Slapstick comedy & Greek theatre

In this lesson we watched a three stooges sketch with the classic charcters of Moe, Larry and Curley. It is a very old fashioned black and white film. We were asked to focus on a certain character and see what physical cues and gestures they used.


I chose to study the mannerisms of Larry in particular:

• Repeating others lines
• Pathetically flirtatious and forward
• Hiding from fizzy water but failing in his attempts
• Perfect comedic timing

Lysistrata

Lysistrata is an old fashioned comedy written by Aristophanes in 411BC. At the time that the play was written the Athenians were involved in Peloponnesian war (431-404 BC). The play is a fictitious story about a woman who decides to try to stop the war by convincing the women of warring nations to stop having sex with their husbands until they agree to stop fighting. In the play Lysistrata is also responsible for the occupation for the occupation of the Acropolis, which holds the state treasury.

We were put in pairs and given a script to devise a short sketch from. To start we all shortened our linesas much as possible as again it is in expression and movements that count. When performing the piece we found it more effective a funny to give it a pantomime quality. We over exaggerated our movements and the characters movements. For example the male gave a lot of feministic gestures towards the girl. After we showed them all we found that the bigger a movemant is the funnier it is and so was a greater comic success.

Greek Theatre

(550-220 BC)

Properties of Greek theatre

• The theatre would be built into a mountainside
• The performance would take place in a circular space called the "orchestra"
• The audience would sit in a tiered semi- circular auditorium, called a threaton
• There would be a wooden construction, located in the centre of the orchestra where costume changes could take place and where props could be stored. 
• The shape of the theatre is like the cone of a speaker. This helped the acoustics of the performance, making it easier for the audience to hear what the performers were saying.
•  Despite this fact, because the theatres were so large, and because they had no roofs, the audience could not hear everything that was said on stage. As a result it was important that the performers acted with large physical gestures in order to communicate what was going on in the play being enacted.

Greek Chorus

• The Greek chorus usually communicated in song form, but sometimes spoke their lines in unison.
• The chorus had to work in unison to help explain the play.
• As the Greek Theatres were so large, the chorus' actions had to be exaggerated and their voices clear so that everyone could see and hear them.
• To do this, they used techniques such as synchronization, echo, physical theatre, dance and the use of masks to aid them.
• A Greek chorus was often led by a Coryphaeus.
• Greek Choruses also served as the ancient equivalent for a curtain, as their parodos (entering procession) signified the beginnings of a play and their exodos (exit procession) served as the curtains closing.
• The chorus wore linen, wood or leather masks, with a large mouth for projection. The comic actor wore: soft slippers, flesh coloured tights, a short tunic which was extravagantly padded and a large red leather phallus
• Women were not permitted to act in Greek theatre. Consequently, in order to perform female characters actors would wear a prosternada and prograstreda, which were wooden structures worn by actors on their chest and stomach in order to make them appear like women.

Greek Plays

Greek plays were performed at the festival of Dyonysia, an event to honour the God Dyonysus, the ancient Greek God of wine, wine cups, wineskin, grapes, theater, and fertility. Greek plays fell into two general types: comedies and tragedies.

Tragedy

Tragedy depicts the downfall of a basically good person through some fatal error or misjudgment, producing suffering and insight on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear on the part of the audience.

•  Hamartia ("tragic error"):  a fatal error or simple mistake on the part of the protagonist that eventually leads to the final catastrophe.
• Hubris ("violent transgression"): the sin par excellence of the tragic or over-aspiring hero. Though it is usually translated as pride, hubris is probably better understood as a sort of insolent daring, a haughty overstepping of cultural codes or ethical boundaries.
• Anagnorisis ("tragic recognition or insight"): according to Aristotle, a moment of clairvoyant  insight or understanding in the mind of the tragic hero as he suddenly comprehends the web of fate that he has entangled himself in.
• Nemesis ("retribution"): the inevitable punishment or cosmic payback for acts of hubris.

In the lesson we practiced doing actions for different words to tell a story. This would have been similar to what the greek chorus would have performed. Each group was given a section in a greek script.  In ours we decided to use a kmixture of saying the lines from the script to repeating key words or phrases. But the key element is the movement because most of the audience wouldn’t be able to hear the words. We used a mixture of unison actions and creating little scenes to illustrate. Watching the other groups I liked it when Katie and Sarah clearly created a gate which swung open to let James through. I liked it because even before they said anything you could understand what they were doing. Which was the main point of the lesson. This lesson helped me to understand physical theatre a lot more in that an action can replace a word. It also helped me to think more openly about mine. In being that you don’t just have to pretend to do something but that you can tell a story without words.

Physical theatre - Introduction

First we were led in a quick focusing exercise. Then we shared what we learnt about physical theatre from ourresearch during the holidays. Andrew then wrote the constituant feature discussed on the board. These included mime, dance and contact work to name a few. We then learnt about the unit assignments, the demands and expectations of the course and the assesment criteria. We all then brainstormed succesful group working practices and the key to success in group work.