Double - F(l)ight - Blog 6 - 22/06/16

Today, we finished the ending scene of our our F(l)ight piece. We began with deciding how we'd like to perform this scene and what we'd like to show. We wanted to include chair duets which is another physical theatre technique used widely by Frantic Assembly. We then went on to discuss how we wanted our story to end. Our initial idea was to show where the victims are now and how acts of abuse and discrimination have affected their later life. This was a very popular idea but we struggled to work out how we'd show this with chair duets. We then thought about showing how to mend the issues and the methods in which people use. This meant our chair duets worked really well as we could adapt this idea into a group therapy session kind of scenario. After much deliberation, we decided this was how we'd portray our ending.

We quickly laid an outline of what we'd want to show in this scene. We decided to show how the abuser has seen the error of their ways and tries to apologise to the victim but as the abuse they'd received has affected them so deeply, they aren't too accepting of their apologies. But once the victims see that their abusers really have changed, they react positively and give them a chance.

Below is the movement:

• We enter with chairs and place them in a circle facing inwards and sit. We sit opposite our partners in the circle (e.g. Lorna sits opposite me and James sits opposite Charlie). Rob doesn't bring a chair as he is the counsellor. 
• We perform one movement every beat for eight beats. This movement refers to whether our character is a victim or abuser. Lorna kicks forward aggressively, whilst I cowardly look over my shoulder.
• We then go round in the circle, starting with Charlie, and interact with the person to our left. Our interaction depends on who we are and who we're interacting with. If a victim interacts with an abuser they'll use a more gentle action like a reach for their shoulder while if an abuser interacts with a victim they act very violent such as raising a fist.
• When we get around the circle, we reverse the order and react to the action of the person to our right.
• After this, Rob lifts me up using puppetry, moves my hunched up arms to my sides to represent giving me confidence and moving me along. I then go behind the chair two spaces to my left. This is repeated with James and Rhiannon.
• Rob then stands up each abuser and moves them one seat to the right so they are infront of their own victim. They are then stood up again, one-by-one, and Rob attempts to rehabilitate them by hugging them and offering them his hand; after each abuser is helped they turn their chair and face it the same direction as their victim so they're both facing outside the circle. 
• Whilst he is helping each abuser, the other abusers are performing the same action as the victims whose seat they're in (e.g. Ollie now looks over his shoulder and holds him arm nervously like I did as he's in my chair).
• In cannon, we perform three sequence's of movement's:
• 1. The abuser holds the victim's shoulder but they get shrugged off, the abuser hugs the victim but gets shrugged off, the abuser pulls the victim's shoulder and they turn and face to the left whilst staying seated.
• 2. The abuser touches the victim's leg but gets pushed away, the abuser puts their arm around the victim's shoulders but get pulled off
• 3. The victim gets up and attempts to walk away but when they get too far away, they fall back and get caught by Rob who brings them back to their seat which the abuser had been turned facing them.
• Ollie and Rhiannon start and when they get to sequence 2, Charlie and James start at sequence 1, when Charlie and James get to sequence 2 and Ollie and Rhiannon get to sequence 3, Lorna and I start. 
• To finish, the abusers hold their hands out to their victims, palms facing them. The victims at first are apprehensive but then bring their hands out slowly and touch palms. The chairs are then taken off at the end of the song and Dark Necessities fades in and we perform the opening in reverse.

Next lesson, we will work out the reverse opening and show Ollie our counselling session scene.