor, where it remained for over 20 years.
On November 23, Hindley lured 12-year-old John Kilbride into her car from a market place in Ashton-under-Lyne, and drove him to Saddleworth Moor. Brady was waiting there and ordered Hindley to wait for him in a nearby village in their hired Ford Anglia. While Hindley waited in her car, Brady attempted to stab the boy with a knife, but the weapon was too blunt. Brady lost his temper and strangled him to death with a string before burying his body in a shallow grave.
On June 16, 1964 their third victim was another 12-year-old boy, Keith Bennett, whom they enticed from a street in Chorlton and drove to Saddleworth Moor. Hindley stood and watched from the top of an embankment while Brady sexually assaulted Keith in a ravine before strangling him to death with a piece of string and burying his body. It has never been found.
The fourth victim, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, was lured from a fairground in Ancoats. Brady took nine obscene photographs of her, showing her naked, bound and gagged (which were later found in a suitcase in a left luggage locker). Hindley recorded the scene of the child's rape and torture by Brady on audio tape. The tape clearly records the voices of Brady, Hindley and the child, who is heard to scream and protest and asks to be allowed to go home and plead for her life. It is believed she was killed by Brady. The following morning, Brady and Hindley drove Lesley's body to Saddleworth Moor where it was buried in a shallow grave.
On October 6, 1965, the couple claimed their fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. They enticed him from Manchester Central Railway Station to their house in Hattersley, where Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith was visiting. Brady then crept up on Edward in the kitchen and smashed his head in with an axe. He ordered Smith to help him carry the corpse to an upstairs bedroom and tie it up ready for disposal, but Smith then ran home and contacted the police. Smith explained later that, while apparently giving assistance to cleaning up, his sole concern was to escape the house alive.
Sentencing
The death penalty was abolished just one month after Brady and Hindley were arrested. By the time they went on trial the following April, the punishment for murder was life imprisonment. This meant that a murderer was liable to be detained for the whole of his or her natural life, but could be released on life licence when no longer judged to be a risk.
On 6 May 1966, Brady was found guilty on three counts of murder and sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment. Hindley was found guilty of murdering Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and given two life sentences; she also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for harbouring Brady in connection with the murder of John Kilbride.
The key evidence against the couple included the tape recordings of Downey's made while they photographed her naked; the name of John Kilbride in a notebook; and a photograph of Hindley standing on top of the shallow grave where Kilbride was buried. Brady immediately admitted the murder of Edward Evans, but adamantly insisted that Hindley had no part in it. Brady finally confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett in November 1986.
Imprisonment
Brady spent 19 years in a mainstream prison (at one point befriending serial poisoner and fellow Nazi aficionado Graham Frederick Young) before he was declared mentally disordered in 1985 and sent to a mental hospital.
The trial judge spoke of his doubt that Brady could ever reform, describing him as "wicked beyond belief" - and effectively giving him little hope of eventual release. Successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision, while Lord Lane (the former Lord Chief Justice), set a 40-year-minimum term in 1982. In 1990 he was told by Home Secretary David Waddington that both he and Hindley should never be freed.
His successor Michael Howard agreed with this judgement in 1994 and told Brady so. Although home secretaries can no longer decide the minimum length of a life sentence, and a European Court of Justice case currently in the process could soon see lifelong imprisonment outlawed, but Brady always insisted that he never wants to be released. He has had to be force-fed since going on hunger strike in September 1999, after the High Court refused him the right to starve himself to death.
In early 2006, various newspapers reported that Brady was hospitalised and doesn't have much longer to live. He is, however, still alive at present, and currently being held at Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool. In the extremely unlikely event of Brady ever being released, he would almost certainly be immediately arrested, tried and convicted for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, two murders which he was never charged with.
In 2001 Brady published a book called The Gates of Janus, which was published by the underground American publishing firm Feral House. The book, Brady's analysis of serial murder and specific serial killers, sparked outrage when announced in Britain.
Despite his incarceration, Brady (and his murders) still provide headlines for the UK tabloid press. Fellow prisoner Linda Calvey recently told the The Daily Mirror that, before her death in November 2002, Hindley confessed their killing of a young female hitch-hiker.
It has been reported that Brady devised a secret code to stop the police from finding out where the body of Keith Bennett is buried, and that he is furious that a drama documentary based on the murder was shown on ITV1 in May 2006. He has bragged to various newspapers that he has stopped four previous films from being made.
In early 2006, it was reported that a woman tried to smuggle 50 paracetamol tablets to Brady at the prison hospital. The amount would have been sufficient for a successful suicide attempt. Hospital employees foiled the attempt using X-ray screening, which revealed the pills in two sweets tubes inside a hollowed out crime novel.
Winnie Johnson, the mother of Brady's one undiscovered victim, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 claiming that he could take police to within 20 yards of her son's body, but the authorities would not allow it.
It has been reported that Brady has written his autobiography and has given his solicitor instructions that it may only be published after Brady's death.
A.K.A.: "The Moors Murderer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 5
Date of murder: July 1963 - October 1965
Date of arrest: October 7, 1965
Date of birth: January 2, 1938
Victim profile: Pauline Reade, 16 / John Kilbride, 12 / Keith Bennett, 12 / Lesley Ann Downey, 10 / Edward Evans, 17
Method of murder: Cutting the throat / Strangulation with a piece of string
Location: Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment on May 6, 1966
Moors Killings
Brady was responsible for the murders of five children during the 1960s. In August 1987 he claimed to police that he had carried out another five killings and even said where he had buried the bodies, but the police were never able to prove whether these claims were true.
The five murders that Brady admitted carrying out were committed with Hindley as his accomplice. These were the infamous Moors Murders, which are still some of the most reviled crimes in Britain decades after they happened. As a result, Brady and Hindley became two of the most hated individuals in British criminal history.
On July 12, 1963, the couple claimed their first victim. 16-year-old Pauline Reade was enticed into Hindley's minivan while Brady followed behind on his motorcycle. They drove up to Saddleworth Moor where Hindley asked Pauline to help her look for a lost glove. They were busy "searching the moors" when Brady pounced upon Pauline and raped her. He then smashed her skull in with a shovel and slashed her throat so violently that she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried Pauline's body on the moor, where it remained for over 20 years.
On November 23, Hindley lured 12-year-old John Kilbride into her car from a market place in Ashton-under-Lyne, and drove him to Saddleworth Moor. Brady was waiting there and ordered Hindley to wait for him in a nearby village in their hired Ford Anglia. While Hindley waited in her car, Brady attempted to stab the boy with a knife, but the weapon was too blunt. Brady lost his temper and strangled him to death with a string before burying his body in a shallow grave.
On June 16, 1964 their third victim was another 12-year-old boy, Keith Bennett, whom they enticed from a street in Chorlton and drove to Saddleworth Moor. Hindley stood and watched from the top of an embankment while Brady sexually assaulted Keith in a ravine before strangling him to death with a piece of string and burying his body. It has never been found.
The fourth victim, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, was lured from a fairground in Ancoats. Brady took nine obscene photographs of her, showing her naked, bound and gagged (which were later found in a suitcase in a left luggage locker). Hindley recorded the scene of the child's rape and torture by Brady on audio tape. The tape clearly records the voices of Brady, Hindley and the child, who is heard to scream and protest and asks to be allowed to go home and plead for her life. It is believed she was killed by Brady. The following morning, Brady and Hindley drove Lesley's body to Saddleworth Moor where it was buried in a shallow grave.
On October 6, 1965, the couple claimed their fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. They enticed him from Manchester Central Railway Station to their house in Hattersley, where Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith was visiting. Brady then crept up on Edward in the kitchen and smashed his head in with an axe. He ordered Smith to help him carry the corpse to an upstairs bedroom and tie it up ready for disposal, but Smith then ran home and contacted the police. Smith explained later that, while apparently giving assistance to cleaning up, his sole concern was to escape the house alive.
