BTEC Extended Diploma in Performing Arts
Unit 04 : The Historical Context of Performance
Context is the surrounding factors, development, origin and reception of something. There are many factors in a context these include history, politics, beliefs, religion, law, geography, culture, industry, technology and economy. These are the major factors that surround context. It is important we know the context of something to explore it in a much deeper environment, knowing the origins means we have the starting point and can find meaning behind it. It also gives us roots to explore outside the area. The reception of context is important because we can see how it has changed the way we live today such as laws, technology, beliefs etc. Context affects performance/art all the time. One way we can prove this is by looking into DV8 Enter Achilles, which I have chosen to study for this unit. I will be giving detailed research finding about Lloyd Newson, writer, and a comprehensive account background of performance material.
The concept origin of Enter Achilles starts when Lloyd Newson snapped his Achilles tendon in a ballet class around 1993, while hospitalised Newson himself said in an interview with The Observer on the 10th September 1995
"My women friends came, my gay friends came, but where were my straight male friends? Nowhere in sight. I had to wonder whether that friendship was just based on doing things like going to the pub, and they couldn't handle it when I turned out to be vulnerable." Hence the title of the piece Enter Achilles.
This open Newsons eyes and inspired him, along with a tragic accident he saw on a street corner in Melbourne where a man was suffering a heart attack in the street, another member of public, male, was about to perform CPR on the victim however didn’t complete the CPR as another member of the public mumbled ‘queer’. Newson was amazed at how masculinity was such giant status for men around this time. Remembering gay rights were not enforced and gay marriage was still illegal. Newson spent a lot of his time researching the behaviour of straight men in pubs, observing actions and manors. Newson also studied social work and physiology at theUniversityofMelbournewhich he graduated from in 1978 which gives us the impression he was very caring and liked to investigate into how people think. At this time it was also very rare for men to study social work, this may indicate that Lloyd Newson was actually gay himself however we have no evidence to prove this. After writing Enter Achilles and gathering the performers to make this a theatre production it was eventually produced into a film in the same year (1995). This was filmed inLondon; although we are not positive on the location we assume it was a working class or stereotypical area ofLondon. The film starts with a scene of a male rolling around his bedroom with an inflatable doll of a woman, whilst he continues to show affection to this inanimate object he receives a voice mail off a real woman asking where he was as he hadn’t shown up to their date at the cinemas. This puts an over view of how men were treating women in this era. Evidently after researching into the starting point of lads mags such as FHM, Nuts and general porn magazines we found that the first one was released in 1994, perfect timing for the film. After this scene we are introduced to a group of men in a pub. All the men in the scene were wearing dull coloured shirts with a tie and suit trousers, their hair were cut into a similar style. They all held a pint glass of beer, a cigarette or both. We can see how this has changed today as in July 2007 the smoking ban was enforced, and today over 100 pubs shut down every month in the uk on average and also men now tend to take more pride and care into their hair styles and this is acceptable as back in 1995 it seemed to have been feminine to take care of your appearance. One of the men in the pub however is wearing a bright coloured shirt with gel in his hair, this man is gay. The group of men make fun of him by being extremely feminine, nothing like how the gay man acts, and they all look very uncomfortable and unsure on how to react. This is a great example of what we call ‘Old Man’. This is a label given to men who are still not accepting of changes happening, however ‘New Lad’ is more our generation.
"Shame leads to silence — the silence that keeps other people believing that we actually approve of the things that are done to women, to minorities, to gays and lesbians in our culture."
ibid p.131
We have evidence that the reception of this context has changed as December 2005 it became legal to people of the same sex to have marriage rights. However the generation of Old Man are still clutching onto their masculinity and protest against such things.
The Guardians review title of this piece was ‘Truly, Badly, But Terribly Manly’ includes critical opinion which states - But even if Enter Achilles feels as if it was made to prove a point and even if its aims seemed skewed, it does manage to splatter a lot of targets en route. The humour and the horror of it will touch nerves, cause arguments and revisit the debate about nineties man. It may not be a credible human document but it does effectively and entertainingly what all polemic should do — which is divide its audience into angry support or dissent.
I feel that this critical opinion is almost shameful to be telling the truth, you can tell the writer is almost agreeing with the approach Enter Achilles brought but again not wanting to upset the readers. I disagree with this, as I think it is a bias review from the opposite side. I feel that DV8 Enter Achilles did a great job with its liberal view and the reception obviously hit hard as we can see how the times have changed throughout. I feel that if this was released again today people would class the view as ‘old fashioned’ even though it is less then 20 years old. There is a very stereotypical over view of the men played in this film but I think it was to make a point. I feel that interpretation this in a modern context would be an opportunity to find out more about the history and maybe look into more depth about things that are happening now that could relate to goings on when enter Achilles was produced. I feel that masculinity was put to shame by this and am glad that things have been put into place and laws enforced for equality.
http://www.dv8.co.uk/home/review_the_observer_straight_and_narrow_minded
http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/interview_ballett_international_the_silence_of_the_man
Truly, Badly, but Terribly Manly
REVIEW ... Arnolfini, Bristol
by Judith Mackrell
The Guardian | Friday Sep 22 1995 http://www.dv8.co.uk/home/review_the_guardian_truly_badly_but_terribly_manly
