Supporting Notes
Play: The
Messiah
Practitioner: Steven
Berkoff
Skill: Acting
Section
One- Key features of Steven Berkoff (our practitioner), and justification of
our choice of The Messiah to illustrate his influence.
For our AS Level performance piece,
we chose iconic director- playwright Steven Berkoff as a practitioner. His
style is founded within physical theatre, often exploiting this to the point of
almost opposing realism entirely. He says- ‘Realism can eventually have a deadening
effect, since it only mirrors a conscious world’. This factor was our impetus
for moving towards Berkoff as a practitioner. Previously, none of our
ensemble’s members had experienced acting that diverged from naturalism, so we
wanted to attempt something completely new. This would allow us to learn the methods
of our chosen practitioner in their entirety; gaining a better understanding of
them. Berkoff- a cornerstone of the physical theatre movement- seemed to be the
incontrovertible choice.
Key Features of Berkoff
Berkoff’s works have undoubtedly
provoked discernable critical response from their audiences. He sets out to
intentionally shock his audience, pushing the boundaries past what is
considered to be acceptable, describing his attitude towards theatre as ‘a kind
of rebellion.’ Our play relates to this as it presents Jesus as a revolutionary;
a normal man, and as the son of God, and contains several scenes which our
audience may find controversial or uncomfortable.
Berkoff adopts European styles: mime,
minimalism, stylised characterisation etcetera. Berkoff says of mime- ‘it is a
wonderful tool; it awakes the audience’s imagination’. He believes in the
importance of the whole body, using ‘total theatre’ in his productions- the
concept that all elements of the theatre are equally important. Berkoff often
directs his ensemble to envelop all of these elements in their physicality. An
actor may alter their body to become a part of the set through the
implementation of mime. In our piece we emulate this by using mime and the
‘whole body’ to create the illusion of the set ourselves.
Plays We’ve Seen to Inform Our
Performance
To allow
ourselves a greater understanding of the key features of Berkoff’s work, we
watched a variety of his productions. East, praised by many critics as being a
startlingly outrageous, original piece of theatre, helped me greatly in
grasping Berkovian expression. Its unashamed use of cockney
rhyming slang and obscene imagery helped our ensemble to identify vocal methods
to highlight the ‘kind of rebellion’ in Berkoff’s writing. We have also watched
clips of various other Berkoff productions such as ‘Decadence’, ‘The Trial’, ‘Metamorphosis’
and ‘Dog’ to help us with characterisation.
We have seen a variety of physical theatre pieces, such
as ‘Don John’ by Kneehigh and ‘A Beautiful Burnout’ by Frantic Assembly. These
companies are heavily influenced by the work of Berkoff in their physical styles;
so allowed us to see how we could apply techniques that Berkoff has popularised
within the genre. For example, Frantic Assembly used mime and slow motion in
action sequences, something we have drawn from for our performance.
Deciding on a Play and Justification of ‘The Messiah’ in Relation
to Berkoff’s Style
Experiencing
these pieces encouraged us to research plays which would allow us to showcase
Berkoff’s style. Initially, we decided to adapt ‘Two’ by Jim Cartwright.
Although at first we were enthusiastic about performing this play as it enabled
us to use Berkovian techniques such as mime and puppetry, it soon became
apparent that if we wanted to provide a true expose of Berkovian theatre, we
needed to use Berkoff himself as our practitioner. This allowed us more of a
scope explore his ideas to the full in their intended context.
‘The Messiah’
appealed to us as it includes a wide variety of characters, meaning we could implement
Berkoff’s multi-rolling to a more successful end. It also involves great
contrasts in characterisation to build on. The play presents traditional
theological figures in a very controversial and humanised light at times, so we
could also achieve Berkoff’s ‘kid of rebellion’ in our portrayals.
Key Features of ‘The Messiah’
allowing us to Perform in the Style of Berkoff
·
Limited
stage directions, leaving the script open to our interpretation, giving us artistic
leeway to demonstrate the directorial originality and physical ingenuity that
would be apparent in any Berkovian piece.
·
Use
of a chorus (i.e.- the soldiers) allowing us to work effectively as an ensemble,
every member equal, helping each other to perform to our best ability.
·
This
also justifies our use of Berkovian unison and routine. As these characters are
fundamentally a unit, we can manipulate their actions to emulate Berkoff’s use
of synchronicity.
·
Inclusion
of monologues and dialogues, enabling us to demonstrate Berkovian mime and the
‘whole body’ concept, mimicking the language of these, as Berkoff does in his
other plays. This also lends itself to the breaking of the fourth wall- Berkoff
often directs his actors to speak directly to the audience, acknowledging their
presence as we often do in these instances.