Sentencing
The death penalty was abolished just one month after Brady and Hindley were arrested. By the time they went on trial the following April, the punishment for murder was life imprisonment. This meant that a murderer was liable to be detained for the whole of his or her natural life, but could be released on life licence when no longer judged to be a risk.
On 6 May 1966, Brady was found guilty on three counts of murder and sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment. Hindley was found guilty of murdering Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and given two life sentences; she also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for harbouring Brady in connection with the murder of John Kilbride.
The key evidence against the couple included the tape recordings of Downey's made while they photographed her naked; the name of John Kilbride in a notebook; and a photograph of Hindley standing on top of the shallow grave where Kilbride was buried. Brady immediately admitted the murder of Edward Evans, but adamantly insisted that Hindley had no part in it. Brady finally confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett in November 1986.
Imprisonment
Brady spent 19 years in a mainstream prison (at one point befriending serial poisoner and fellow Nazi aficionado Graham Frederick Young) before he was declared mentally disordered in 1985 and sent to a mental hospital.
The trial judge spoke of his doubt that Brady could ever reform, describing him as "wicked beyond belief" - and effectively giving him little hope of eventual release. Successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision, while Lord Lane (the former Lord Chief Justice), set a 40-year-minimum term in 1982. In 1990 he was told by Home Secretary David Waddington that both he and Hindley should never be freed.
His successor Michael Howard agreed with this judgement in 1994 and told Brady so. Although home secretaries can no longer decide the minimum length of a life sentence, and a European Court of Justice case currently in the process could soon see lifelong imprisonment outlawed, but Brady always insisted that he never wants to be released. He has had to be force-fed since going on hunger strike in September 1999, after the High Court refused him the right to starve himself to death.
In early 2006, various newspapers reported that Brady was hospitalised and doesn't have much longer to live. He is, however, still alive at present, and currently being held at Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool. In the extremely unlikely event of Brady ever being released, he would almost certainly be immediately arrested, tried and convicted for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, two murders which he was never charged with.
In 2001 Brady published a book called The Gates of Janus, which was published by the underground American publishing firm Feral House. The book, Brady's analysis of serial murder and specific serial killers, sparked outrage when announced in Britain.
Despite his incarceration, Brady (and his murders) still provide headlines for the UK tabloid press. Fellow prisoner Linda Calvey recently told the The Daily Mirror that, before her death in November 2002, Hindley confessed their killing of a young female hitch-hiker.
It has been reported that Brady devised a secret code to stop the police from finding out where the body of Keith Bennett is buried, and that he is furious that a drama documentary based on the murder was shown on ITV1 in May 2006. He has bragged to various newspapers that he has stopped four previous films from being made.
In early 2006, it was reported that a woman tried to smuggle 50 paracetamol tablets to Brady at the prison hospital. The amount would have been sufficient for a successful suicide attempt. Hospital employees foiled the attempt using X-ray screening, which revealed the pills in two sweets tubes inside a hollowed out crime novel.
Winnie Johnson, the mother of Brady's one undiscovered victim, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 claiming that he could take police to within 20 yards of her son's body, but the authorities would not allow it.
It has been reported that Brady has written his autobiography and has given his solicitor instructions that it may only be published after Brady's death.
Improving our characters using Lazzi
This lesson we got given the task to make a short lazzi as this will help our characterisation of the stock characters. I got paired up with Lorna who is Brighella, as Brighella's nature is very bossy we decided to make a lazzi of her bossing me around:
- Starts of with Zanni centre stage sleeping, Brighella walks in and tries to wake up Zanni he gets annoyed and goes on a massive clicking frenzy
- He then then kicked me as it was a way to get her own back which wakes up Zanni
- Zanni is frightend and tries to run away from him however the heirachy requires him to listen to Brighella
- Brighella tells him to do a set of tasks which Zanni is pretending to listen
- when Brighella wants him to do those tasks Zanni gets confused and copies him, which makes Brighella angry and in result pushes him
- Zanni falls asleep again when Brighella leaves, he comes back and pushes him over again
Our piece was funny however individually I need to make sure that the audience can see my mask and I need to maintain my stance as it reminds the audience of who I am and my place in the hierarchy.
At the end of the lesson we decided to go through the opening scene again which was better as we understood our characters more, next lesson we will create our masks.
Not so funny
This lesson I brought my stuff to do the Ollies scene, I perfromed it to the class and I felt really uncomfortable because of this no one actually found it funny, so we decided that we need to scrap this idea as the class didnt like it. Now we are questioning if we should keep won doing comedy, overall our group decided that we should try something else, we looked at mental illness for example we looked at OCPD:
Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), also calledanankastic personality disorder,[1] is a personality disorder characterized by a general pattern of concern with orderliness, perfectionism, excessive attention to details, mental and interpersonal control, and a need for control over one's environment, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.Workaholism and miserliness are also seen often in those with this personality disorder. Rituals are performed to the point of excluding leisure activities and friendships. Persons affected with this disorder may find it hard to relax, always feeling that time is running out for their activities and that more effort is needed to achieve their goals. They may plan their activities down to the minute—a manifestation of the compulsive tendency to keep control over their environment and to dislike unpredictable things as things they cannot control.[2]
OCPD occurs in about 2–8% of the general population and 8–9% of psychiatric outpatients.[3] The disorder most often occurs in men.[4]
This is a distinct disorder from obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), which is an anxiety, rather than a personality disorder, and the relation between the two is contentious. Some, but not all, studies have found high comorbidity rates between the two disorders, and both may share outside similarities – rigid and ritual-like behaviors, for example. Hoarding, orderliness, and a need for symmetry and organization are often seen in people with either disorder. However, attitudes toward these behaviors differ between people affected with either of the disorders: for people with OCD, these behaviors are unwanted and seen as unhealthy, being the product of anxiety-inducing and involuntary thoughts, while for people with OCPD they are experienced as rational and desirable, being the result of, for example, a strong adherence to routines, a natural inclination towards cautiousness, or a desire to achieve perfection.
This would be intersting to experiment with as no one really knows what it is and its so rare that not many people suffer with it.
Next lesson we wioll decided what we want to do
Creating the opening scene
To start of this lesson we performed our improvised scenes which we came up with last lesson
Ollie' and Lewis' scene was really good however I think they should work more on movement to portray more of a slapstick comedy effect. The feedback for our scene was very good however everyone said that I need a higher pitch to make the first actor more feminine, I will practice this at home. Lorna's Rob's and Charlie's scene was really funny I think it was funny as there was a massive contrast of personalties. Our feedback is that during the sword fight they should be more vocal so the audience can tell the emotions of the characters just from their voice,
We then decided to make the opening of the perfromance:
- It starts with Harlequin on floor dead and Zanni just sleeping on stage left
- Brighella enters and notices the dead body and calls for help
- Doctor enters checks for a pulse and announces Harlequins death
- Brighella gets upset as Harlequin is his brother
- Pantolonie comes in and notices that Harlequin is dead and blames Brighella
- Il Captano gets blamed by Brighella which leads on to a story about Columbina so she gets blamed
- Columbina gets flirty with everyone and they fall for her and then she blames Zanni
- Zanni wakes up and notices the dead body which he tries to eat but Brighella stops him
- Pantolonie asks Zanni and he blames Columbina
- This leads onto a pointong frenzy shown by the diagram below
- The second pointing makes Zanni confused which leads him to point Harlequin
Next we want to go back to all of the flashbacks and the alibi's of each character. I like this opening scene as there is a lot of opportunities to add comedy for example we could make Doctor ramble on more which could result into Brighella getting annoyed.
The next we need to figure out is who Harlequine going to die, I liked the idea on how everyone wants to kill him and n each flashback he almost dies except for the final one where he could die I also like the idea that he could die from choking on his own food, this would add a comic affect as everyone has spent all the time and effort that actually in fact he died because he was too greedy.
