Earthquakes Presentation

Slide 1 – Introduction
We are doing a presentation to about the play  "Earthquakes in London". we are soon going to be performing our own version of the play and would hope to inform you about what "Earthquakes in London" is really about.

Slide 2 – What’s in store?

•       What is the play?

•       Context

•       Style

•       Our production

Slide 3 – plot

What is the play? In a Nutshell, the story follows a woman called Freya who is in conflict to whether she should keep her child or have an abortion like her father says to save her from contributing to over population or a damaged world.  There is a range of other characters that affect her decisions and they also lead their own very separate stories in the play.

Slide 4 – Character Freya

“An important person who is involved in a competition, conflict, or cause”

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protagonist

The protagonist of the play is Freya as the whole story revolves around her decision on whether or not to keep her baby.

Slide 5 – Character Robert

 “Someone who opposes someone else”

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/antagonist

The antagonist usually interferes with the protagonist so in this case Robert is the antagonist as he effects Freya’s decision about the baby.

Slide 6 – Character Tom

“A character in a play, novel, or the like who voices the central theme, philosophy, or point of view of the work”

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/raisonneur 

The Raisonneur of the play is tom as he voices the author (Mike Bartlett’s) opinions about the main themes. Personally I feel that this is the most important character as tom show the underlying reason of the play in his dialogue.

Slide 7 – Themes

• Global warming - air miles, over population
• Death- suicide and abortions
• Regret – character’s decisions that lead to bigger consequences
• The difference between reality and fantasy happens – how the play time jumps and the final scene with Grace when Freya realises it’s fake and it was all just a coping method
• Consumerism – we are being manipulated to use excess and blissful ignorance in the modern world

Slide 8 – Ruining the Earth

Throughout the play, it confronts the idea that we are slowly killing the earth through our uses of over population, global warming which is causing the ice caps to melt and therefore making there be a rise in sea levels. It also has many prologue scenes that try to show the effect of air miles on our planet. We feel that this is a very relevant subject to present to an audience as many people are going abroad to places like Ibiza just for fun. This relates to the quote by tom

“What’s more important, a stag weekend in Amsterdam or the entire nation of Tuvalu sinking underwater? Six flights a year to a second home, or starving families in Eritrea?”

Slide 9 – over population

·         In 2010 the UK’s population was 65,716,684

·

Less economically developed countries example:

·         Over population will keep on rising if we don’t help the newly industrialised countries, creating more pollution.

·         This links to Tom, the Raisonneur as he’s fighting for the rights of poorer countries. Opening our minds to show us how selfish we are.

·         Also this links to a quote from Brecht, the practitioner we decided to style our piece around.

Slide 10 – Brecht

·         Brecht was a German playwright, producer and director.

·         “Art is not a mirror held up to reality

But a hammer with which to shape it”

First quote - BERTOLT BRECHT, The Mother

 “Though the rich of this earth find no difficulty in creating misery, they can't bear to see it”

Second quote - BERTOLT BRECHT, Mother Courage and Her Children

Slide 11 – Brecht Epic theatre

Brecht believed in using epic theatre.

Epic theatre is a style of theatre that makes the actor present characters and themes instead of getting emotionally connected to their roles. It tries to make the audience not relate to the characters but judge them and question the decisions that are made in the play.

Brecht does this by breaking the forth wall, using placards which explain parts of the play, have scripts on stage, using narration or many other similar devises that can make the audience realise that they are watching a play not getting involved in the play.

Slide 12 - Feel of the play

In order to start to get a feel for the play we looked into what sort of sounds, smell and emotions would create the atmosphere of the play. Here is what we found.

