All entries for February 2005

Medea - The Tuesday Meeting

Initial Ideas

– Using a painting of a mother and child as a backdrop to the action. Have the painting on a large canvas hanging from the catwalk on the back wall. As the performance progresses someone slowly paints out the child with white paint, removing them from the action. Rachel painting and in charge of organising fellow painters.
– Child sound effects at the beginning, we need a tape of children playing and laughing and then have this descend into them screaming, as they realise that their mother is going to kill them. This soundtrack accompanies….
– Two people running on the catwalk at the start. It has to be clear that at first they are running as though they are playing and then start running from their mother, Kali and Frankie doing this.
– Pictures that symbolise oppression, revenge and helplessness. These are three of the key words we thought summed up Medea from our pre-practical meeting on Thursday. These pictures or newspaper cuttings etc. would appear on the canvas as scenes are performed in relation to the words. So small images appearing on the canvas as the child is painted out?
– The death of the children is shown at the beginning and end of the play, in the hope that the audience have changed their minds about the neccessity of it between the first showing and the last.
– Singing and chanting to create soundscape and to communicate the lines of the chorus, as in the production of Hecuba that was shown in the Arts Centre.
– Jack's Dada poem should be included, possibly set to music or read on the microphone (eg. like we did with Yarker).
– Interviewing people "on the street", telling them about the play and getting their opinions on Medea. Then using what they say in the performance.
– From the exercise we did with Annisa use the ritualistic ideas surrounding murder and burial to symbolise the death of the children.
– Key words to do with Medea: HELPLESS, WRONGED, OPPRESSED, AVENGED, HONOUR, DESERTION. Use these words as a basis for scenes in the middle of the performance to show why she was justified in the killing of her children.
– Use recent media cases of child killings, photos, newspaper cuttings and headlines. Contemporary cases with similar issues.
– Having cloth walls to divide the space and create a square auditorium.

: 25 Feb 2005 17:25 |  Comments (10) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Frescos - Question 1

Using Roman Wall Paintings (frescos) as 'Evidence' for Traditions of Staging in Greece.
These Roman frescos from Pompei were preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. around 500 years after the plays of Aeschyus, Euripides and Sophocles were first staged in Athens. They depict myths that were the subject of 5th-century Athenian tragedy, and that continued to be represented on the Roman stage, both in revivals of Greek plays, and in later plays written in Latin.

1. Consider the depictions of mythological scenes:

i What are the main similarities and main differences between the way in which the death of Pentheus is depicted in this fresco and in Euripides' Bakkhai? (Use an online text of the Bakkhai if you do not have your copy to hand.)
ii. Compare and contrast the way in which the death of Iphigenia is depicted in this fresco with how it is recounted in Aeschylus' Agamemnon, and/or in Euripdes' play Iphigenia at Aulis.
iii. Why do you think the similarities and differences which you have identified may exist?
iv. On reviewing your responses to the above questions, how useful do you find these Roman frescos to be as evidence for traditions of tragic performance in 5th-century Athens?

: 25 Feb 2005 16:51 |  Tags: Sst1 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem