Sunday 28 June 2015

The Unbearable Lightness of Dramaturgy: Blabbermouth @ Edfringe 2015

The Fringe


GKV: What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
Kate Barden: Stephen's script; which to start with was a poem he'd written based on a fear of persecution and paranoia. Stephen (Santer) is one of the actors in the show.


Why bring your work to Edinburgh?For fun, experience, as an experiment, and exposure. To see what happens next.


What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
Can't really predict what the audience will feel or think. They will hear rhyme; see two people in tension; a bit of violence and aggression. 

We've looked at the inevitability of a cycle of violence and patterns of despair and would like the audience to do the same while having fun and seeing the comedy in it. They might look at the past or the future and ask how far would a person (they) go in a relationship/at work/in life....Milgram's obedience?




The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?
We've looked at people; their interactions. Also considered the symbolic interactionism of uniform, labels, role playing (Goffman's Presentation of Self or Burke's notion that life is theatre.) We've looked at the unconsciousness of people; people existing on the surface without question.


What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work - have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?Pantomime; slapstick; poetry; Laurel and Hardy; Monty Python; the Krays.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could
describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?
Read it. Learn it. Unlearn it. Create it new every time. Find the truth in every word and action. Be vulnerable and open and see where it goes.


What do you feel the role of the audience is, in terms of making the meaning of your work?
To question. To be new each time. To be part of the discovery of who these characters are and the meaning of the relationship, the time and the place they are in. 

The audience will believe these people/these ideas/these relationships exist even though there are Brechtian moments of breaking the fourth wall.


Are there any questions that you feel I have missed out that would help me to understand how dramaturgy works for you?
Possibly ask about the consideration of culture; norms; values; beliefs; attitudes.

Also, to do with set/staging, maybe question power over environment? The physicality and manipulation of set/props etc.(Mead).


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