As mentioned in my previous blog, one concept that became of great importance was focussing on the shared story. One way I looked to do this was through the actor’s body. With all the elaborate sets stripped away, our production of The Trial became heavily focussed on creating a new world with just a few props and the enthusiasm and creativity of my cast.

When speaking of Berkoff’s adaptation, Cross states;

“he used the actors’ bodies and their physical performance and mime skills to assert fantastical stylisation over what he has characterised as the mainstream obsession with creating the impression of ‘reality’ on stage. In short, he employed performance (mime) in attempt to undo the logocentricism of theatre (text and naturalism)” (2004, p.211)

Therfore, by focussing on the use of the body, the cast were able to overcome some of the limitations that the theatre inhabits, and utilise the space to create an ensemble piece that was focussed on allowing the audience to suspend their disbelief and be engaged within the performance.

Another concept that stemmed from this was the use of the grotesque. When beginning to work on the script and the characters within, it came to my attention that by focussing on the physicality of the characters haunting Joseph K, the more these characters became stylised caricatures of themselves. This was something I wished to pursue further so that the more grotesque the chorus and characters around Joseph K became, the more isolated he would become as a character and the more sympathetic an audience would feel towards him.

As mimetic and stylised styles were a technique not many of the cast had used before, I had to find ways of breaking down the barriers and allowing their characterisations to evolve.

One way of doing this was by taking away the text from the performance. With the actors not being able to rely on the text to support their character, their bodies became their only way of communicating to the audience. I often would start the rehearsals by splitting the cast into smaller groups. I would then give the actors two minutes to work on a 30 second-1 minute mute version of ‘The Trial’ or other well known stories for the other members to guess.  By doing this, not only did this help bring energy and pace to the group before we began, but it helped to utilise their bodies enabling them to focus on creating atmosphere, characterisation and telling the story in a stylistic manner.

Below is a video of one of the exercises before rehearsal:

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Works cited

Cross, R, (2004) , Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of Self-Performance, Manchester university press