Starting our new idea
This lesson we decided toi concentrate on Ollie scene, this is not final as he wants to get a script from out numberd therfore this idea is not final. We decided to devise a normal house hold where Rhiannon is a rebilous teenager and its my first day at sebior school, Cel is the mum and Ollie is the dad.
The scene stated off with calling Rhiannon but being a steriotypical teenager she has changed her mind and they have had an argument about that, whilst this is happening Cel is trying to get me up from bed, then they send me to the shower where the audience will see but there will be a towel so it looks like im naked when im not, the they wanted me to be vert femine and sing songs like: I feel like a woman' and 'Anaconda' whilst dancing in the shower this will be funny as itll be unexpected ontop of this it is very normal for this to happen, after that Olllie questions my gender then we leave to go to school. I think if we have more time this will be funny however it's going to be very hard to excuite it as we need to get the timing right.
Ollie is making a script for next lesson
The scene stated off with calling Rhiannon but being a steriotypical teenager she has changed her mind and they have had an argument about that, whilst this is happening Cel is trying to get me up from bed, then they send me to the shower where the audience will see but there will be a towel so it looks like im naked when im not, the they wanted me to be vert femine and sing songs like: I feel like a woman' and 'Anaconda' whilst dancing in the shower this will be funny as itll be unexpected ontop of this it is very normal for this to happen, after that Olllie questions my gender then we leave to go to school. I think if we have more time this will be funny however it's going to be very hard to excuite it as we need to get the timing right.
Ollie is making a script for next lesson
Phil Kaye
Phil Kaye is a famous poet and story writer I found a video online of one of his stories :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILQTDBqhPA&feature=youtu.be&list=PL3A3qMmk8p4LqIOQ04AjK60zM1X4XMx4t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILQTDBqhPA&feature=youtu.be&list=PL3A3qMmk8p4LqIOQ04AjK60zM1X4XMx4t
- I like the use of emphasis when he repeats his words.
- The use of tone and volume makes you immersed into the story
- I also like how he relates himself with the story it adds an extra layer to it
In order to improve my story I need to think where and when can I add emphasis and i need to make my voice very animated in order for people to stay interested I also got to use pauses for efects and give a ranges of volume for suspense and tension.
Devising Roberts scene
This lesson we decided to start on Roberts scene in the Snow queen, Robert decided to approach his scene very simplistically, basically we are acting out what is happening whilst narration is over the top. I'm glad that this scene is different as recently the scene have been very similar and our main task is to experiment with different styles. I also like how the actors are the props in the scene. In the scene I also play as guards and the court ladies.
For next lesson I will research about story tellers.
For next lesson I will research about story tellers.
Exploring ideas
This lesson we concentrated on how we can improve our idea and turn it into a performance, we separated into two different groups Group 1: Rob, Rhiannon and I , Group 2: Lorna, Charlie, Lewis and Ollie. As we are in two different this allows different ideas to be heard which can affect the final outcome.
In our group Rhiannon came up with a Brilliant idea: to have a court case to see who would kill Harlequin we expanded the ideas:
In our group Rhiannon came up with a Brilliant idea: to have a court case to see who would kill Harlequin we expanded the ideas:
- Doctor and Pantalonie could be the judges
- Zanni will the the defendant and his lawyer would be Columbina
- Brighella will be the prosecutor and his lawyer would be Il Capitano
- Harlequin would be the one who gets murdered
This plot gives us many chances to use flashbacks, to show alibi's however it could be too confusing to the audience and they wont understand what is happening. Another problem is that we wouldn't be able to co-operate Harlequin into the story.
We decided to see the other groups ideas their idea consisted of:
- Harlequin is dead on-stage and Brighella finds him she panics
- This leads her to question everyone
- Each character has a flashback on what they was doing earlier that day
- At the end Zanni confess' and gets a promotion
I really like this idea as everyone has been included equally however I think that it's a bit too cliché so if we would do this idea we would have to improve it.
We discussed that Rhiannon's idea was good and we should try it out with a few changes as we needed to add Harlequin into the plot, we decided that the one who should get killed should be Magnifico this is because we don't have to see him in the performance and we haven't casted a Magnifco therefore no one is left out. This resulted Harlequin being a witness.
So we started t to improvise a scene with the court case idea however it was too slow paced this would result into the audience lacking an interest into the show. Therefore we decided to go to the other group idea, we all splitted off into someone who we would hang out with as a character and started to devise a scene.
I was paired with Rhiannon where we made a Lovers scene, this included us exchanging kisses using a fake bow and arrow, I think the lovers will be hard as we cant touch each other. Next lesson we will perform this to the rest of the class.
Mask reseach
I like this mask as it shows how tired Zanni is from the folds in his skin. I also like the simplicity of it at symbolizes the simplicity of Zanni, however I would like to give him a thinner nose and maybe a bit longer, I would also make his eyes neutral instead of sad showing how confused he can get all the time, I think Zanni is not a depressed character so he shouldn't always look sad.
I prefer this mask as the eyes are big this shows how greedy Zanni could be. I also like the length of the nose as it shows that the Zanni is stupid and I want my Zanni to be incredibly stupid. However i think he should have a darker colour like the first picture, and I think there should be more folds around and under the eyes to show that he is exhausted.
I like the glamorization of this mask however I don't think it'll suit my Zanni as he is very simple and the different colurs and fabrics adds too much depth into the mask however I like the depth of the eyes and the folds around the left eye as it shows exhaustion.
This is an example of something I defiantly don't want I think this mask is too simple and shows no characterization except for the nose which I think is too wide that it looks weird. I aslo dont like the colour of the mask I think its too dark.
I now know what I want for my mask I want the shape of the second mask, I also like the nose of that one as the longer the nose the more stupid he is. I like the dirt colour of the first mask as it shows that he works hard and he is peasant-like. And I like the eyes on the second mask however could be a bit smaller and have folds on it like the right side of the third mask.
Our new ideas
This lesson we decided to plan on what we want to do for our final devised piece. I quite like the idea of comedy as the other groups are going down quite serious routes, however this is very risky as we dont know how the out come will become as nione of us has much experience in comedy, we also decid to go down dark comedy as this is very broad and we can work with a lot more stuff.
All of us liked the idea of looking into diffrent households and how they cope with certain situations, like the tv show: gogglebox, or the play 'Roads' by Jim Cartwright. We also thought that all the story should link to something and eventually we decided that we should concentrate on one man who died and its his funeraial, one person from each househld will go, its a but like 'love actually' where at the end you realise that all of the characters are somehow linked.
We also thought of tackiling tough topics however funny for example we dream for teenagers. We thought that we need some parts to be serious in order to make the piece more funny.
We also thought that we should if we are going comedy it should be british comedy so we can use scenes from shows like: 'Bad Education', 'Very British Problems'.
This will be very hard as we want the comedy to be natruael or elses itll just turn into a wreck.
So now we got our inital ideas we decided that we need to create character profiles and families and link them to the dead person.
Heres what the families are
Ollie section: He is an old flat mate of the dead persdon he lives with his: Wife(Cel), and two of his friends come over (Rhiannon and James.
James' section: He is the dead guys nephew, he is in a gay relationship with Ollie and he lives with his sister (Rhiannon) and his best friend is visting him(Cel)
Cel's section: she is the dead guys younger sister she lives with her boyfriend (Ollie), and her children (James and Rhiannon)
Rhiannon's section: she is the dead guys best friend and she lives with husband ( Ollie) and her children who are Twins (Cel and James)
Character profile for dead guy:
Name: John David
Age: 32
Cause of Death: Auto Erotic Assimilation
Lives: Liverpool
Music taste: House
Relationship status: Married for ten years to Fiona but then divorced.
Job: Accountant who studied in London.
I think if we do the right reseacrch this piece will be very intersting and entertainment.
All of us liked the idea of looking into diffrent households and how they cope with certain situations, like the tv show: gogglebox, or the play 'Roads' by Jim Cartwright. We also thought that all the story should link to something and eventually we decided that we should concentrate on one man who died and its his funeraial, one person from each househld will go, its a but like 'love actually' where at the end you realise that all of the characters are somehow linked.
