We started the lesson by deciding how Lorna and I would perform our beginning section. We wanted a short sequence before our duet which detailed how we got in the position later on. As Lorna abuses me, we wanted to go very Brecht and give the audience an important message. We wanted to start by having Lorna look like the victim and the audience would assume this but as the scene goes on, the audience realise it's quite the opposite and it exposes how the public assume that domestic violence is always aimed at women.
We decided to start with a short hymn hands section and move into very slow movements; our opening is described below:
- I start center stage and Lorna walks in slowly. She sits down by my side and holds out her hand, her palm facing me.
- I reach out and our hands connect palm to palm. She pushes towards me slowly and slightly but I push her back sharper and she winces.
- I stroke her hand and place it back down then go to stroke her ear, leading down to her hair, I let go and am left looking at my hand for a few seconds.
- I get up and help her up, holding each other forearm-to-forearm. I look at her for a few seconds and she lets go and walks downstage center.
- This then flows into the scene we already have.
Another thing we added to our piece is at the beginning, as Lorna walks in, she says, "I'm sorry," to me but at the end I say the same thing as she walks away. This adds to the whole effect of society assuming only women are abused and the surprise at the end is even more effective.
We ended the lesson with the idea of an AA style therapy session including the victims, abusers and the innocent (Rob). This would involve chair duets as used by Frantic Assembly which I learnt from my research on them.
Below is the video of our piece:
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