Emotions

·         Loneliness

·         Love

·         Regret

·         Confusion

·         Lost

Smells

·         Smoke

·         Coffee

·         Petrol

·         Wet concrete

Sounds

·         Coffee pot

·         Cars

·         Planes

·         Club music

·         Static from old TV’s

·         Computers typing

Slide 13 – Contemporising

·         Using modern technology – phones, laptop and projector

·         Using less set than the original production – Bartlett originally wanted lots of set to show excess but we have reduced the set to make it practical for our stage

·         Using modern brands – Starbucks, Facebook and google

·         Using non naturalistic acting – we are using Brecht's style of acting

Slide 14 – staging

 act 1 to 3 staging:

we are using 3 catwalks which each face the audience and they have pathways in between them to show the cracks from the earthquake and the 3 different lives of each sister

act 4/5 staging:

we have to rows of staging that are horizontal to the audience and in the middle of the front row we have a ladder to symbolise the bridge which Freya falls off of.

For our version of the play we have decided to use small designs that will be constant throughout the play

•       Hanging pieces of garbage – tied by string from the ceiling

•       Vivid characters – bright colours and accessories

•       Lots of technology – phones, laptop, projections

•       Excess of people – lots of people on the stage at a time

Rehearsal Imput

When me, Jack and Max where first looking at our scene when the dinner scene in Robert's house, we had envisioned that we would be all sitting around a table where we could be able to eat food whilst saying our line and have the ability to exchange awkward glances to each other. We though perhaps we would be on the centre catwalk right at the front so that it was intermit with the audience and each other. However this setting didn't really work as it was very naturalistic and so it didn't fit in with the brechtian style of the play. So instead we have been redirected to each of us on a single catwalk facing the front with max on a stool with me and jack standing on a diagonal to each other. I feel that this is a more effective staging as it allows the brechtian style to be portrayed but it also means that all of Max's important monologues are directed at the audience and therefore makes them more influential to the audience.

Also, in the scene act 4 page 133, they originally stood in the order Steve, jasmine, Colin and Sarah. However I felt that they were standing in a really staged order so I suggested that jasmine and Colin should switch places to show a separation between Colin and Sarah and to show how Jasmine has gotten in the way of their relationship. I felt that this worked better as it show the spirit in the relationship but it also show how they are all talking over each other coming up to the point when they realise Freya is on the bridge.

Global warming - over population

At the moment the worlds population is around 7.4 billion people and it is increasing every second. There is also over double the amount of people born each day then the amount of people who die. It shows how the world population is continually increasing.

History:

Since the Bubonic plague in. The 1400's the world's population has been on a constant increase. As you can see from this graph the population is constantly increasing and it doesn't show any signs of stoping.




Problems:
There is many problems with having to much over population. For example...
. Not enough homes
. Not enough jobs
. Not enough food and water
. Extinction of species
. Increase in crime rates
. Lower life expectancy in the fastest growing countries
. Reduction in natural resources (e.g. Trees, petrol, metal)

"The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the build-up of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." - The Centre for Biological Diversity

This goes to show that if we increase the worlds population then our human made gases will cause the earth to die so we need to reduce the population as much as possible. This relates to the play Earthquakes in London as Robert believes in these facts and convince Freya to get rid of her unborn child because of these facts.

Initial Responce to Earthquakes in London

When I first read the play I realised that is was primarily about global warming and how we are effecting the earth with our actions against global warming. I thought that this theme was mainly conveyed through the characters Robert and Tom because one is a scienist who is trying to mend his mistakes about global warming and the other is an actovist who is trying to make people aware of what is happening to the world. I personally felt that the monologue from Tom (act 4 page 122) particularly stood out to meas it tells off the people about how they are effecting the planet but it also is one of the only points in the play that actually tells people how we can change to improve the planet.

When reading the play I also noticed that the character Jazmine stood out to. Me as she seems to be the only character who doesn't care what is happening or doesn't actually voice her opinions on global warming. I think this is mainly shown in act 1 page 33 where she says that she doesn't want to hear about the environment as she has heard it from her sister all the time. I thought that perhaps her character was written like that to symbolise the minority of who don't care about politics or even the new generation who have no idea how to fix the damaged world that the older generations have destroyed. I feel that this would be an interesting spin as mostly all the characters in the play are apart of the older generation but there is only 3 younger characters who would have to deal with the consiquences of their actions.