We also thought of tackiling tough topics however funny for example we dream for teenagers. We thought that we need some parts to be serious in order to make the piece more funny.
We also thought that we should if we are going comedy it should be british comedy so we can use scenes from shows like: 'Bad Education', 'Very British Problems'.
This will be very hard as we want the comedy to be natruael or elses itll just turn into a wreck.
So now we got our inital ideas we decided that we need to create character profiles and families and link them to the dead person.
Heres what the families are
Ollie section: He is an old flat mate of the dead persdon he lives with his: Wife(Cel), and two of his friends come over (Rhiannon and James.
James' section: He is the dead guys nephew, he is in a gay relationship with Ollie and he lives with his sister (Rhiannon) and his best friend is visting him(Cel)
Cel's section: she is the dead guys younger sister she lives with her boyfriend (Ollie), and her children (James and Rhiannon)
Rhiannon's section: she is the dead guys best friend and she lives with husband ( Ollie) and her children who are Twins (Cel and James)
Character profile for dead guy:
Name: John David
Age: 32
Cause of Death: Auto Erotic Assimilation
Lives: Liverpool
Music taste: House
Relationship status: Married for ten years to Fiona but then divorced.
Job: Accountant who studied in London.
I think if we do the right reseacrch this piece will be very intersting and entertainment.
Getting into character
This lesson we concentrated more on characterization this is because we don't need to worry about plot too much as Commedia dell'arte is mostly improvised.
As I've already done research I know how I would like to move as Zanni:
As I've already done research I know how I would like to move as Zanni:
- Lead from nose as he is curious
- Has hunchback as this is to show he has the least power out of all of the stock characters
- Arms half lifted up
- Have toes pointed and foot outwards to make him look more like a trickster
- Always swap my support leg when I'm on one foot
- Quick movements showing curiosity
I think his stance is very difficult however I will keep trying until I think it has been perfected. After this we did a task where we saw how other people would walk as our character this gave us a variety of interpretations and this led us to change the movement to improve. I really liked how Lorna moved she was always twitching her head which showed that he is amazed by everything, I also like how high her keens where when she was walking or running I'm defiantly adding this to my Zanni to show more characterization.
For the first actor he moves very feminine like and all of his movements are OTT and fluent this was to show how much he loved his lover. The lovers actually never touch each other in Commedia dell'arte this gives us a chance to do funny lazzi blowing kisses to each other, I'll do some research into him later.
For next lesson we will start to design our masks for our characters
Juxtaposition of music
Todays lesson we decided that we wanted to explore the affect of music has on the audience. So we decided that we have happy music however do a sad piece. I the end we decided the best issue we could do would be Eating disorders, this is because Eating disorders are mis-interpreted by many people therefore we would like to inform the audience of Anorhexia, this is were you simply refuse to eat this is because they are insecure on how they look therefore they want to like what they are seeing in the mirror the only solution they can think of is to stop eating, this can result in many sideaffects including : brittle nails, fatigued all the time, seizures and even could kill you.. As Cel has sufferd from this a couple of times we have a view from someone who has sufferd, this will make us understand more on this issue, and we could understand he feelings the sufferer has went through.
So we started off by doing a sad song with happy movements this would show how people hide their insecurities inside and they dont make it obvious that they have a problem. We found this diffcult as we couldnt sound sad whilst doing a happy expression. If we had more time I think we could of done it however we did have a limited amount of time therfore we moved on to a diffrent idea; our next idea was that Ollie and I would represnt annorexia whilst Cel would be in the middle being the one who is suffering. This way we could play around with puppertry and use of lifts. We then came up with the idea of saying facts about the eating disorder whilst doing the movement.
We then found a song which was completely diffrent to our movement piece, the song was 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM. I think this music suited the piece a lot.However I think other song would of been more suited e.g. I feel Pretty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uiCkY67Rg.
We also referd the suffer as 'Ana' as it is short for Anarexia and it shows that this eating disorder has took over her life. I liked the movements especially the one at the end showing that we are shwoing that the eating disorder has consumed her.
Here are the facts which we used:
So we started off by doing a sad song with happy movements this would show how people hide their insecurities inside and they dont make it obvious that they have a problem. We found this diffcult as we couldnt sound sad whilst doing a happy expression. If we had more time I think we could of done it however we did have a limited amount of time therfore we moved on to a diffrent idea; our next idea was that Ollie and I would represnt annorexia whilst Cel would be in the middle being the one who is suffering. This way we could play around with puppertry and use of lifts. We then came up with the idea of saying facts about the eating disorder whilst doing the movement.
We then found a song which was completely diffrent to our movement piece, the song was 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM. I think this music suited the piece a lot.However I think other song would of been more suited e.g. I feel Pretty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0uiCkY67Rg.
We also referd the suffer as 'Ana' as it is short for Anarexia and it shows that this eating disorder has took over her life. I liked the movements especially the one at the end showing that we are shwoing that the eating disorder has consumed her.
Here are the facts which we used:
- Physical effects of an eating disorder can be fatal.
- 720,000 people in the UK are effected by an eating disorder.
- 90% of people with the conditions are female.
- The most common eating disorders are: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorder.
- Bulimia is 2 or 3 times more common than anorexia.
I enjoyed this piece as we got to inform the audience of how fatal eating disorders can do, I also like the way we exporessioned Cel's emotions by using movement, my favoroute part of it is the juxtapostioned music whoich was used in the piece. If we had more time I think we would of found more clever ways to personify the etasing disorders and we could ofg even concentrated on anothoer condition like Bulemia.
Creating the masks
Today we created the masks with Plaster Paris, this material is used to a cast for people who break their bones.
Firstly put coconut oil on our faces ensuring that the plaster paris wont affect our skin. Then we put wrt kitchen roll over our eyes so it wont get over our eyes, and then we added three layers of it onto onto the mouth upwards. We needed to make sure the face was sculpted especailly the eyes so the audience would notice the distinctive feautures of the mask.
Next lesoon over the half term we will decide who will be who.
Firstly put coconut oil on our faces ensuring that the plaster paris wont affect our skin. Then we put wrt kitchen roll over our eyes so it wont get over our eyes, and then we added three layers of it onto onto the mouth upwards. We needed to make sure the face was sculpted especailly the eyes so the audience would notice the distinctive feautures of the mask.
Next lesoon over the half term we will decide who will be who.
the rehabilitation scene
In today's lesson we continued on experimenting with ideas and techniques, I thought we should a soundscape as if used properly can create an immense atmosphere which would be a good asset for the performance. We also came up with the idea to change where the audience sat, instead of a stereotypical row we thought if we bring them into the show itself it will immerse them into the performance. I think the composition of the seats allowed us to engage the audience more into the performance, this made our audience more sympathetic towards the characters.
As you can see from the video everybody had a different story on how they have ended up in Prison, the way we did this was to add a mixture of movements and the use of speech, for example in Oliver's bit we contracted around him we did this to show that everything was disorientated from his point of view. We also thought carefully about the positioning of the performance as people need to be at a different angle so everyone can see, we found this very difficult as we cant perform in the middle without having our backs to a few people, if we do this again we would need to consider this factor. If we had more time with this I think we could of turned into a promenade performance with each story, again this would of been difficult as there is only four of us in the group therefore it'll be difficult to guide the audience and to change characters.
For my character I decided to maintain a soft voice, this was to comfort the audience and the characters. And as I'm a Councillor I wont be forceful as I'm there to help, therefore I will be asking questions and making sure that everyone is comfortable.
