Body Language In Not I

In ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ a non-naturalistic performance style is used to allow the audience to make sense and develop their understanding of the present characteristics of the characters. Flashbacks of the main character are portrayed in non-naturalistic form as we see Anna’s friend Catherine playing out the role of ‘young Ana’. This is evident in Act 1 Scene 10 and Act 1 Scene 16. All three scenes require the Catherine to transform into a new character called ‘Young Ana’ as we flashback into the past scenes of Ana’s imagination; this is evident in the texts stage directions ‘ARTUR speaks to CATHERINE now, as though she is the young ANA. The real ANA steps slightly away’ to show the transformation of ANA into CATHERINE. However the scenes are set within the setting of the present time, for instance, the text stating ‘Ana’s home transforms into Hungary’ shows the non-naturalistic setting of the scenes. Both performance techniques are elements of the Non-naturalistic performance style and highly reflect the non-naturalistic nature of the performance.

Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night is based off the traditional Christian holiday – a day on which the normality of the world is turned upside down. On this particular day, the normal order of things is disrupted and the social standings of lower and upper social class members are reversed. The title is delightfully fitting for the play, as the storyline is comprised of comical disruption within the social decorum of Illyria. In this essay, I will examine how the carnival atmosphere of the Twelfth Night holiday is reflected in the way the play is constructed. Shakespeare introduces a topsy-turvy world where metaphoric boundaries are crossed with the created ambiguity of gender and the act of deception.

11. Point out some moments in the play when the playwright conveys much to the audience without dialogue

The use of descriptive language is important for the writer to entertain, persuade and teleport the reader into their work. Descriptive use and imagery allow the reader to experience the setting, sound, taste, and mood as if they can live through it. Which takes us to Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Not only does he use exceptional details and imagery throughout the play between the characters, but the way he uses word allows us to put ourselves into the play as if we can feel what they feel. It also allows us to experience and go through the play as if we are in it also. So in this paper, I would like to focus on a few major moments where I believe Shakespeare descriptive language is the strongest.

Theatre is a complex art that attempts to weave stories of varying degrees of intricacies with the hope that feelings will be elicited from the audience. Samuel Beckett’s most famous work in the theatre world, however, is Waiting for Godot, the play in which, according to well-known Irish critic Vivian Mercier, “nothing happens, twice.” Beckett pioneered many different levels of groundbreaking and avant-garde theatre and had a large influence on the section of the modern idea of presentational theatre as opposed to the representational. His career seemingly marks the end of modernism in theatre and the creation of what is known as the “Theatre of the Absurd.”

Jacques LeCoq and Augusto Boal had fairly similar philosophies but had extremely different ideas for theatre. Boal believed that “An actor’s instrument is their body, which needs to be completely ‘free’ in order to express true emotions”. Where as LeCoq believed that “Everything moves” and that as we ‘free’ the body, we begin

How Brecht achieves producing this state of consciousness is more subtle and elegant than the previous technique of having actors walk out with blatant placards to remind the audience that they are watching a play. One of the marks of Brecht’s epic theater is his alienation effect, or “a representation which allows [the audience] to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar” (Brecht 1948, 8).

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

Nearly every character in the play at some point has to make inferences from what he or she sees, has been told or overhears. Likewise, nearly every character in the play at some point plays a part of consciously pretending to be what they are not. The idea of acting and the illusion it creates is rarely far from the surface -

Stella Adler, famous actress and acting teacher once stated that “the theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.” Woyzeck by Georg Büchner is a play that perfectly represents Adler’s view on theatre. The plot of the play revolves around a troubled lower class man named Woyzeck, who ultimately murders his lover, Marie. But it is not merely the plot that makes this play align with Adler’s view, rather, it is the naturalistic style of the Woyzeck. Naturalistic theatre examines the human psyche and how one is influenced by nature and nurture. Through Büchner’s use of plot structure and thought, Woyzeck will be directed in a manner that makes the audience realize that human behavior is not simply a byproduct of nature versus nurture, that there is indeed a third option: self-will.

In Ruhl’s essay “The necessary,” she uncovers that often the detail that seems awfully unnecessary in a play is veritably the item of uttermost importance. This theme in her own plays is found in the ways in which she brings up complex issues. Tendencies such as lack of intimacy, loneliness, and use of lightness in her plays are frequently displayed to us in ways we do not even pick up on. In my eyes, that is what renders Ruhl fascinating. I will have read an entire play of hers, not realizing the emotion she is dragging out of me until after she has already accomplished just that. I have confidence that she has never set out to manipulate us into laughing or into feeling the shattering pain of a certain prodigious tragedy—and that is precisely how she yanks it out of us. For example, I read In The Next Room comically, which is a sliver of what she may or may not have intended for us as readers. As I read, my brain was

In the plays “A Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, we can optically discern that the characters decided to act to solve a crisis in their lives. Through the analysis of both “A Doll House” and “Trifles”, we can visually perceive the roles of women have been inhibited which led to Nora and Mrs. Wright acting out to feel in control of their own lives. Through the characters of Nora and Mrs. Wright, we can optically discern that the rebellious nature of leading characters that led to the circumstances that asserted their positions. The women did not have to make the cull they did, Mrs. Wright by taking a life and Nora by forging her father’s signature. Nora and Mrs. Wright were not prevalent in the circumstance of their own lives, women have been edified to do and verbalize as their

There are many different things that go into a performance. Either it is the planning of a play, getting the costumes ready, using emblematic tradition or illusionistic traditions. These two types of traditions are important in a performance. They both have great meaning in a performance and help the audience distinguish different meanings of an object or a character. Below I will discuss these traditions and their meaning.

The play creates this “illusion” to ensure that the audience does not lose the tragic implications of this rupture in the class system. This pause prevents Miss Julia and Jean from having enough time to impose their “feelings” on a scene and therefore the audience (11). It is clear that their positions as upper and lower class are no longer straightforward

In this play, it is noted that nearly every mouth is in motion at one point or another, be they man or woman. For this essay, I will focus on Cary’s expressions of feminism, as it is presented in The Tragedy; abstract, revealed in not only the dialogue, but in the motions of the dialogue, or even through the lack of speech altogether.