Australian plays make cultural, social, and political situations and issues more engaging by the way they are staged.
Discuss to what extent theatrical techniques and styles are used to entertain and challenge an audience in the Australian plays you have studied.
Drama Essay
Vanessa Kidson
The use of various theatrical and dramatic techniques enhance the audiences’ engagement in the cultural, social, and political issues displayed in the play. Even though Matt Cameron’s Ruby Moon is very different to Michael Futcher’s and Helen Howard’s A Beautiful Life in style, convention, and form, they still give meaning to what an Australian Play is. They deal with issues common and particular to our Australian culture, history, and everyday life. It is because of the range of techniques used in these plays that create tension, interest, and capture the audiences’ attention that keeps them engaged. Australian theatre, as proved by Ruby Moon and A Beautiful Life, can range from realist, absurdist, or Brechtian theatre styles.
Ruby Moon is what you call a fractured fairytale. The convention and form of the play is very much like absurdist theatre, and is performed with realist acting, set, and props. But first of all, what is a fractured fairytale? It is a fairytale that has been modified in such a way that it makes us laugh at unexpected plot development, characterisation, or adverse point of view. In this case, the fairytale is the illusion or myth that being huddled together in a small street makes us safe. But as Matt Cameron said,
“But the darker recesses of human nature have never operated on geographic principle.”
Matt Cameron has used this dramatic convention to effectively draw the audience in on what they know and then challenge them with antithetical suggestions and ideas. This combined with his use of a vast variety of dramatic and theatrical techniques, he further challenges the audience and enhances the actor-audience engagement.
Society has always viewed young children as innocent creatures, but Dulcie Doily, in scene one asks Ray,
“Are you sure she was so innocent?”
When I rehearsed this scene with a class member, we used the build-up of tension to create focus to this line. We wanted to have an unsettling impact on the audience’s perception of Ruby because this is the first point in the play when the audience is confronted with the idea that Ruby was maybe not such an innocent little girl after all. This then leads the audience to think, ‘But how could a six year old girl not be innocent?’
Humour – such as Sid’s loveable but also creepy child-like behaviour; Veronica’s sexual implications; and Sonny Jim’s poem filled with teenage mentality – is used throughout the play to entertain the audience. The humour breaks some of the tension, which keeps the audience listening, participating in the moment, and keeping them engaged. Cameron’s use of props to form the outer layers of each character’s identities adds more interest to each character. We immediately paint a picture of them based on our assumptions of those objects. Dulcie Doily’s covered birdcage depicts her as a woman with something to hide; Sonny Jim is presented as a masculine war man, as suggested by his air rifle; and Dawn, even though our first image of her is of a deformed character, her dolls show the more motherly nature of her – suffocating and possessive. These props tell a greater story of the characters and of Sylvie and Ray, and without them the audience would be less interested in these intriguing characters.
Even though there are occasional moments of broken tension, Cameron still keeps the underlying creepy atmosphere through out the play by making reference to the symbolic window in each scene, and the use of darkness and light. A solitary spotlight on a character, such as Sylvie or Ray walking to “the next house”, draws our eyes to that character. We can easily imagine what they are thinking through their body language and facial expressions, as they walk down that street. But the piercing darkness surrounding that spotlight is also captivating. It is the darkness – not the light – that makes us question, ‘What is lurking in there?’ The window is symbolic of this, as it separates the light inside from the darkness outside – or rather, does it separate the light outside from the darkness on the inside? As Matt Cameron said,
“It is much about the surrounding darkness as it is about the light.”
Back to scene one, Dulcie later accuses Ruby of cursing and turning her beloved parrot, Polly, into “a blaspheming parrot.” Dulcie starts her short monologue with,
“Let me tell you about your little angel Mr. Moon.”
The line itself has no affect on the audience, but after seeing two different productions of Ruby Moon myself, as a member of the audience I felt Dulcie’s tone of voice to be quite bitter and sarcastic. Her tone felt harsh and made me think, ‘That’s not fair, the man has lost his child.’