As you can see from the video everybody had a different story on how they have ended up in Prison, the way we did this was to add a mixture of movements and the use of speech, for example in Oliver's bit we contracted around him we did this to show that everything was disorientated from his point of view. We also thought carefully about the positioning of the performance as people need to be at a different angle so everyone can see, we found this very difficult as we cant perform in the middle without having our backs to a few people, if we do this again we would need to consider this factor. If we had more time with this I think we could of turned into a promenade performance with each story, again this would of been difficult as there is only four of us in the group therefore it'll be difficult to guide the audience and to change characters.
For my character I decided to maintain a soft voice, this was to comfort the audience and the characters. And as I'm a Councillor I wont be forceful as I'm there to help, therefore I will be asking questions and making sure that everyone is comfortable.
Research- Domestic violence
Today we are researching an idea for our devising unit, I decided to research Domestic abuse:
Around 1 in 5 children have been exposed to domestic abuse.
A third of children witnessing domestic violence also experienced another form of abuse.
The definition of domestic violence in England and Wales was expanded in March 2013 to include victims aged 16 and 17 years old. It also now includes controlling behaviour and coercive behaviour.
1 in 5 teenagers have been physically abused by their boyfriends or girlfriends.
This is made me realize that domestic abuse is more common than I actually thought. This made me think that I should do a piece where we can inform the audience about the problems of domestic abuse as I feel that not enough people know how often domestic abuse actually happens. I think it would be interesting if we can include a bit of physical theater into this issue, and maybe make the audience experience this abuse by using an Artone inspired piece.
I thought Radioactive from Rudimental would be a good song as it have a child like tune to it which would creep out the audience a little bit.
In the end we ended up with a small physical theater piece about a dad (me) of the family abusing his child and wife, we wanted to do this to show that domestic can become so serious that it can result in death. I'm looking forward to expand our idea and hopefully inform the audience of the seriousness of domestic abuse.
If we continue with this I would a motif in the movement piece which eventually stops or deteriorates to show that the relationship is breaking down.I would of also wanted people to say facts which I found through my research.
Here's the video:
1 in 5 teenagers have been physically abused by their boyfriends or girlfriends.
Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to have behavioural and emotional problems.
SOURCE: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/domestic-abuse/domestic-abuse-facts-statistics/This is made me realize that domestic abuse is more common than I actually thought. This made me think that I should do a piece where we can inform the audience about the problems of domestic abuse as I feel that not enough people know how often domestic abuse actually happens. I think it would be interesting if we can include a bit of physical theater into this issue, and maybe make the audience experience this abuse by using an Artone inspired piece.
I thought Radioactive from Rudimental would be a good song as it have a child like tune to it which would creep out the audience a little bit.
In the end we ended up with a small physical theater piece about a dad (me) of the family abusing his child and wife, we wanted to do this to show that domestic can become so serious that it can result in death. I'm looking forward to expand our idea and hopefully inform the audience of the seriousness of domestic abuse.
If we continue with this I would a motif in the movement piece which eventually stops or deteriorates to show that the relationship is breaking down.I would of also wanted people to say facts which I found through my research.
Here's the video:
Coming up with ideas
Today we presented our characters to the rest of the group this is so we have a clear understanding on what we can do with each character, I f we didn't know anyone else chatterer we wouldn't be able to make a well suited plot for everyone.
After this we decided that we need to make a plot we firstly wanted to decide what plot we want for our piece, so we made a hierarchy of the stock characters in our piece.I then told everyone the idea of a murder mystery. Everyone liked the idea but now we need to develop it.
So the next thing we need to decide was who is going to be killed the most suitable participant was Harlequino as he annoys everyone and seems to do nothing, therefore everyone can be suspect as no one really likes him.
The next thing we did was to establish the relationships with everyone so we have a clear idea of who will hang out with who here's the relationships for Zanni:
He is basically the servant of everyone however develops a relationship with Columbina as she is the only one who is nice to him.
1st actor relationships:
He is in love with 1st actress
He is also Pantolonie's son
Everyone else is jelousy of him as they also have a crush on 1st actress but she only likes 1st actor
Next lesson we will decide who will be the killer and if anyone else would be killed off
After this we decided that we need to make a plot we firstly wanted to decide what plot we want for our piece, so we made a hierarchy of the stock characters in our piece.I then told everyone the idea of a murder mystery. Everyone liked the idea but now we need to develop it.
So the next thing we need to decide was who is going to be killed the most suitable participant was Harlequino as he annoys everyone and seems to do nothing, therefore everyone can be suspect as no one really likes him.
The next thing we did was to establish the relationships with everyone so we have a clear idea of who will hang out with who here's the relationships for Zanni:
He is basically the servant of everyone however develops a relationship with Columbina as she is the only one who is nice to him.
1st actor relationships:
He is in love with 1st actress
He is also Pantolonie's son
Everyone else is jelousy of him as they also have a crush on 1st actress but she only likes 1st actor
Next lesson we will decide who will be the killer and if anyone else would be killed off
Research into Zanni
Here's the research I've been doing for my character:
The Zanni’s costume usually consists of white baggy clothing.[8] This was similar to the dress of peasants and farmworkers of the time.[1] The Zanni are also known to sport a peaked hat and a wooden sword.[9] The Zanni at first wore a full faced carnival mask, but because of the need for dialogue between Pantalone and the Zanni, the bottom of the mask was hinged and eventually cut away altogether. The longer the nose of the Zanni, the more stupid he is said to be.[8]
A Zanni is known to take and briefly keep items that belong to someone else. Some items that the Zanni would keep would be bags, letters, valuables, or food.[8]
The stance of Zanni has a “lowered centre of gravity” either from the earth or from carrying heavy bags and chairs. Zanni’s back is arched when he stands up and his knees are bent and apart with splayed feet. The support knee is bent and the other leg is extended with his toe pointed. He switches his feet a lot while speaking or listening within the same position, and without his head moving up and down. Zanni’s elbows are usually bent and arms half lifted
The Zanni is loud and his voice is coarse due to making a living outdoors trying to be heard in a market or busy street.
The earliest literary evidence portrays Zanni as a servant of Pantalone.[1] Of all of the commedia archetypes, Zanni’s survival instinct is the strongest. Zanni is also always hungry which leads to a vision of Utopia where “everything is comestible, reminiscent of the followers of gluttony in carnival processions”.[Note 2] A Zanni also has an animistic view of the world in that he senses a spirit in everything, so it could be eaten. Zanni is ignorant, loutish, and has no self-awareness. The simple act of thinking does not seem to be natural to Zanni. He is a very faithful individual who prefers to live in the present day. Zanni never looks for a place to sleep it just seems to happen to him often in situations where it shouldn’t. Lastly, all of his reactions are completely emotional.[13]
Zanni’s relationship to the audience is that he is the most sympathetic character and treats the audience collectively so he is able to address the audience directly. Zanni contributes to the plot by being the “principal contributor to any confusion”.[13
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanni
This have cleared my mind on how I should act as Zanni I think this is a very difficult role as he needs to be OTT which I find very difficult, however I like the fact that he has a good relationship with the audience. I think the most time consuming part would be the movement of Zanni so the fierts thing I'm going to try to master is his movements.
