The Pillowman

Today we ran the play from the top, trying to run it as well as we could with scripts. We really need to learn lines so that we can concentrate on our body language and movement which is very important because it is a naturalistic play. I think the relationships between characters are starting to develop and we are getting to be more natural in our roles, making everything more believable. The dynamics in the first act are beginning to come through and it is becoming more interesting to watch, with more interaction between Tapluski and Ariel making their relationship more developed and clearer leading up to act 3.

We got half way through act 2 which is going well so far. I am getting more in to the character of Michal, and his simple minded speach. I am finding it easier to get the switch in his personaltity when he admits to the murders, trying to be subtly sadistic and not too obvious at first. Also developing his relationship with Katurian and the changes in dynamic between them as the scene changes and they start to clash. 

The Pillowman

Today we set act three, finishing the play, and worked on the death scene. We decided that keeping it simplistic would be the best way for the death scene to keep it as naturalistic as possible, so it matched the rest of the play. I think Dom and Dan really need to work on their characterisation and on their relationship as it comes to blows in act 3 and brings more understanding to why there is so much tension between them.

We have also been talking about the stories that Katurian tells throughout the play and how we could tell them to make them more interesting. I had the idea of creating the stories using puppets to create a silhouette story which we could film and record Carl's voice over, meaning he wouldn't have to remember the stories which would be a big help to his line learning. This would add another technique to the performances and give the audience a break from all the straight dialogue and give them something interesting to watch, it also works better than us just reading the story which may be slightly boring especially as Carl struggles a little with story telling. The only problem with this is that it would be time consuming to create and none of us are particularly skilled in puppeteering. 

The Pillowman

This lesson we worked more on our characters and look at their development throughout the play, by their dialogue and behaviour.

Michal is quite a complicated character. From his opening description of "Katurian's simple minded brother" you would think him to be an easy character to understand but he has tricked even his own brother into thinking him innocent and unable to cause harm to anyone. I think Michal is actually very clever and manipulative. Although he probably doesn't realise the extent of what he's done, he still knows that it is a very bad thing to do, but justifies it to himself by blaming it on Katurian. At the start of the play MIchal seems quite sweet and almost confused abou the situation. He really shows his simple side during the first half of the scene, being very childlike in how he speaks and acts, for example talking about his "itchy arse" and being very silly and quite comical. His mood completely switches as he starts to confess to the killing of the children. He speaks of it in a sadistic, matter of fact way, pretending he has done nothing wrong and acting as if nothing has changed. This just shows that there is another side of Michal that is pshyopathic and messed up, which isn't really surprising considering his up bringing and all of the torture he endured. When Katurian starts to get angry with him Michal breaks and becomes more irate, because his brother has never spoken to him like that, and he has always expected unconditional love from him. Michal never apologises for killing the children, which is another sign of lack of empathy, he only admits to knowing it was wrong but does not seem to regret and merely describes it as "very interesting". Towards the end of the scene Michal goes back to trying to be normal with his brother, showing again his small mental capacity and inability to handle difficult situations, before eventually going to sleep and being murdered by his brother. 

I think the audience will feel some form of empathy towards Michal, even considering the hideous acts he has committed, because of his past and his many childlike features which are hard to ignore. 

The 39 Steps

Our next unit is applying acting styles. We have chosen to perform the play 'The 39 Steps' as we think it will be an enjoyable play and is very different to what we have previously performed. Before starting we work shopped some of the scenes, like the opening, to help us figure out who would play who. Our class is a group of 9 and the play is only written for 4 people ideally, so we decided it would be best to split into two groups and each do an act. This was quite easy as there is a lot of multi-rolling and so within the two separate groups we had enough parts for a 5.

With casting we were given who was playing Hannay in each group and then the two girls were given an act, hence deciding their characters. I was in act 1 so am to be playing Anabella, Margaret and Pamela. We decided the other parts between ourselves trying to share them out with the remaining boys, which was simple because of the many different characters in the play. Keeping the style of the play we still had multi-rolling to add to the humour which meant, when playing each person, we needed to be versatile and make use of accents and body language to make it clear who we were.

The Pillowman

Today we decided to look more in depth at the relationships between each of the characters, so the pairs that interact with each other.

Ariel and Tapolski -
These two have what seems like a normal colleague relationship at the start of the play but as we get further along we find out that there is a lot of underlying tension. Tapolski, being a very sarcastic character, really knows how to fire Ariel up and make him angry, ultimately undermining him in front of the prisoner. I think this is him asserting his authority and just generally enjoying himself, he seems to take pleasure in other people's discomfort. They have a very volatile relationship, and they don't seem to see eye to eye in the way they handle the case, for example when Ariel is setting up torture equipment and as usual Tapolski makes a sarcastic comment and manages to get more information than Ariel anyway.

Kat and Michal -
Kat and Michal grew up depending on each other, as they had no parents from quite an early age, so have a very close brotherly relationship. Kat does everything for his brother and loves him very much, which is why it is such a shock for him to find out he isn't the innocent simplistic Michal he thought he was. As the plot evolves and the truth is revealed their relationship changes drastically. First leaving Kat in a state of shock, not really knowing how to respond to it, then as the reality sets in he is overwhelmed by disgust for his brother and hatred. Michal's lack of remorse and understanding makes the situation and I think this is when Kat gives up on him and completely drops any kind of affection for his brother.

The Pillowman - meeting

26th February - minutes from meeting

• We are going to use 10 pillows in total to make our Pillowman

Fundraising ideas -

• eg waxing, kissing booth, quiz night, raffle, overnight camp at school
• Kai will lend legs for waxing
• Quiz night with games (head and tails)- pay to play
• Sleepover at scout hut in school possibly

Free entry to performance-

• buy raffle tickets on door/ ask for donations

Set-

• 3 chairs
• Table
• Torture equipment (table, battery with attachments, pliers)
• Duvet and pillow
• Block

Costume -

• Katurian casual
• Ariel and Taplusi shirt and trousers
• Michal dungarees/casual

The Pillowman

Today we started on Act 2 which I am in. This is set in the cell where they have been keeping Michal while questioning Kat. Again we decided to keep the set simple, with just a a big block to represent a mattress in the cell for them to sit on. It is quite a relaxed and funny scene until Michal admits to killing the children, at which point there needs to be a complete change in atmosphere which we have been trying to work on. Our tone and body language need to change as well as Kat moving away in disbelief. As the scene develops it becomes more spiteful and shows a new side to their relationship, with Kat no longer treating Michal like the innocent simple minded boy he thought he was.
We do not have much movement in this scene which I think we need to work on as it will get boring if we are stuck on the bed the whole time, but I think this will be easier once we have learnt our lines so we are not constantly looking at our scripts and we can properly get into character.