Double - Refugee Devised - Blog 3 - 18/09/15

Today in our lesson, we continued our circus refugee devised piece. At the beginning, we went through what we've already done. Luckily, everyone remembered what they were doing so there was nothing to go over. We decided that we were going to work on new scenes rather than adding to the old one's.

The first scene we were looking at was Rhiannon's character's backstory. Through much discussion we decided to have her travel through London, fall in love with a man (James) on the Underground, then follow him off to then be captured by a slave master (Charlie). We devised this scene so that it would include a great deal of physical theatre. We began by moving from our original poses at the end of the beginning scene and did a short bit of physical theatre.

We moved from our first positions and journeyed through the studio as if it were the London Underground. We used a lot of Round-By-Through as we ventured under the arms of our classmates and performed weight shifting lifts. After this we lined up and acted as if we were waiting for a tube and when it arrived we all rushed to the door. As we got on the tube, we mimicked standing on a train by holding on to hand rails and checking watches. When the train stopped we'd all get off except for Rhiannon and James. Once the train was empty, they made eye contact and, "fell in love." Again, Round-By-Through was used here as it showed the immediate emotional attachment between the pair.

After this tube scene, James pulls her off the tube and they run together around the studio to signify travel. They end up walking into a building and finding Charlie seated waiting for them. James brings her towards him after closing and locking the door. Rhiannon looked confused, Charlie exchanged money with James and James left with Rhiannon gazing at him in a betrayed manner. Charlie then takes her off.

Another scene we worked on was Lorna's character's scene. Sadly, we had only got halfway through this scene as we ran out of time. Lorna's character, Kiri, was a child soldier, so we showed her in a battlefield environment. We were planning on Lorna to have two adult soldiers with her too (Ollie and I). The reason we thought Ollie and I would be a good choice is because Lorna is rather short and Ollie and I are the tallest in the group so this would signify the difference in age and power. This was as far as we got so far in this lesson so we will pick this back up next lesson.