The Zanni’s costume usually consists of white baggy clothing.[8] This was similar to the dress of peasants and farmworkers of the time.[1] The Zanni are also known to sport a peaked hat and a wooden sword.[9] The Zanni at first wore a full faced carnival mask, but because of the need for dialogue between Pantalone and the Zanni, the bottom of the mask was hinged and eventually cut away altogether. The longer the nose of the Zanni, the more stupid he is said to be.[8]A Zanni is known to take and briefly keep items that belong to someone else. Some items that the Zanni would keep would be bags, letters, valuables, or food.[8]
The stance of Zanni has a “lowered centre of gravity” either from the earth or from carrying heavy bags and chairs. Zanni’s back is arched when he stands up and his knees are bent and apart with splayed feet. The support knee is bent and the other leg is extended with his toe pointed. He switches his feet a lot while speaking or listening within the same position, and without his head moving up and down. Zanni’s elbows are usually bent and arms half lifted
The Zanni is loud and his voice is coarse due to making a living outdoors trying to be heard in a market or busy street.The earliest literary evidence portrays Zanni as a servant of Pantalone.[1] Of all of the commedia archetypes, Zanni’s survival instinct is the strongest. Zanni is also always hungry which leads to a vision of Utopia where “everything is comestible, reminiscent of the followers of gluttony in carnival processions”.[Note 2] A Zanni also has an animistic view of the world in that he senses a spirit in everything, so it could be eaten. Zanni is ignorant, loutish, and has no self-awareness. The simple act of thinking does not seem to be natural to Zanni. He is a very faithful individual who prefers to live in the present day. Zanni never looks for a place to sleep it just seems to happen to him often in situations where it shouldn’t. Lastly, all of his reactions are completely emotional.[13]
Zanni’s relationship to the audience is that he is the most sympathetic character and treats the audience collectively so he is able to address the audience directly. Zanni contributes to the plot by being the “principal contributor to any confusion”.[13
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanni
This have cleared my mind on how I should act as Zanni I think this is a very difficult role as he needs to be OTT which I find very difficult, however I like the fact that he has a good relationship with the audience. I think the most time consuming part would be the movement of Zanni so the fierts thing I'm going to try to master is his movements.
Research into Commedia Dell'arte
This lesson we conducted some research into Commedia Dell'arte. This is so we have a more clear understanding of the form of theater here's what I researched:
Conventional plot lines were written on themes of sex, jealousy, love and old age. Many of the basic plot elements can be traced back to the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, some of which were themselves translations of lost Greek comedies of the 4th century BC. However, it is more probable that the comici used contemporary novella, or, traditional sources as well, and drew from current events and local news of the day. Not all scenari were comic, there were some mixed forms and even tragedies. Shakespeare's The Tempest is drawn from a popular scenario in the Scala collection, his Polonius (Hamlet) is drawn from Pantalone, and his clowns bear homage to the zanni.
Comici performed written comedies at court. Song and dance were widely used, and a number of innamorata were skilled madrigalists, a song form that uses chromatics and close harmonies. Audiences came to see the performers, with plot lines becoming secondary to the performance. Among the great innamorate, Isabella Andreini was perhaps the most widely known, and a medallion dedicated to her reads "eternal fame". Tristano Martinelli achieved international fame as the first of the great Arlecchinos, and was honored by the Medici and the Queen of France. Performers made use of well-rehearsed jokes and stock physical gags, known as lazzi and concetti, as well as on-the-spot improvised and interpolated episodes and routines, called burle (singular burla, Italian for joke), usually involving a practical joke.
Since the productions were improvised, dialogue and action could easily be changed to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, while still using old jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costumes, masks, and props, such as a type of baton known as a slapstick. These characters included the forebears of the modern clown, namely Harlequin (arlecchino) and Zanni.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one elder (vecchio) or several elders (vecchi) are preventing this from happening, leading the lovers to ask one or more zanni (eccentric servants) for help. Typically the story ends happily, with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story, as well as many that diverge wholly from the structure, such as a well-known story about Arlecchino becoming mysteriously pregnant, or the Punch and Judy scenario.
While generally personally unscripted, the performances often were based on scenarios that gave some semblance of plot to the largely improvised format. The Flaminio Scala scenarios, published in the early 17th century, are the most widely known collection and representative of its most esteemed compagnia, I Gelosi.
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell%27arte
The research has made me think of possible scenarios which we could do I quite like the idea of a murder mystery inspired piece, I think this is very controversial as it hasn't been done before and we could add a lot of slap stick comedy into it.
I also thought of a scenario where everyone could do a April fools inspired piece and everyone could gang up on Zanni, this is very typical and could be funny but I'm worried that it could be too cliche.
I decided to look up more Lazzi which we could possibly use for our piece:
Fire Lazzo
At the beginning of the meal, Harlequin arrives in a panic, saying that the kitchen is on fire. Don Juan and all the valets run there. In the meantime, Harlequin sits down and eats all he can. Optionally, when the others return complaining that there was no fire, Harlequin replies: “I said THE kitchen was on fire. I didn’t mean YOUR kitchen was on fire.”
Kiss and Puke Lazzo
One of the women is obligated to kiss the vecchio. Pantalone announces that his eyes are closed and that he expects a big, wet, sloppy one. The first woman (obligated to do the kissing) shoves the second woman toward Pantalone while moving away to puke at the thought of kissing the vecchio. The second woman (equally disgusted) blows a kiss at the vecchio. The vecchio feels the blown kiss and is enraptured (he should be cued audibly). The second woman joins the first in puking. The vecchio notices the first woman puking, brags on his sexual prowess being to much for her, and performs some lewd physical action. The first woman rises/turns just in time to see the vecchio performing the lewd action, is disgusted again, and returns to puking. Alternately, when the vecchio performs the action, he dislocates his hip.
https://sites.google.com/site/italiancommedia/lazzi
I like these to Lazzi and we could possibly consider to add these in to our own piece.
We also got told who is who for our piece:
James: 1st actor/ Zanni
Rhiannon: 1st actress/ Columbina
Lewis: Pantolonie
Lorna: Brighella
Charlie: Harliqueno
Ollie: Doctore
Robert: Il Capitano
For next lesson we will conduct research for our characters.
Conventional plot lines were written on themes of sex, jealousy, love and old age. Many of the basic plot elements can be traced back to the Roman comedies of Plautus and Terence, some of which were themselves translations of lost Greek comedies of the 4th century BC. However, it is more probable that the comici used contemporary novella, or, traditional sources as well, and drew from current events and local news of the day. Not all scenari were comic, there were some mixed forms and even tragedies. Shakespeare's The Tempest is drawn from a popular scenario in the Scala collection, his Polonius (Hamlet) is drawn from Pantalone, and his clowns bear homage to the zanni.
Comici performed written comedies at court. Song and dance were widely used, and a number of innamorata were skilled madrigalists, a song form that uses chromatics and close harmonies. Audiences came to see the performers, with plot lines becoming secondary to the performance. Among the great innamorate, Isabella Andreini was perhaps the most widely known, and a medallion dedicated to her reads "eternal fame". Tristano Martinelli achieved international fame as the first of the great Arlecchinos, and was honored by the Medici and the Queen of France. Performers made use of well-rehearsed jokes and stock physical gags, known as lazzi and concetti, as well as on-the-spot improvised and interpolated episodes and routines, called burle (singular burla, Italian for joke), usually involving a practical joke.
Since the productions were improvised, dialogue and action could easily be changed to satirize local scandals, current events, or regional tastes, while still using old jokes and punchlines. Characters were identified by costumes, masks, and props, such as a type of baton known as a slapstick. These characters included the forebears of the modern clown, namely Harlequin (arlecchino) and Zanni.
The classic, traditional plot is that the innamorati are in love and wish to be married, but one elder (vecchio) or several elders (vecchi) are preventing this from happening, leading the lovers to ask one or more zanni (eccentric servants) for help. Typically the story ends happily, with the marriage of the innamorati and forgiveness for any wrongdoings. There are countless variations on this story, as well as many that diverge wholly from the structure, such as a well-known story about Arlecchino becoming mysteriously pregnant, or the Punch and Judy scenario.
While generally personally unscripted, the performances often were based on scenarios that gave some semblance of plot to the largely improvised format. The Flaminio Scala scenarios, published in the early 17th century, are the most widely known collection and representative of its most esteemed compagnia, I Gelosi.
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell%27arte
The research has made me think of possible scenarios which we could do I quite like the idea of a murder mystery inspired piece, I think this is very controversial as it hasn't been done before and we could add a lot of slap stick comedy into it.
I also thought of a scenario where everyone could do a April fools inspired piece and everyone could gang up on Zanni, this is very typical and could be funny but I'm worried that it could be too cliche.
