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[meredithbentley]

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[frycheekan-blog]

A Little Box of Oblivion: Self Evaluation

My classmates and I performed A Little Box of Oblivion by Stephen Bean for our coursework in Drama GCSE. It is a play of the absurd, and the genre was created after World War 2 left people depressed and/or confused and unsure of what they’re doing in life. The main moral is that we should trust people (all characters except Woman jump to conclusions concerning the contents of the box). The ridiculous world issues caused by man today constantly shape our thoughts and perceptions on reality as being negative. The title of the play — oblivion, hints to the endless possibilities of the box but also how we feel as if we live and breathe in nothingness.

I think that I showed my part of the play effectively sticking with that moral. As I said below, my character had to lack motivation and curiosity, which made my character like other common realistic characters. I would keep referring back to my newspaper, roll my eyes and look at the others in disbelief as they voiced their theories on the contents of the box. As a group, I think that we did very well on putting the moral forward, truly exaggerating our characters if needed (apart from me, I did it a bit too much) or also stressing and hopeless, which comes back to the initial feeling of the genre of the play again.

I suggested a business attire for the character of Cool, as I felt this might show the status barriers between her and the other characters. It could also show her seriousness and business-like body language, as well as her ability to think everything the others say ridiculous simply because it wasn’t logical. I also suggested that the actor playing the character of Neuro in my part of the play should wear baggy clothes in order to accentuate her frail and feeble physicality.

Our performance had many positives: our costumes fit with the characteristics of our characters, we made sure to speak at different heights emphasise our points, if necessary, we made sure that our props fit with the specifications of the script(that is, to a minimal), and almost all of the time our voices were clearly projected to the camera. Working with everyone was a breeze, as everyone pulled their own weight and were really focused on achieving the best they could achieve.

I really liked how Mira’s boots gave her a bit of a strut, and it showed that she was higher in status and physically than the rest of the characters. I like Charlotte’s telephone speech, as she really made it believable and stretched out the lines she felt necessary, making it seem like an actual call, not just something to be done with in a play. I love Kaoru’s part where she got up the bench, her gigantic arm gestures really gave her speech a lot of meaning and helped her pace her lines as well. Maia’s costume (her huge cardigan, her dad’s shorts and frilly socks) was absolutely hilarious, but really helped her get into the character, making her look strange and confused. As for Camille, her bright backpack really made her stand out and look a lot younger. Also she did literally everything right, they all did (gO 10C DRAMA)

As for me, I felt that I projected my lines well for both the louder lines and the softer lines (made possible by as clear enunciation as I could do), I gave good body language while sitting down at the bench, crossing my arms and rolling my eyes to show disinterest, etc. A good example is during my speech, where I initially started very quiet to show my confusion. I would try to keep as calm as I could and then slow increasing the intensity to my very last line. I tried to say the speech in a disappointed manner, versus in a full out angry tone. The only point where I should fully be angry is when I say “I agree with you!”, and then carry out that anger onto the box, smashing it and shaking it in mid air.

For my improvements, my teacher has told me to tone it down. Not so much that I lose completely all movement and feeling, but since I am a generally apathetic character most of the time, it would be inappropriate for me really be overly energetic. For example, in the “water rats” section, I shouldn’t have spun around all that much, as my sudden burst of energy might lead to the audience thinking that the character is bipolar (perhaps she is in different adaptations, but not in ours). I should also try to make up lines if my other cast mates skipped a few, like in our video, there is a large awkward silence in the middle of the scene whereby instead of making up lines to support, I (very) quietly whispered some hints to the actor nearest to me. Making up lines to piece scenes together is a target to achieving a higher band level, which is ultimately where I want to get to next.