Week 2 'The Wardrobe' - Titles and Frantic's Devices

Titles for Scene 1:

To extend our understanding of the play, I decided to look at ways of interpreting scene 1 by applying different titles to it. I experimented with two titles.

The first title I chose was 'A taste of blood'. This title is a body part/physical response to the scene, which means that it refers to an action that happens in the scene. In the text, one of the characters (Elizabeth) who has just cut her hand, puts her hand over her sister's mouth to silence her, which forces her sister to eat Elizabeth's blood. The title itself could appear shocking as it could convey clichéd ideas of death and murder but the title is actually very straightforward.  It refers to the literal action of Cecily accidentally eating Elizabeth’s blood. The titles main use is to draw attention to the shock factor of tasting another person’s blood by accident. It means that at a specific moment in the scene it will become apparent to the audience what the title actually means. I chose this title as it focuses on the key event in the scene. I feel that this type of title is effective as it allows the audience to get a ‘taste’ of what happens in the scene but then it follows up with a definitive meaning.

My second title was called “the roses” because it refers to the war of the roses, which is when scene 1 is set. The war of the roses had raged between the houses of York and Lancaster, whose heraldic symbols were the white and red rose. This title therefore immediately tells the audience about the time period and gives them a glimpse into what the scene could be about. The title relates to the part of the text when Cecily calls her sister “the white princess, who married the red king and thus ended the war of the roses.” I think that the colours become very apparent in this scene as a red rose can mean love and a white rose can mean purity, which could infer that their sisterhood is like ‘the roses’ as they are pure and loving. This title therefore has a double meaning as it not only means the houses that fought against each other but also the English rose resembling women. I feel that a single word title is very effective as it doesn't reveal much about the scene but it makes the audience start to question what the scene is about band therefore might make them want to find out the significance of ‘the roses’ in the scene. 

Using Frantic's Devises:
In one of our lessons, we watched some videos from the theatre company, Frantic Assembly. Frantic is a physical theatre company, which means that they focus on the movement and interpretation of the body in a theatrical performance. One of their improvised movements was called hymns hands, due to the fact that they used this movement in a devised play called hymns. The movement is entitled of a partner placing their hands on their partners body. Both people can switch hands but they always must come back to the main part of the body. It focuses on fluidity between the switching hands and the connection to the partners. To extend the exercise further, the partners do the movements in slow motion but they have to follow the hands moving with their eyes. This makes the partners focus on the control of their movements and the effect of the weight of their touch.

 After watching Frantic's videos, we then went to rehearsing our wardrobe scenes. Whilst looking at the script, I realised that we could included some hymns hands into our scene. In the scene Elizabeth says "I promise you this: you will never die alone in a convent, not while I'm alive and we are sisters." At this point in the scene Cecily (Elizabeth's sister) is holding a dagger as she nearly tried to kill Elizabeth. I thought at this point, Elizabeth could place her hand onto Cecily's shoulder as a sign of assurance and when she says "we are sisters", Elizabeth could allow her hand to slide down Cecily's arm to reveal the dagger, which is pointed at Elizabeth. I think that this would be a very effective movement in the scene as it highlights the danger and disconnection between the sisters knowing that they will be separated due to the marriage. It also reminds to the audience that there is still a chance that blood could be shed in the scene. Therefore it brings back the tension after it has been released when Elizabeth is assuring Cecily, which means something could still happen.