I decided to look up more Lazzi which we could possibly use for our piece:
Fire Lazzo
At the beginning of the meal, Harlequin arrives in a panic, saying that the kitchen is on fire. Don Juan and all the valets run there. In the meantime, Harlequin sits down and eats all he can. Optionally, when the others return complaining that there was no fire, Harlequin replies: “I said THE kitchen was on fire. I didn’t mean YOUR kitchen was on fire.”
Kiss and Puke Lazzo
One of the women is obligated to kiss the vecchio. Pantalone announces that his eyes are closed and that he expects a big, wet, sloppy one. The first woman (obligated to do the kissing) shoves the second woman toward Pantalone while moving away to puke at the thought of kissing the vecchio. The second woman (equally disgusted) blows a kiss at the vecchio. The vecchio feels the blown kiss and is enraptured (he should be cued audibly). The second woman joins the first in puking. The vecchio notices the first woman puking, brags on his sexual prowess being to much for her, and performs some lewd physical action. The first woman rises/turns just in time to see the vecchio performing the lewd action, is disgusted again, and returns to puking. Alternately, when the vecchio performs the action, he dislocates his hip.
https://sites.google.com/site/italiancommedia/lazzi
I like these to Lazzi and we could possibly consider to add these in to our own piece.
We also got told who is who for our piece:
James: 1st actor/ Zanni
Rhiannon: 1st actress/ Columbina
Lewis: Pantolonie
Lorna: Brighella
Charlie: Harliqueno
Ollie: Doctore
Robert: Il Capitano
For next lesson we will conduct research for our characters.
The start to Devising
In this lesson the task was to pick out an idea and expand it by coming up with a short scene, our group decided ot experiment with the idea of having a coma, in this piece we wanted the audience to see peoples P.O.V of the woman who was in the coma (Rhiannon). I liked this idea because the audiencde emphasized for the charecter in the coma; even though they dont a lot about her, I find it facinating when an audience can be so close to a character who they dont really know, this made me think of the techniques and scenarios we can use so the audience can fell close to the character.
Our scene was a mix of physical thatre and dialogue to show the relationship between the characters. The first scnario thatthe audience saw was a fight with the coma paitent (Rhiannon) and her best friend (Cel), basically they have an argument and Rhiannon fells vbetrayed by her, this results in a Hym Hands(A Frantic Assembly movement technique) inspired movemnet piece, on video it did look weird as there was no music to create an atmosphere. This scene was heavily based on movement whilst Olivers piece had a mix of both, in this part Oliver admits his love for Rhiannon, they hug and then Rhiannon gets lifted and put back onto her bed. My scene with her was all dialogue, the reason for this is that I wanted to experiment with style to see the audience reaction to each piece. My piece was me talking Rhiannon and expressing my feeling to my little sister who is now in a coma. Overall the piece was sucessful but could of been expanded. If we had more time with this I would of each scene longer and add kre techniques like flashbacks showing my realtionship with Rhiannon for example I could hold her hand whilst taking her to school, or maybe trying to protect from a boy. Further more I think we could've added light humour which would of made the audience more emotional over our piece.
Next lesson I want to experiment with more techniques and possible genre.
Heres the link to the video:
https://youtu.be/e6YkXc28YMo
Our scene was a mix of physical thatre and dialogue to show the relationship between the characters. The first scnario thatthe audience saw was a fight with the coma paitent (Rhiannon) and her best friend (Cel), basically they have an argument and Rhiannon fells vbetrayed by her, this results in a Hym Hands(A Frantic Assembly movement technique) inspired movemnet piece, on video it did look weird as there was no music to create an atmosphere. This scene was heavily based on movement whilst Olivers piece had a mix of both, in this part Oliver admits his love for Rhiannon, they hug and then Rhiannon gets lifted and put back onto her bed. My scene with her was all dialogue, the reason for this is that I wanted to experiment with style to see the audience reaction to each piece. My piece was me talking Rhiannon and expressing my feeling to my little sister who is now in a coma. Overall the piece was sucessful but could of been expanded. If we had more time with this I would of each scene longer and add kre techniques like flashbacks showing my realtionship with Rhiannon for example I could hold her hand whilst taking her to school, or maybe trying to protect from a boy. Further more I think we could've added light humour which would of made the audience more emotional over our piece.
Next lesson I want to experiment with more techniques and possible genre.
Heres the link to the video:
https://youtu.be/e6YkXc28YMo
Continuning with my story ...
Today lesson we continued with my story. We started working on this scene last term but never got the time to finish it. We started off with refreshing our minds with the dance. I concentrated more on lyrical dancing as the story will make more sense on top of the narration.
Here's what I devised:
Here's what I devised:
- Charlie and Ollie will lift up the curtain to un-reveal Rhiannon as the queen, whilst this is happening Kay and Gerda (Lewis and Lorna)do a roll this way they are lower showing the power difference during the scene
- On 'Dazzling, Sparkling ice' Lewis and Lorna does jagged movement representing the ice
- Lorna and Lewis roll of the stage, and shortly after Rhiannon exits
- Charlie, Rob Ollie and Lorna Create a mammoth on silhouette whilst Lewis is a looking at a book of 'birds and beasts' hence why they created a mammoth
- Then Lewis reacts to the piece of glass stuck in his eye and heart, Lewis reacts to this very OTT as he is a kid.
- Then Lorna enters and asks what is wrong with Lewis, and the Lewis and then Lewis tells her that everything is okay whist this is happening everyone else imitates a flower behind the sheet. Lewis sais that the flowers look ugly and then they change to be ugly flowers and then Lewis kicks them which results to the flowers falling over
- Everybody forms a mammoth again but this time is disfigured which results in everyone separating their parts
- Rob goes on stage with Lewis and Lewis controls him to make him look ugly
- Same happens again with Lorna but it gets wore
- Rhiannon Olive and Charlie go on all fours with Rob on top behind the sheet so it looks like Rob is riding a sledge
- Lewis then run after the S;edge in the silhouette and jumps on.
Next lesson we will finish my segment of the story so we can move on. This lesson went well however I'm a bit worried that my piece will be physically exhausting for the others.
Chasing Pavements
Now Flint Street is finally finished, we have jumped to our next unit: Devising, our task is to create a made up bit of performance from a stimuli, in order to be successful we will have to experiment with ideas even if we think the out come wont be so great. This unit gives us a chance to use new techniques and types of theater which can possibly improve our abilities. But the key aspect in this unit is to work as a team.
The stimuli we have been given is :Chasing Pavements, this is Grammy award song performed by the very talented Adele. When I think of this title I instantly think of loss and losing hope because a pavement never ends its an ongoing thing which then gave me the idea of dreams being this pavement, I can believe that I will become an actor but the chances of that happening is very low this led me on to think about realization and how people cope with this situation; some people just don't pay attention to reality and stay optimistic, controversially people give up their dreams which makes them lose their hope and could continue into depression but their is a middle point which is they degrade their dream into something possible for example having a family to go home everyday or to become an actor but not a mainstream actor. In conclusion I think the main morale of 'Chasing Pavements' is the realization of the real and how her character deals with it.