In scene five and eight, Veronica and Dawn further corrupt Ruby’s innocence by telling Ray that Ruby preferred the company of adults and that Ruby had “a real mean streak”.
Even though the idea of Ruby not being innocent is continuously forced upon the audience, the audience never gets the clear picture. This social construct, that children are vessels of innocence, does not allow the audience to fully comprehend this adverse suggestion, and the play’s cyclical nature only provokes more questions but provides no answers. Cameron has used the device of giving the audience only a few clues and sparse information about the lost Ruby to keep the tension of the play continuous. He has used it effectively to toy with the emotions of the audience, and personally, at those moments of the play I felt frustrated. The play runs strictly without interval, which means we don’t even get to think much about the clues we are given.
This intensifies the audience’s curiosity, thus the audience is constantly drawn-in and engaged in the play.
A Beautiful Life is a very Brechtian style play. Brecht’s own style of acting encouraged the actors to not become their characters, but rather only to illustrate their character’s behaviour. This allowed for the audience to see a variety of attitudes and perspectives of each character, creating interest and thus drawing the audience’s attention in on what is being said – not on what the character is feeling. And indeed, this play is making a statement about the political and cultural issues present in Australia in the late 1980s, and still present in some way today. The play raises the issue of political deception in scene nine of act one by Stephanie.
[STEPHANIE]: “Hamid said they only got inside the building because the diplomat opened the main door.”
[BRENDAN]: “What are you saying – they invited them in to beat them up and wreck the place?”
As the audience thinks about this statement, they begin to realise that the first scene was not just a raid or protest but a set-up by the Iranian Embassy. The use of a torch as a camera forces the audience to pay close attention to specific actions in the scene. There is a lot going on in this scene – as we realised when our class workshopped it. Hamid is on the table shouting, protesters are making noise and mess, others are looking for documents, and Ahmad is chasing Hamid for the folder with names. It is easy for the audience to get lost in this, but the use of hand-held light forces the audience to focus on a particular moment in the scene. This intriguing technique keeps the audience engaged as they analyse the scene.
The play also makes the statement that Australian’s are unaware of the problems and issues in other countries. In scene two, two journalists move around Hamid like sharks. They are ready to jump and attack at any word and the hand-held lights make Hamid feel like he is under interrogation again. Hamid had been interrogated and tortured in a prison in Iran – knowledge that the journalists lack of, or fail to understand.
The use of language in the play is used to make one dominate over others, or be submerged by others. In scene three Hamid and his wife have difficulty understanding exactly what they are being asked by Brendan. So when Hamid replies to Brendan’s questions, he thinks he his answering wisely, but in fact he is only digging deeper holes for himself. This clearly displays Australia’s advantageous attitude to people of non-English speaking backgrounds. But then there is a moment in this scene when the power of the groups switch. Hamid, Jhila, and Amir become the dominant characters when they speak Farsi and Brendan and Stephanie no longer have the advantage of language on their side. Brendan is particularly uncomfortable with this as he looses power and control over the situation. The change of language in the scene is expressed through perfect English without an accent – another interesting technique to achieve the audience’s attention.
Almost every next scene is scene back in time. The use of flashbacks keeps the audience paying attention and piecing the parts together. This very Brechtian style technique exercises the audiences’ minds and reminds the audience that they are watching a play. This, coinciding with intervals, is very important as it only allows the audience to think about the issues displayed and not keep the audience emotionally involved.
Through Brechtian techniques and acting style, the authors have effectively presented Australia’s cultural and political issues in a way that has enabled the audience to stay engaged, think, reflect, and understand the points being made.
So in conclusion, both Ruby Moon and A Beautiful Life raise issues and challenge the audience’s ideas and perceptions of our cultural, political, and social lives, even thought they are almost completely different in every respect. But their different techniques have enhanced the meaning of their points in an interesting and intriguing way that keeps the audience entertained, challenged, and engaged.
No comments:
Post a Comment