Sunday 10 February 2013

Production Seen: Oh What a Lovely War


Description, what it told me, successful?

The Connaught Theatre, Worthing (11/10/11) (Joan Littlewood; the Theatre Group)
Small proscenium arch, also a cinema

Aims: distancing (V-effect, Brechtian), against war, class differences, soldier solidarity, harsh conditions, tragedy of war, magnitude, effects of war (good/bad)
Genre: Ensemble musical piece with comedic and Brechtian elements



Cast (5):                 
Robert Harding (moranneville, Scotland, drill sergeant, church officer, German Kaiser, spy, Hague)
Ben Harrison (nurse, America, keen new soldier, lanrezac, solier chucks boot, plant pot/women)
Joseph Mann (scared soldier, French aide, hell song puppet, Switzerland)
Paul Morse (singing lady, hell song puppet, England (shooting), trench inspecting officer, French, wipers gazette, washing line lady-SR, MC)
Tom Neill (awkward soldier, English aide, French (shooting), mrs pankhurst, washing line lady-SL, vicar)

Director: Adrian McDougall                  
Set Designer: Victoria Spearing
Lighting: Oliver Welsh
Costume: Fiona Davis; Pamela Wiggin



Set-non naturalistic

Preset
·         18 white crosses – 9 across the back/3 groups of 3 SL: used as costume and prop stands
·         White screen on back wall (blank) - news panel
·         DSR: music stands and instruments: keyboard, drum kit on block, percussion, trombone, flute, drum, accordion, trumpet, saxophone, ukulele

Other
·         Trench: rostra create “wall” or entrance
·         Church: rostra stacked one, then one on top of one behind (+ slightly SL) = levels
·         Mrs Pankhurst: rostrum create podium
·         Puppets for hell song: 2 rostra = screen (puppets kneel behind), 1 rostra = platform for singer
·         4 crosses = female dancers in ballroom scene – floaty material = dresses
·         Costumes/props gradually removed – final image: white crosses, shadows, actor silhouettes
·         Washing line

Lighting
·         Generally cold, full washes, often spots on characters/isolated scenes (nurse, church, shooting)
·         Actors started before house lights went down
·         House lights up before play started + stage lights up = v effect
·         Dim lights during trench scene, blue lights = sinister; creates silhouette for meeting w/ German
·         Low lights for final silhouette

Sound
·         music created by actors on stage
·         explosions used in many scenes
·         songs all sung by the men, even female ones

Costume
·         sepia: brown trousers, cream shirt, brown waistcoat w/brown Pierrot pompoms, detachable ruffs, braces?
·         army jackets used, drill sergeant had red sash, vicar = black shirt + dog collar underneath jacket, tail coats
·         officers hats, tin helmets, national headgear, German ‘spiky hats’, admiral’s tricorn, headscarves, ladies hats w/ feathers
·         black dress (I’ll make a man) feathers on shoulder, matching hat, sparkly, worn over trousers/shirt
·         nurse: apron, Mrs Pankhurst: hat/black shoes, spies: long black coats, BIG moustaches
·         long grey coat for German, other long coats for English/French, ‘knee shoes’ Moranneville

Acting
·         funny, mime/props equal, moving

Acting – moments
·        
Lambs to the slaughter – shows meaningless loss of life and how the soldiers were forced to obey: non-naturalistic scene but naturalistic lines/emotions
o    Four soldiers crouched USL
o    Stand up, walk forwards (towards DSC) ‘baa’ing, jerk suddenly, shudder as they fall, stand up, walk…etc
o    Went into a sad French song so no contrast w/ happy song. Moving moment
o    Meeting actors at start = greater emotional attachment
·         
Drill Sergeantshows lack of preparation, humourous
o    DrSe has swagger stick, feet together, chest out, archetypal; loud booming voice, nonsense words
o     [T.N./J.M./B.H.] scared, awkward, enthusiastic. In order DSC facing audience. DrSe at SR end facing SL
o    BH looked like corpsing (‘that’s not v. professional’) but contrived moment, laughing at their mistake – then he makes mistake
o    Attention, explain carry rifle, fix bayonets, lunge
o    V- effect, reminds us we are in theatre ‘broken the 4th wall man!’ – jumps off stage
·         
Ballroom – shows class system w/in officers, officers uncaring about death
o    Tail coats/dress uniform [all but BH]
o    Held cross under intersection, held end of cloth out like hand = v-effect
o    Exaggerated, clipped, upper-class accents
o    Ladies voices + plant pot provided by BH (at keyboard playing dance music) over shoulder, falsetto voice for ladies
o    Waltz in a circle. Officer ‘dances out’ to DSC and holds out cross to side. Speaks to them as if private conversation, bows to cross
o    Swap partners = handing over crosses in a lilting movement, like the lady is walking
·         
Christmas in trenchshows all soldiers = same (even class doesn’t matter), heart warming
o    3 rostra, all upside down, CS [PM, BH, RH, JM] sit/lean (hunched w/cold - naturalistic).
o    PM w/ notebook, BH w/parcel, RH + JM w/ cards (rowdy, laughing, look out over audience)
o    TN = German USR unseen
o    Silent night sung in German, no music = moving: soldiers peer over trench wall, US, look at each other
o    Settle down and sing parody song = low class (don’t speak German, German soldier = better educated)
o    Boot = panic. They dive to floor and cover heads, one prods boot
o    Chuck boot back, w/ stuff, dive to floor as explosion – by flickering flash of light and SFX – surprises audience
o    Break tension ‘Christmas pudding that strong…’
o    See German soldier and freeze: German moves CS slow motion. Silhouetted by cold LX
o    British soldiers slow motion leave trench (climb over/walk around) to meet him = tension, nervousness
o    Hand shake = brief freeze frame w/ silhouette then: tension broken and they all relax (shoulders slump, hand push helmet back, etc), audience relaxes too, happy moment (Contrast w/ next scene?)

French, Lanrezachumourous, shows stupidity of officers when making decisions
o    Moranneville [RH] on knee shoes SR. (blue coat)
o    British have sticks + big folded map, green jackets + flat officers hats
o    Lanrezac = hat and glasses
o    French and Lanrezac: Big gestures, talk loud and slow shows they think they are stupid
o    Fold out map and Moranneville’s indignant stand up = funny
·         
Woman singing
o    Feminine, exaggerated movements: emphasise he’s in drag (Brechtian) funny
o    Put on dress: “My mum would…proud” = humour
o    Theatre = more like a music hall, authentic (not Brechtian?) = ineffective?
o    Falsetto voice
·         
Other moments – washing line(flags), shooting (no wheelchair, hats), church, preset,
·         
References to later wars: The newspanel shows a series of pictures – wars from today (Mugabe, Afghanistan, etc) through time to WWI

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