Here are the Lyrics to 'Chasing Pavements': Annotations
I've made up my mind,- She is making out that she knows what to do but she doesnt she does this to comfort herself
Don't need to think it over- Very controversial as it looks like she has been thinking a lot
If I'm wrong, I am right - Unsure on what to do next
Don't need to look no further,- she is trying to convince her self that she its going to be okay, she does this so her mnd can be clear
This ain't lust
I know this is love- 'love' is the root of all evil
But if I tell the world
I'll never say enough - its too big to resolve
'cause it was not said to you -----------------------------------------
And that's exactly what I need to do- she is singing to her 'love'
If I end up with you----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Chorus:]
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements- this could be a metaphor for chasing her love
Even if it leads nowhere?- she thinks that it'll end up no where
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place? Her questions show that she is unsure on what to do next
Should I leave it there?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I build myself up
And fly around in circles- 'fly' suggests the freedom but form what ' circle' suggests that this is an ongoing cycle
Waitin' as my heart drops
And my back begins to tingle
Finally, could this be it - she might be relieved that she has found the one
This verse is different to the other one as she is no longer doubting her self is this because she has finally made up her mid or she might be thinking the situation differently
[Chorus:]
Or should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste- what if it doesn't work out? She wants it to but she doesn't want to risk her heart being broken again
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep on chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
It's a big cry for help she is asking all of these questions but no one is answering them. She knows that there are no answers, so why is she asking them?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep on chasin' pavements? To keep travelling until she meets her true 'lover'
Should I just keep on chasin' pavements? but what if the one she is running away from is
Ohh oh her true 'love
[Chorus:]
should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?- she doesn't want to be seen desperate
My interpretation of this song strongly rely on realization and how this is dealt with. Adele's character is running away from her boyfriend and she is asking herself if she should leave him or stay with him, this is a very difficult question for her as she doesn't know if she is going to find another true love
Here is Lewis' interpretation which is completely different to mine:
Source: http://lewisfisherra.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/single-devised-unit-cp-research-201215_95.html?showComment=1452181811034#c8341471661563275746
I have never considered this, but it makes clear sense basically Lewis is making out that Adele has a crush on this man who defiantly could be the one but she hasnt got the guts to ask him out, through the song she is doubting her self and thinking deeply if she should ask this man out but we never get to know the outcome.
I wanted to know the actual reason behind the song so I decied to go on the internet and I found this:
Source: http://adele.wikia.com/wiki/Chasing_Pavements_(song)
This song is about Adele's ex boyfriend and how she felt at the time if she should stay with him or to go and meet a new person. I think its extrodinary as she sais that she just kind of made up the lyrics yet they fit so well and adds a lot of depth to the song.I also like the theme of hope in this song, it makes me think about my dreams and how I need hope to furfill them.
The chorgragphy in the video is very smart. It's based around a car crash occuring in Hyde park. During the video the victims interact with shadows, I think the shadows repersent theloved ones who are dead,a nd it shows how you can still interact with people even if they dont live with you anymore, the video led me to an idea that maybe we can incoperate this idea of still being able to be with your loved by using shadows.
Heres the link to the video:
The stimuli we have been given is :Chasing Pavements, this is Grammy award song performed by the very talented Adele. When I think of this title I instantly think of loss and losing hope because a pavement never ends its an ongoing thing which then gave me the idea of dreams being this pavement, I can believe that I will become an actor but the chances of that happening is very low this led me on to think about realization and how people cope with this situation; some people just don't pay attention to reality and stay optimistic, controversially people give up their dreams which makes them lose their hope and could continue into depression but their is a middle point which is they degrade their dream into something possible for example having a family to go home everyday or to become an actor but not a mainstream actor. In conclusion I think the main morale of 'Chasing Pavements' is the realization of the real and how her character deals with it.
Here are the Lyrics to 'Chasing Pavements': Annotations
I've made up my mind,- She is making out that she knows what to do but she doesnt she does this to comfort herself
Don't need to think it over- Very controversial as it looks like she has been thinking a lot
If I'm wrong, I am right - Unsure on what to do next
Don't need to look no further,- she is trying to convince her self that she its going to be okay, she does this so her mnd can be clear
This ain't lust
I know this is love- 'love' is the root of all evil
But if I tell the world
I'll never say enough - its too big to resolve
'cause it was not said to you -----------------------------------------
And that's exactly what I need to do- she is singing to her 'love'
If I end up with you----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Chorus:]
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements- this could be a metaphor for chasing her love
Even if it leads nowhere?- she thinks that it'll end up no where
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place? Her questions show that she is unsure on what to do next
Should I leave it there?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I build myself up
And fly around in circles- 'fly' suggests the freedom but form what ' circle' suggests that this is an ongoing cycle
Waitin' as my heart drops
And my back begins to tingle
Finally, could this be it - she might be relieved that she has found the one
This verse is different to the other one as she is no longer doubting her self is this because she has finally made up her mid or she might be thinking the situation differently
[Chorus:]
Or should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste- what if it doesn't work out? She wants it to but she doesn't want to risk her heart being broken again
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep on chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
It's a big cry for help she is asking all of these questions but no one is answering them. She knows that there are no answers, so why is she asking them?
Should I give up?
Or should I just keep on chasin' pavements? To keep travelling until she meets her true 'lover'
Should I just keep on chasin' pavements? but what if the one she is running away from is
Ohh oh her true 'love
[Chorus:]
should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?
Or would it be a waste
Even if I knew my place?
Should I leave it there?
should I give up?
Or should I just keep chasin' pavements
Even if it leads nowhere?- she doesn't want to be seen desperate
My interpretation of this song strongly rely on realization and how this is dealt with. Adele's character is running away from her boyfriend and she is asking herself if she should leave him or stay with him, this is a very difficult question for her as she doesn't know if she is going to find another true love
Here is Lewis' interpretation which is completely different to mine:
(1) The song is about a woman who hasn't confessed her feelings to someone. She is definitely in love with him. She knows what she wants, and she's ready to go for it
(2) It doesn't matter who knows about her feelings. There's only one person who absolutely needs to know, and that is the man himself. Otherwise, how will he know that she's in love with him?
(3) So should she stay in the background/as a friend? Or should she go for it? Follow the pavement and take a chance.. even if in the end, she doesn't get what she wanted. Is the greater risk in never trying? She knows to him, her place is as his friend, but she wants to take things further.
(4) She gets so high on the possibility of a relationship, but she comes back to reality when she realises they're still just friends. But the slightest hint of him pleases her and one day she'll help him realise they should be together.
I have never considered this, but it makes clear sense basically Lewis is making out that Adele has a crush on this man who defiantly could be the one but she hasnt got the guts to ask him out, through the song she is doubting her self and thinking deeply if she should ask this man out but we never get to know the outcome.
I wanted to know the actual reason behind the song so I decied to go on the internet and I found this:
lyrically, Adele said, "It doesn't really make sense, does it? 'Chasing Pavements' is about chasing a boy — even if you know something's gonna go wrong, you really want it to go right, so you just don't give up. I can't write other people's drama, and I can't glamorize a microwave or anything like that, so I end up writing songs about things I've experienced." [1] She added that, although the song is about heartbreak, it is also very much a song of hope: "It's me being hopeful for a relationship that's very much over. The sort of relationship you hate when you're in it, but miss when you're not." [2]
Adele reiterated to The Sun in January 2008 that "Chasing Pavements" is about splitting up with her ex and having her heart broken for the first time:
| That song is about should I give up or should I just keep trying to run after you when there's nothing there? I was only with him for four months but when I signed my record deal I had to write an album, as I hardly had any songs, so I wrote about him. |
She also revealed:
| I couldn't write songs for ages because I found it really hard writing songs for fun or writing them because someone had invested a lot of money and time in me. I just couldn't do it. And then I met my ex-boyfriend and it was great to begin with and then it was really shitty. And then I wrote about ten songs in about five weeks. I love him still and I got an album out of him. I used him more than he used me. And he loves it. It's not bitter. He loves it when the song comes on the radio. He says: 'It's about me.' And I'm like, 'It's a song about heartbreak, you fool!' [2] |
Source: http://adele.wikia.com/wiki/Chasing_Pavements_(song)
This song is about Adele's ex boyfriend and how she felt at the time if she should stay with him or to go and meet a new person. I think its extrodinary as she sais that she just kind of made up the lyrics yet they fit so well and adds a lot of depth to the song.I also like the theme of hope in this song, it makes me think about my dreams and how I need hope to furfill them.
The chorgragphy in the video is very smart. It's based around a car crash occuring in Hyde park. During the video the victims interact with shadows, I think the shadows repersent theloved ones who are dead,a nd it shows how you can still interact with people even if they dont live with you anymore, the video led me to an idea that maybe we can incoperate this idea of still being able to be with your loved by using shadows.
Heres the link to the video:
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