·
An
abundance of distinct characters, permitting us to multi- role, thus hopefully
highlighting our skill at interchanging our extended characterisations.
·
Controversial
subject of the play- qualifying us to shock our audience, hopefully achieving
Berkoff’s ‘kind of rebellion’.
·
Vulgar language allows us to achieve the
obscene expression of the script’s content and extends our characterisation to
shock our audience with Berkoff’s techniques.
Bibliography/Webography
The Messiah and Steven Berkoff
Reviews and responses:
Diary of a Juvenile Delinquent by
Steven Berkoff
The Theatre of Steven Berkoff by
Steven Berkoff
Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of
Self- Importance by Robert Cross
Section 2-
Dramatic Intentions, Interpretation of the Text and Berkoff’s Influence
Dramatic Intentions
Our dramatic intention for The
Messiah is predominantly to engage and interest our audience. We aim to purvey
the story in an original, interesting manner; but also to challenge our
audience’s principles, as this is an important element of Steven Berkoff’s
style. We intend to create a shocking, well-paced piece which will maintain the
audience’s interest to enable us to achieve the ‘kind of rebellion’ Berkoff
assumes using our technique to reproduce this rebellious attitude.
Bryce Hallett said- ‘there is
something mesmerising, gleeful, vulgar and outrageous about Steven Berkoff's
adaptability as an actor which makes an audience take notice even when he's not
uttering a word.’ We hope to attain this level of performance by encapsulating
our audience in the worlds of our characters. This ‘outrageous’ nature of
Berkoff’s work is a key aspect we aim to include, professing the controversial
subject of toying with the idea of Jesus as both a revolutionary and the
Messiah, to cause the audience to react with shock and thought. We aspire to replicate
Berkoff’s ‘economical, playful and polished’ style by using our bodies to create the illusion of the
setting (economical), improvising some of our acting and (playful) and
rehearsing our mime and routine thoroughly so that all action is executed with
precision (polished).
Interpretation
To
be in keeping with Berkoff’s shock element, we portray Jesus as a man, a
revolutionary, as well as the Son of God. Therefore we kept scenes such as
scene six, which present him as having normal human emotions and faults. We
also include monologues from Satan and Judas to show a realistic and balanced
story on the crucifixion.
As
we chose to use minimalism and regarding set design, we were able to use a
timeless setting for our piece. This allows all audience members to relate to
the concepts of the play. We decided to present Satan using three additional
members besides the devil himself as ‘minions’. The purpose of this was to
signify the part of everyone in which Satan ‘lurks’, and to add new dimensions
to the scene. The three ‘minions’ become almost a visual representation of what
Satan is saying; an instrument he uses to entice and convince the audience.
It
was important to us that our choral characters must contrast significantly with
the larger characters and each other. The purpose of the soldier could be seen
as being to expose the faults in society; the lax attitude towards religion and
political issues. Thus, we performed the soldiers as unintelligent and bawdy
skinhead cockneys. This is a strong cultural image and can allude to how
religion can affect such rich and specific groups, or lead to strong rebellion.
The priests are simulated as being slimy, sly characters; that come across as
almost perverse in their manner of distorted movement and unnerving voices.
Steven Berkoff’s Influence on our
Piece
Steven
Berkoff’s influence on our play will hopefully be immediately apparent upon
watching. We make a strong use of Berkoff’s techniques of minimalism, economy
of space and total theatre in the staging of our piece. Berkoff says of these
approaches- ‘I am handing the art of acting, back to the actor’. We decided
that we should use minimal props, a piece of dowelling for Lewie to rest his
arms on whilst ‘on the cross’. This allowed the cross to be moved at our will,
so that Jesus could be more mobile and engaging for the audience. When watching
videos of Berkoff’s productions, it struck us that the majority had simplistic
costumes- a smart or plain white top and trousers, such as in ‘The Trial’. For
our choral characters, we decided on a costume of a white t-shirt and straight-
legged jeans, with black braces. The simplicity of these production aspects
allowed the emphasis to be on us as performers, and gave us leeway for
implementing Berkovian techniques such as mime to create the illusion of the
play’s context in moments such as when the disciples mime the nailing of Jesus
to the cross.
Continuing
the idea of total theatre, we paid close attention to the selection of music
for our piece. We have chosen largely 80s ska/punk music for our piece as this
fits with the skinhead aesthetic of the soldiers. It also mirrors the
rebellious attitude of the play and adds pace to the piece, creating an upbeat
and charged atmosphere to replicate the emotions of a revolution.