I also noticed that most of the smaller parts in the play are stereotypes that could be portrayed by the media. For example the character of the businessman is brings up topics like terrorism on plays and bases it on Arabians wanting to smoke on planes. It represents how some people view terrorism and how they make jokes out of it to feel more comfortable. Another example is the character Liberty. She says "I put Liberty on the form, as my name. I thought it would get their attention." It shows how people change to try to fit into the public ideals and they get manipulated by ideals from the media for wanting to be a certain way.

Another example is marina. She is a polish migrants who works in a hospital. In the play she only ever talks in polish to Freya but when she talks to the other characters she talks in English. I think that Freya imagines her to be speaking polish to her as Freya has watched so much news and media that she stereotypes marina to not being able to speak in English. Also in 2004 there was around 95,000 polish migrants that moved to UK in search of work and in 2010 (same year the earthquakes was written) the number of polish migrants grew to 550,000. Therefore this statistic could have been portrayed all over the media at the time so it was highly likely that Freya would have gained an opinion against the polish migrants.

4 Dimensions of Character

For every character the actor must consider the 4 dimensions of their character.

 The 4 dimensions are:

1. Physical
2. Social
3. Psychological
4. Morals

Using the 4 dimension of character allows the actor to have a deeper understanding of not only what the character looks like but also their beliefs and attitudes toward certain this that may pop up during the play. I have looked at the 4 dimensions for my characters of Mrs Andrews, Casey and Maryna.

Mrs Andrews
Physical - 49 years old, ginger curly hair, female, like to wear long skirts and woolly jumpers, she is Scottish, she wears brown loafers, she is around 5 ft 5 inch, she has a fat fluffy grey cat.

Social - she has relations with old Robert, she is a house keeper, she is not married, she had private school education, she is from a Catholic family, she has no children.

Psychological - her main desire in life is to have Robert's approval, she always wants the house to be tidy, she is strong willed, she is an observer (Enneagram 5), she is quite submissive, she is reserved, she is very witty.

Morals - she is strongly against global warming, she is for saving the planet and eco living

Casey
Physical - she is 36 years old, she has a brown bob, female, she is chubby, she is British (born in London) she wears eccentric chunky jewellery, she wears flower patterns and trainers with work trousers, she is 5 ft 9 inch, she doesn't like coffee but she loves herbal tea.

Social - She is middle class, she is not married but does go on dating sites, she is apart of the ministerial team in the government, she has no religion, she is an employee of Sarah's and she is a co-worker to Simon, she is being made redundant.

Psychological - she wants to have a job, she desires to be noticed by people, she is in conflict with people's ideas of a good government, she is a very reserved character except when she is pushed too far, she has a strong work ethic and determination, she is close minded, she is a giver (Enneagram 2)

Morals - she is against the Tories government, she is for equality and support in the team

Maryna
Physical - she is 29 years old, she has thick blonde curly hair, female, she wears a blue cleaning apron and bright white shoes with light blue scrubs, she is Polish but has lived in the UK for 5 years, she is around 5 ft 6 inch, she has a radio/walk man and she listens to chart music, 

Social -  she is working class, she is not married but she does have a 2 year old son, she is a cleaner at the hospital, she is Catholic, she works with Doctor Tim and she communicates with Freya, she has worked at the hospital for 3 years,

Psychological - she desires to earn money to support her family, her main conflict is how people view her a an immigrant, she is smart and strong willed, she is extremely motherly, she is very sassy, she is an observer (Enneagram 5), she doesn't enjoy her job but she gets on with it anyway,

Morals - she is against discrimination of immigrants, she is for helping others in need

Earthquakes Vocal Challanges

In Earthquakes in London two of my three characters have accents, Mrs Andrews is Scottish and Maryna is Polish. In order to make these characters as realistic as possible I decided to look into how to produce a convincing accent for both parts.

Polish:
To start off with, some of the letters in words are pronounced differently:

• ts in “kits” would sound like "c"
• ee in “meek" would sound like "i"
• y in “you” would sound like "j"
• v in “vet" would sound like "w"
• i in “ink" would sound like "y"

Sometimes when  and vowels are next to each other they have their own combined sound:

• bi – like b in “beg.”

• gi – like g-y in “beg you.”

• ki – like ke-y in “like you.”

