On Friday the 17th of May at 7.30pm STAMP Theatre performed their production of ‘The Trial’ on the LPAC stage.

The day of the Performance we arrived at the theatre for 10.00 am  to prepare for our cue to cue which began at 2.00pm.  During this it was a great way to physically and vocally warm up and get into costume whilst preparing for the events ahead. A cue to cue was both helpful for the lighting tech team but also very significant for the actors as it was essential we were all in the exact positions for the spotlights and frames.

As much practice with the Frames as possible was also essential once they had been attached to the bungee cord, as we needed to feel as comfortable and controlled with them as possible. This was one thing I felt slightly nervous towards as in rehearsals we had been restricted with working with the frames because of how they had to be attached by a bungee cord.  For the ‘Telephone Scene’ in particular it was  difficult as we had to stretch the frames to the front of the stage whilst also being careful in the way we were holding them, as to not to snap the rope.

Once this had all been finalized we had a successful dress rehearsal then prepared for the upcoming show.

On reflection of the performance, I personally felt as though for me, the show was a great success and we all gave it our all and came in to characters to our full potential.  We dealt with slight mishaps such as a frame snapping both professionally and artistically, and this did not take our focus away from the performance.

I felt as a chorus we worked well together, and the months of dedication and practice finally came together and showed within the performance. Reflecting back on my character of Leni also, i feel as though i was happy with the performance i gave and confident i gave off the messages and persona i intended. The reaction from Joeseph K also assisted me to do this as the relationship between us was one of the vital sub plots behind my character.

To conclude i have thoroughly enjoyed the past 4 months working with STAMP theatre both working on the marketing/advertising as well as being in the show and has been a privilege to work along such a dedicated and talented team.

Thanks for reading

Becca xx

When trying to define the use of Grotesque and Abusurd theatre in the works of Berkoff, it is first essential to understand the meaning of what Abusurd theatre is. Esslin states that ;

    “Aburd is that which is devoid of purpose.. Cut off from his religious, metaphysical, and transcendental roots, man is lost ; all his actions become senseless, abusurd, useless!”. ( Esslin 1983, p23).

Within The Trial one of the most important things we needed to portray was how different the rest of the characters were to Joeseph K, and one of the most creative ways to intepret this was through facial expreissions and movement. The movement around the frames was a very intresting and grotresque concept that we each had to make our own. For example:

Within the scene where the city comes to life, we all had to portray a movement and sound that created a bustling city waking up. I chose the conseience deicison to brush my hair whilst singing in differnt tones ‘Brush brush brush’. Throughout the rehearsals the soundscapes became more and more exaggerated and physicalised , which we had to maintain throughout the rest of the production.

As an actress performing as a part of the chorus, it was first difficult for me to remain in this characterisation throughout the whole of the production, as when others were in the spot light, we assumed we were not longer able to be seen. On the day of the perfomance it was clear from the blackouts placed on us that we were still in a slight amount of light, so remaing a neutral facial expression towards the audience is something we all decieded to agree on.

Through several excerisises within rehearsals we worked on extending facial expression in the eyes and mouths, to which begin with a found a challenge. Once we got use to being confortable with doing these expressions in front of one another, this was then taken to another level with the physicallity in each of our movements. As the character of Leni, my facial expressions throughout the scene were to be very wide eyed and childlike. One of the most difficult challenges for me was to keep this facial expression throughout the scene even if i was not speaking for a long perioid of time ,  as it was still vital for me to stay in character.

A decision was made for our hair and makeup to all be very similar, with girls having tights buns on their heads and boys scraping theirs back with gel. This gave a sense of union, and repeating the image of how we are stripped back to core acting and simplistic use of costume and hair.

Our makeup however reiterates that of  stereotypical groteque theatre in some aspects, with the justification that we wanted a theatre of 400 seats to all clearly see our expressions throughout. We foucsed on developing the eyes and lips, with thick eyebrows and bright red lipstick for the girls, which also subconciousley made me feel as though i was wearing a mask, and this assisted in me exaggerating  even further my facial expressions for the audience to see.

‘The Chorus’ with our exaggerated faces ready to perform

Works Cited

Esslin M- (1983) The Theatre of the Absurd (Third Edition)- Pelican Books, Doubleday and Company, Inc

” Drama is primarily about action, not emotion. And the characters you play do not exist outside the pages of the script they spring from. Therefore, an allegiance to character rather than the story contained in the script is the misguided loyalty. It is first and foremost your obligation to help tell the playwright’s story rather than your character’s. That means you have to understand the mechanics of the script provided by the playwrigfht and, from that, make your own storytelling contribution before you engage in any practiacal scene work.” ( Miller 1995, p.1).

When our Director made the pulnitmate decision for us to perform Berkoff’s adaption of Kafkas’s ‘The Trial’, it was clear from the beginning this was going to be both challenging and like nothing else i had ever performed in before. Right from the first read through I  was immediately drawn to the complexity of the play, and how distinctly different each and every character was and the work that was going to be needed to reach the standards Berkoff intended his characters to reach.

     One of the most challenging , yet enjoyable parts of the process was the formation of the Chorus, who are a fundamental part of the play.  They link each scene together and show the audience the distinct contrast between the normality of Joseph K and their absurdness. Right from our first rehearsal our Directer Lucy got us to sit in our beginning positions and one by one we created our grotesque persona’s. “The grotesques are close to caricature. They have the same relationship to everyday life that can be seen in humorous drawings. They never deal with feelings or with psychology, but only with social functions.” (Leoq 2002, p 125).  Through exercises such as facial and physical warm ups, we were able to gain confidence and maturity in creating these grotesque persona’s which carried the story through  song , dance and sound scapes, and by narrating us through the story of Joseph K’s struggle. Physically the production was also very demanding as the pace needed to be fast moving and precise , so to be eating healthy , exercising regularly and leading a healthy lifestyle was something i chose to incorporate also to try and give as much physicality and energy as required.

With the creation of my character Leni, this came from an original idea from Lucy pictured this character to be, which was then development and practiced over time. When i originally read about this character i could not get my head around what her motifs and character was really about as one moment she seemed calm and collected, and the next crazy and wild! After some discussion with Lucy and bringing this character to life however, it soon began to make sense. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing this character to life, and as each rehearsal happened, I began to feel more and more comfortable with this part and began to have fun with it. Her wide eyed, childish behavior was even more developed when we began to do runs in costume as i then could exaggerate this character further by the use of my long skirt and a defined walk.  The relationship of her character with Joseph K was also interesting to develop overtime as it was for the other characters also. Each character Joseph K met with was a different scenario. with him becoming more and more distressed as the play goes on.

A useful game we played at the beginning of our rehearsal was to stand up individually and create a freeze frame of one of the characters within the play. This was both useful and interesting as we were able to see how clear and obvious the characters we all created were and if they could be exaggerated any further.

As an Actress i have thoroughly enjoyed partaking in this production and have never felt like a company has worked so hard both physically mentally and emotionally.

Word Count -623

Works Cited

Lecoq J-(2002)  The Moving Body- Teaching Creative Theatre -Methuen Publishing Limited

Miller B-(1995) The Scene Study Book = Roadmap to Sucess – Methuen Publishing Limited