Berkoff’s
most substantial influence over our piece is established in our physicality as
actors. To achieve the features of his style we use mime, routine and unison,
exaggerated characterisation and caricatured facial expressions. We also
incorporate vocal and physical exaggeration to amplify his controversial
message. In actualising these methods, it is important that we train ourselves
to act with precision as Berkoff would do. Another physical factor of Berkoff’s
style that our piece evokes is the partial breaking of the fourth wall. We
often acknowledge the presence of our audience, talking directly to them,
gesturing towards them. This allows them to be drawn into the story more
intensely, hopefully inducing a strong response.
Section Three- Rehearsal
Process, Potential Effectiveness for the Audience, the Development of my Acting
Skills and health & Safety.
Rehearsal Process
Any
Berkovian piece depends on conscientious rehearsal and unified team work for a
successful performance, thus we decided to use the ensemble approach. This
enabled us to affix multi-rolling, making the rehearsal process more digestible.
Switching between roles, constantly adding new ideas into the mix. Pace was
also a major consideration for us.
Our
rehearsals were undertaken with focus and enjoyment. We began with a warm- up
stretch, and an improvisational game. This helped us bond as a group. We then
ran through our lines to give ourselves a feel for the atmosphere of the scene.
Next, we constructed the skeleton for the section- planning out our positioning
and basic movements. The final stage was to focus in on every piece of the
play, developing our ideas; and then working on precision and overall
execution. In this stage we would, for example, practise the character
transition from soldiers to priests several times to ensure it was synchronised
and effective.
As
we are using minimalistic set and costume, we could play with a plethora of
different ideas within the space, without constriction from set. This forced us
to create a rich image for our audience. It also affected how we dealt with
entrances and exits in that we could do anything we wanted with them. This
exposes the audience to the adaptability of our acting.
Many
aspects of our performance were changed throughout rehearsals. For example, the
casting of Satan was altered when Tom was rehearsing the monologue, as we felt
we needed to add more dimensions to the section; so we added in the ‘minions’
alongside him.
Potential Effectiveness for an
Audience
Our
interpretation of ‘The Messiah’ has remained true to Berkoff’s style with
artistic flair and integrity. The potential effectiveness for an audience will
hopefully reflect Berkoff’s impact - shock the audience. We hope to provoke an
extreme response: disgust, outrage, humour. Hopefully, our skills and
arrangement will achieve this.
I
find the Satan monologue to be particularly effective as it encapsulates all
the Berkovian techniques we have implemented, exhibiting them successfully. Use
of mime, synchronisation and multi- rolling highlights the message of human
struggles Satan is attempting to expose. For example, the ‘minions’ convert
from acting as dogs (‘you become a dog howling’) to becoming irritating
characters (‘shall I do this? / Shall I do that?’). This demonstrates a high
level of multi-rolling; and is therefore incredibly impactful for an audience.
Development of my Acting Skill
Throughout
the process of developing our piece, my adaptability as an actor has improved
significantly. Berkoff’s style of physical theatre has stretched me, as it is
so different from naturalism. Multi-
rolling was an aspect of ‘The Messiah’ which required me to switch between
characters immediately, with conviction and accuracy. The level of precision in
our mime sequences has also stretched me, as this requires distinct
concentration and awareness of the whole body to convince the audience. My
awareness of other actors and timing has improved from practising
synchronicity.
Characterisation
was an enjoyable feature of development during the rehearsals of our piece. I
think I have adapted to this fairly well. For example, when becoming a soldier,
I walk in an arrogant gait, pushing forward my pelvis and ‘puffing up’ my body
to assume the male appearance. My facial expressions are brash and gormless- I
open my mouth, chew on my cheeks, glare belligerently at Jesus etcetera. My
idiosyncrasies include things such as scratching myself, wiping my nose
unashamedly, and picking at my feet. These all portray the vulgar nature of my
character.
However,
when performing the part of a priest, my physicality alters entirely. My body
becomes hunched and distorted and move in an anamorphic, slimy manner. This
appears to the audience as almost perverse, as I clutch on to Judas with
clenched hands. I change my expression between an unadulterated, persuasive
gaze, trying to seduce him in some loutish, sly manner; and disgust, glaring at
him with intense eyes when he diverges from our wishes. My voice here is a
nasal, drawn out and devious timbre.
All
of these factors and many more have contributed to the strengthening of my
skills and adaptability of an actor, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Health and Safety
We
are using physical theatre and so need to warm up thoroughly. The space is free of any clutter to
consider. We have considered the use of
a length of dowelling as well as down stage centre blocking as there is a table
in the audience.