• mi – like m-y in “charm you.”

• pi – like p-y in “stop you.”

Scottish:

To start off with, their is a different placement of words in your mouth when doing a Scottish accent:

• Keep your lips out and open your mouth as if to get your lips around each sound and word
• When you speak, pull your tongue back toward your throat. Doing this will help you get the harsher, guttural sounds associated with Scottish accents.
• "u" sounds as "oo" 
• Drop the 'g' sound from words ending in a 'g.' 
• Roll your "r's"
• 
  

Earthquakes - the character Mrs Andrews

Information on Mrs Andrews:
. She is house keeper for the older Robert
. She is Scottish and lives with Robert in Glasglow
. She has a sister
. She stays with her sister when Robert has visitors
. She has a thing Robert
. She cooks, cleans, open doors answers phones for Robert

Mrs Andrews dialoge said about herself:
. "There's my room"
. " when your wife visited, I stayed at my sister's"
. "He'll be back to the house later this afternoon, as will I"
. "You think I was in there listening? I stayed at my sister's"
. "I stay out of his business"

Thing said about Mrs Andrews by others:
. "Mrs andrews keeps me company. She's a blessing. Problem is. She loves me."
. "Those eyes. I tell her., Mrs Andrews, it's not you, it's your age. It's prohibitive."
. "Flirting! Look at her. There isn't a bed, there you have it straight from the horses mouth - no offence Mrs A"
. "We some. You gave her fruit cake"
. "You see, there is a keen brain under all that"

Mrs Andrews actions/behaviours:
. The door is opened by Mrs Andrews
. Mrs Andrews sighs
. She lets him in
. Mrs Andrews clatters in, opens the curtains
. Mrs Andrews looks at him
. Mrs Andrews goes
. Mrs Andrews is sorting through table cloths. Steve talks to her.
. Mrs Andrews takes a towel and begins to unfolding it
. Mrs Andrews shuts the door and gives him the towel on cue
. Robert, Steve and Mrs Andrews are having dinner
. Steve is arguing with Mrs Andrews

My opinion of Mrs Andrews appearance:
I personally feel that she would probably be wearing a long tartan skirt as of her Scottish heritage and her age. Also I thought that she might wear a white shirt as she is older and she is in a formal presentable job to Robert. Perhaps she would wear a small heel but it would be a leather.shoe
And she would have curly hair perhaps put up but defiantly slightly messy due to all the work she does.

Earthquakes - the character Maryna

Information about Maryna:
. She is a polish woman
. She is a cleaner in a hospital
. She says she doesn't understand English but she does say some English things

Maryna's dialoge she says about herself:
. "I don't understand English"
. "I'm just the cleaner, go and talk to a doctor"

There is not anything said about her by any other characters. I think this is because she is a minor background character who is only meant to observe the story and not be apart of it.

Maryna's actions/behaviours:
. Playing 'I am not a robot' on a tiny radio
. Maryna looks Freya in the eyes
. Maryna picks up her mop and watches
. As the receptionist takes Freya into the hospital, Maryna watches then walks away
. Maryna, the polish cleaner from before, sees Freya and starts singing 'I'm not a robot' by Marina and the diamonds
. Freya leaves the hospital with Maryna
. Freya walks down the road into the city with Maryna, and picking up some other commuters behind her. They walk with and sing
. Peter appears, looking for Freya. Everyone starts moving off, going about their normal boring business. Maryna goes home

My opinions of Maryna's appearance:
Obviously I saw her wearing a cleaning blouse with white shoes because of her job as a cleaner and the place that she works. I also imagined her with curly hair that has been swept into a low pony tail mainly to show that she is trying to keep the environment clean. I thought it work be also ordinary to have her wearing bright rubber gloves or even a hair net just to add more to her job criteria.

