Improvisation Over Content

Open Body的Unknown|show|Unknown|location 是一场在空地中完成的肢体表演,演员们穿着宽松的灰色衣服和黑色的长靴,在地下停车场的立柱间完成了这场演出。这似乎非同寻常,但又令人耳目一新。一场即兴表演,肢体支配着表演者。他们奔跑,跳跃,或者简单回答yes或者no,或是在一起完成整齐划一的动作,又或是对另一个人进行镜像模仿。但表演的大部分内容,依旧源于基本的舞台表演,又高于舞台表演。 这个方法使即兴胜过表演内容,但同时意味着会缺乏深度。通过对导演Karla Livingstone-Pardy的采访,可以发现她有着清晰的理念,也就是对表演性与表演,场景以及肢体表现的把控,但是事实证明,把抽象的理论转换成实际表演是有一定难度的。 这样使得表演有时趣味十足,有时却是沉闷无比。最好的表演应该是当两个表演者在舞台上彼此互动,吸引观众的注意,并且呈现给观众如同他们真的在捉弄彼此时自然、真实的反应。但有限的沟通条件使他们很难进行有效的配合。演出中我最喜欢的一个部分是一群人联合起来欺负一个人,并且开始轻轻地推她,每一下都伴随着一句“对不起”,直到她放弃并且情绪崩溃,这时候他们就把目标转向下一个人。他们用这样的形式来向观众展示肢体语言上的冷暴力。 一个完全即兴的表演要求演员们高度集中并且高度配合,但演员们并不能完全达到要求。虽然他们想要展现的是即兴演出的不可预测性,但是表演还是有提高的空间,如对关闭车门的声音还有孩童的尖叫声等打断作更多的回应,或者与观众有更深入的互动。我注意到演员们好像有点害怕我们,他们与观众保持着距离。有时候演员们会走神或者忽略了情绪上的波动,然后人为地创造一个他们自认为更好的桥段。但如果他们能全身心投入其中,本能的反应会使得演出出奇地精彩。其中,Sara Di的表现相当出彩,她有着惊人的专注和充满想象力的即兴创作,给每一个桥段都注入了满满的能量。 Asher Elazary和Leo Palmer的音效设计效果不错,同时,Livingstone-Pardy熟练地调节音量和音效模式来配合演员们的动作,跳动的节拍,诡谲的声响,都为表演增添了气势和气氛。灰色的混凝土和忽明忽暗的灯光使表演场十足荒凉,背景的噪音又足够真实,使得所有的东西糅合起来又透着一丝怪异。中性风格的戏服效果也非常好,它不会使我们过多地注意演员们的身材。 7月末的晚上7点,站在John Medley的台阶上拥挤的人群当中,我却感受不到一丝寒意。与众不同,振奋人心,Unknown完美地满足了观众的期待。 Written by Kate Weston, translated by Eason Zhang. Continue reading Improvisation Over Content

A Play to be Remembered

Remember Ronald Ryan. This phrase is a powerful conceit, and that’s not just because of the convenient alliteration. Those three words aren’t just there to provide the absolute shortest summary of a play possible, but to make a promise: that after two emotional acts, you will remember Ronald Ryan, the last man to be hanged in Australia. Queen’s College Music and Drama Society kept this … Continue reading A Play to be Remembered

Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives

A grey morning. Two tired uni students have a conversation. Claire Ferguson talks with Rachel Shrives, Assistant Director of UHT’s Macbeth + macdeath: a coda. What are one or two of the key elements of your production of Macbeth? Macbeth in a few words is about over turning the natural order. By natural order, I mean privileges that we’re given that we don’t question, being … Continue reading Macbeth: Interview with Rachel Shrives

Time For the Main Course

“Nine new Australian works is more than you will ever see in one season of main-stage theatre,” Jean Tong rightly announced before the start of Tastings, a series of new Australian plays hosted by the UMSU Creative Arts Office. Coinciding with the 2017 season launches of major theatre companies around the nation (again highlighting the consistent lack of Australian work on the main stage) Tastings … Continue reading Time For the Main Course

High Energy

The audience’s excitement, their trepidation, their desperate prayers for “please, God, no audience participation” – from the first monologue, The Drowsy Chaperone knew what its audience was thinking, and liked to remind us of that fact. St Hilda’s rose to the challenge of this unusually self-referential play, producing a show that was lively and enjoyable, and often subverted our expectations. While there were some rough … Continue reading High Energy

Disturbingly Relevant

Sexual assault is an ongoing social issue, particularly in a college environment, as is the victim blaming and sexism that so often surrounds rape. In light of this, International House’s choice to perform Blackrock, which explores the aftermath of the rape and murder of a teenage girl, is both bold and commendable. Directed by Holly Nugent, the production was as gripping as it was thought … Continue reading Disturbingly Relevant

No Day But Today

Loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Boheme, RENT follows the life of a group of creative friends fighting to overcome poverty in New York City’s East Village in the early 90s. Written and composed by Jonathan Larson in 1993, RENT opened on Broadway in 1996. Larson tragically passed away the night before the first preview of the show, explaining the lack of rewrites and the … Continue reading No Day But Today

Voicing The Unsaid

Latecomers and (de)construct may have been developed separately, but their connections are clear. Both pieces are concerned with ideas of the self and the ways in which we are perceived and constructed by those around us. Whilst the two pieces explore these ideas to different ends, Open Body has created a compelling partnership that leads audiences to question the true impact of their behaviour towards … Continue reading Voicing The Unsaid

‘Assassins’ A Dream

Over twenty years ago, when Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins originally opened Off-Broadway, the composer expected disapproval of its ‘volatile’ subject matter. The musical tells the stories of nine people who attempted – some successfully – to murder Presidents of the United States, and explores what motivated the assassins, using the conceit of a carnival shooting game. Today, it seems people are transfixed more than ever by … Continue reading ‘Assassins’ A Dream