Ms Burstner, a woman who lodges in the same building as Joseph K, is a character I find extremely interesting to play. During the initial stages of rehearsals I began to brainstorm what elements of Ms B’s personality would best suit the grotesque and exaggerated feeling of our performance. Getting used to Grotesque Theatre as a concept was something I found extremely hard, as I have never performed in this style before. However, after extensive rehearsals and workshops with the group I began to slowly get used to this theatrical genre. Exercises and techniques that helped me do so include…
- Short improvisation exercises where we exaggerated every day situations into ridiculous and artificial physicality – this helped me break the barrier of performing to such a degree like Grotesque Theatre.
- Performing ‘The Trial’ as if in fast forward – this forced us to push every physicalisation to the maximum.
My character development underwent a huge change in the late stages of rehearsals, which I believe transformed Ms Burstner into a much more grotesque and surreal representation on stage. Below is a mindmap surrounding this.
During the early stages of our rehearsal process, our first response to the character of Ms Burstner was…
- A middle-aged woman, posh, eloquent.
- Pompous, looks down her nose at Joseph K.
- Flamboyant and extravagant.
A concept that all of STAMP Theatre agreed on was that we wanted to combine grotesque theatre with extreme characterisation, to the point that not a single element of the character we were playing was reminiscent of our real selves. I felt that my portrayal of Ms B thus far was not exaggerated to this point, as her shocked reactions to Joseph K telling the story of his arrest was too honest and realistic. Because of this, alongside the director’s suggestion, the character of Ms B was then completely changed into a seductive prostitute.
Components of this new characterisation include…
- Slow, seductive physical expression – I imagine Ms B being extremely unattractive, but believing that she is beautiful.
- Husky vocal expression.
- Constantly preening herself – this can be used alongside the element of grotesque theatre within our performance to a comic effect.
- Seducing Joseph K throughout the scene. What I thought might deem comical to an audience was if Ms B thought Joseph K was there to have sex with her, but was actually just wanting some advice on his upcoming court case.
Although this change in characterisation occurred very late in the rehearsal process, I believe it resulted in a much more dynamic, grotesque, and sometimes comical character.
I also played a part of the chorus throughout our performance, a very challenging role. This is because I have never before played part in a performance like our rendition of The Trial and find it very challenging; the physical demands and extreme concentration required throughout is something I have never experienced to this degree before, and the chorus being on stage throughout added to the focus the performance needed. Our dramatic aim for the chorus was a collective, united group of people embodying grotesque theatre- ugly and distorted physical and facial expression is used throughout to convey the surrealism of our interpretation of The Trial.
An additional component of the chorus’ development was the physical theatre used throughout. Through extensive rehearsal we manage to create numerous images and objects using our bodies, for example a bed, a car, and an elevator. I believe this correlates directly to STAMP Theatre’s mission statement and manifesto of creating intelligent and innovative work through different styles of theatre.
Caitlin Clark