Earthquakes - the character Casey

Information about Casey:
. She is being made redundant
. She is apart of the ministrative team
. She works for Sarah
. She drinks herbal tea
. She voted for liberal democrats
. She has been working for Sarah for 5 years
. She is British and working in London
. She is annoyed with they way the government is being run
. She regrets voting for lib dem

Casey's dialoge about herself:
. "I've been here five years"
. "I don't like coffee"
. "But I voted lib dem, I voted for you"
. "I'm leaving the country"

Things said about Casey:
. "Casey's been a fantastic as part of the ministrative team" - Sarah
. "Ever since I been here I've noticed that she's so ... Funny" - Sarah
. "We're sorry to be seeing ... Casey ... Go, leave" - Sarah

Casey's actions/behaviour:
. Sarah gives Casey a gift bag and she looks inside
. She looks around at everyone and gives the machine back

My ideas on her appearance:
When I first read that character Casey I thought that she would probably be the outcast of the office as no one noticed that she was there for 5 years or that she drank herbal tea. I therefore imagined her to be quite wacky in her hair and clothing choices. I imagined her with wild curly hair and very bright colourful clothing that probably doesn't match. I felt that this related to the character as she drinks herbal tea so I thought she would be a hippy type character. I defiantly saw her with big glasses that she could use as a character trait by always having to push up her glasses. This could make her look more insecure in the office and make it show that she obviously doesn't belong in the office.

Earthquakes - introduction

Earthquakes in London is a play written by Mike Bartlett which is based around global warming. The story follows a woman called Freya who is in conflict to whether she should keep her child or have an abortion like her father says to save her from contributing to over population or a damaged world. When Freya's mother dies her and her two sisters (Sarah and Jasmine) leave their father to live their own different and separate lives. The story exposes themes like global warming, abortions, over population, death, suicide, regret plus the difference between reality and fantasy.

To get my own interpretation of the play we had to draw an image the reflects the play. I decided to draw a baby with a blind fold on which was inside the mother's tummy. I did this to show how we are ignorant to the things around or the bigger picture and therefore we feel that we are not affected by these things. Around the tummy their was the destruction of fires, alcohol, trees and planes because it sort of showed how the world is being destroyed by thing we do everyday. There was also cracks inside and outside the tummy to symbolise the destruction caused by the earthquakes. I decided to name the image 'we are blind' mainly because it shows the ignorance that we have to global warming and to show how we would rather turn a blind eye to the subject then facing it head on.

Characters:
In this play their are many different character types that are represented through one or more characters.

1. Protagonist - the protagonist is the main character whose story we follow. I feel that Freya would be the protagonist as all of the characters go to her instead of her finding the new characters and she is the one who has the decision whether or not to keep the child. However there are other characters who could possibly be the protagonist like Robert as he has to decide whether or not to stay with his family after his wife dies and his decision effects the rest of the lives of his daughters.

2. Antagonist - the antagonist is the person who causes conflict for the protagonist. I feel that Robert would be the antagonist as he is the one who tells Freya to get rid of her child and therefore causes her conflict in her decision making. There is also a minor antagonist to Jasmine as Sarah is her polar opposite and she confronts everything that Jasmine does. However I feel that Robert would be the main antagonist as he effects the storyline the most.

3. Foils - the foil is the characters that contrast to the main character. I feel that this would probably would be Jasmine and Sarah as each individual sister has separate character trades from the other. However you could also say that Steve is Roberts foil as he completely disagrees with everything that Robert says as he believes that Freya should keep the child. My character Mrs Andrews could also be seen as a foil to Robert as she seems to be a loving caring person compared to Robert who is very reserved and cold.

4: Confidante - the Confidante is some one who forces the protagonist to open up to. I feel that Peter would be Freya's Confidante as she truly expresses her true emotions about not wanting the child to him. However you could say that Steve would also be the Confidante to both Freya and Robert as she opens up to him about her fear of being left alone and Robert shows his true feelings about being a father to Steve.

5: Raisonneur - the Raisonneur is the character which expresses the voice of the author. I feel that this character would be Tom as he is the only considers the effect global warming is having on the people and he has a large passionate rant about the effects of the planes.

6: norm character - the morn character is someone who is completely normal and are relatable to the audience. I feel that this character would be Steve as he is only looking for answers and he is trying to save his family. I think this is why he is my favourite character as he (to me) feels like the only true character who tries to hold everything together.