Jan 14th: Drama

On January 14^th, Splendid Productions (http://www.splendidproductions.co.uk/), a Theatre In Education company, came into our school to perform their version of Berkoff’s ‘The Trial’.   Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the performance but I have researched about Splendid Productions, Berkoff, ‘The Trial’ and Brecht (they use a lot of his techniques).  When SP came in for the performance, after wards, they did a Workshop.  On their website, it says, “The one-hour performance is accompanied by a range of possible workshops including 'The Trial' text session, Physical Theatre or a Practitioner workshop. We offer 3hr and 5.5hr sessions, or evening performances with optional post-show discussion.”   They do workshops and because they have accumulated a large amount of knowledge since they began, their aim is not only to briefly cover the subject of the play, but to do it vividly and accurately and make sure the children are engaged.  They work predominantly with 14-21 year olds and the workshops can last form 3 hours to a week.  The company use a variety of Brechtian techniques.  Brecht created an influential theory of theatre, the epic theatre, which proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. (Source: www.wikipedia.org).  I think that this means, that the audience shouldn’t just identify what the performers are feeling, but actually reflect the situation being dramatized o their own lives.

‘The Trial’, written in 1970 by Steven Berkoff, is about a man, Joseph K, who is accused of a crime and bought to trial, but he never finds out the charges.  He had no idea what crime he allegedly did and the audience never get to find out either, and he will never find out why.  The play conveys doom but does so with flair and humour using mime acting and making the contrasts greater.  (source:http://www.iainfisher.com/berkoff/berkoff-play-adaptation-kafka.html). 

Kerry Frampton of Splendid Productions is the main woman of the company and was the one that directed their version of ‘The Trial’ as well as starring in it.  Kerry has been driving Splendid Productions since 2003 and on the official Splendid Productions website, it described her as ‘nurturing it like her own child’.  The associate director is Mal Smith.  He has played Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar, Chino in West Side Story and Robin Hood in Secrets of Sherwood as well as many more and adaptations he has starred in and co-directed.

I have researched Brecht and his techniques.  Here is what I found. 

Bertolt Brecht

Theory and practice of theatre

Along with his contemporary Erwin Piscator, Brecht created an influential theory of theatre—the epic theatre—that proposed that a play should not cause the spectator to identify emotionally with the characters or action before him or her, but should instead provoke rational self-reflection and a critical view of the action on the stage. Brecht thought that the experience of a climactic catharsis of emotion left an audience complacent. Instead, he wanted his audiences to adopt a critical perspective in order to recognise social injustice and exploitation and to be moved to go forth from the theatre and effect change in the world outside. For this purpose, Brecht employed the use of techniques that remind the spectator that the play is a representation of reality and not reality itself. By highlighting the constructed nature of the theatrical event, Brecht hoped to communicate that the audience's reality was equally constructed and, as such, was changeable.

One of Brecht's most important principles was what he called the Verfremdungseffekt (translated as "defamiliarization effect", "distancing effect", or "estrangement effect", and often mistranslated as "alienation effect").  This involved, Brecht wrote, "stripping the event of its self-evident, familiar, obvious quality and creating a sense of astonishment and curiosity about them".  To this end, Brecht employed techniques such as the actor's direct address to the audience, harsh and bright stage lighting, the use of songs to interrupt the action, explanatory placards, and, in rehearsals, the transposition of text to the third person or past tense, and speaking the stage directions out loud.