What are the various individual experiences the TWO plays explored within Australian society? Neighborhood watch explores the individual experiences: Isolation- all the characters carry an element of loneliness. Catherine is isolated through the memory of Martin (previous boyfriend). Ken is isolated, in his own World of Warrant. Ana’s angry temper leads her to live in isolation, stating ‘Ana no trust novo’ War- the flashbacks into Ana’s past through a non-linear structure project Ana’s past of war in her previous country, Hungary. For example, the flashback where we see a working nurse tit a soldier who had lost his leg during the war.
Loss- Ana loses her father during the war, we see this through a flask back where the gypsy sings for the loss Of NANAS dad, singing ‘Never anymore evil the Start to shining in the sky above this roof… Never to come… Never anymore’ to express the hurt and tragic loss ANA feels. Catherine has also experienced loss through her ex- boyfriend who had recently committed suicide, her grieving mechanism is shown through her lack of eating and through the repetition of Kens (her housemate) nagging of her to eat, for example through his imperative league after Catherine tries to argue that she had already eaten ‘That’s such a pathetic lie.
I’m making you a sandwich. ‘ It demonstrates her eating disorder caused by her loss of her boyfriend’s death. Love: Ana projects her love for her second husband, Vladimir. Ana’s love for her Vladimir is projected through her everlasting support for him until his death where she says ‘when you is dying and is bathing your overhead, kissing your hands, carrying you on my shoulder, bashing your kaka, drying your peewee, you is very grateful’.
Catherine is still in love with Martin and through the repetition of Catherine managing Martins reappearance this symbolizes her continuous love and missing of him. Friendship: F-reminders is depicted as a healing process for Catherine and Ken, and Catherine and Ana. As an element of friendship is helping one another out, Ken helps out Catherine by trying to get her to eat properly and find employment. Ana helps Catherine out as she is always finding ways to make her live a safer life and move on from her previous love (Martin).
Stolen explores the individual experiences of: Loss of Aboriginal identity: All 5 main characters undergo the loss of their aboriginal identity through the harsh isolation process that the white people implemented during the stolen generation. This is evident when JIMMY accuses the white people of stealing his soul in ‘I’ve been a thug and a thief- but I’ve never stolen anyone’s soul’. A sense of place: individuals experience a sense of place which symbolizes themselves and their past, for example, Sandy’s dialogue stating ‘Back to me place.
That bit of red desert. I still remember it. The sand must have seeped into my brain. ‘ Symbolizes his missing of the past through a sense of place. Cultural stereotypes and Cultural superiority: ALL 5 main characters are isolated, stolen from their birth families and witness the ‘cultural stereotypes’ through the superior and authorial figures of the ‘white people’ the white peoples superiority and authority is strongly portrayed through ‘Unspoken Abuse’ where Ruby’s mood significantly transforms from happy to severely enclosed and depressed.
Her depressed state is evident through ‘RUBY returns more slowly than she ever had before. She is dragging a book’ her slowed body language emphasizes her depressed state through the abuse experienced by the ‘superior white people. Hope and reconciliation: This is seen through the end of the play when Sandy emphasizes ‘l don t have to hide- I’m going home’ to emphasis his persistence, hope and reconciliation in finding home through positive dialogue. What are the TWO performance styles that are used in the plays and identify scenes from the plays that demonstrate each style?
A Non naturalistic performance style is a style of theatrical performance in which actors and props have multiple uses, roles and meanings, serving to represent different environments. Stolen follows a non-linear; this is where he play follows a non-chronological order which lacks structure in terms of plot and character development. Are two performance styles that are evident in both ‘Stolen’ and ‘Neighborhood Watch’. In ‘Stolen’, a non-linear performance style is projected through the flashbacks/ reality of the children’s past.
Five aboriginal children are removed from their birth families in the Stolen Generational period of Australia’s infamous history from the sass. The non-linear performance style is evident throughout the play, however are strongly evident in scene one, where the stage direction states each of the characters slip into their character as a child. Their body language changes, and they speak over the top of one another and in the ‘stream of consciousness’ style of the very young’ to expose the adult actors in their childhood days and thus holding a non-linear structure.
Another scene this is evident in in ‘Stolen’ is the second scene named ‘Adult Flashes’. The juxtaposition of ‘Act 1’ to ‘Act 2’ projects the distorted, non-linear setting of the play. In Act 1, the adult actors are characterizes to play the children, however in the following scene, the same actors are displayed as adults in their current fife positions. Through the informative dialogue depicting each character to hold adult like qualities, for example Ann.’s dialogue is ‘My home’s got lace curtains-?and Eve got a room of my own. Through the juxtaposition of the two Acts, it is evident that ‘Stolen’ follows a non-linear structure. Through the non-linear structure, this allows the audience the opportunity to see how the characters present lives are intrinsically joined to their past. It also allows the characters to be suspended in time so their lives seem linked even though none of the characters were actually in the children’s home at the same time. In ‘Neighborhood Watch’ a non-naturalistic performance style is used to allow the audience to make sense and develop their understanding of the present characteristics of the characters.
Flashbacks of the main character are portrayed in non-naturalistic form as we see Anna’s friend Catherine playing out the role of ‘young Ana’. This is evident in Act 1 Scene 10 and Act 1 Scene 16. All three scenes require the Catherine to transform into a new character called ‘Young Ana’ as we flashback into the past scenes of Ana’s imagination; this is evident in the texts stage directions ‘ARTURO speaks to CATHERINE now, as though she is the young ANA.
The real ANA steps slightly away to show the transformation of ANA into CATHERINE. However the scenes are set within the setting of the present time, for instance, the text stating ‘Ana’s home transforms into Hungary’ shows the non-naturalistic setting of the scenes. Both performance techniques are elements of the Non- naturalistic performance style and highly reflect the non-naturalistic nature of the performance. Identify and discuss THREE dramatic techniques used to convey the range of experiences found in Australian Society.
Through the intellectuality evident in ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Australian society can relate to the events projected in the play through self-experience. Through the cyclical nature of the play where the opening scenes’ dialogue depicts ‘Kevin ’07’ to establish both the context and the intellectuality of the political leader and the closing scene ends with ‘Happy Obama’, another political leader in close context with Kevin ’07, we can establish and relate to the context of the text.
The intellectuality is further staged by the setting in which Catherine and Ken is staged whilst this is occurring. They are set in the drive way in a friendly neighborhood; this reflects the friendly neighborhoods associated with the context in which the intellectuality is referring to. Another intellectual element in ‘Neighborhood Watch’ is the game ‘World of War craft’ used and stated repetitively by Ken. This intellectual element is also used as a metaphor to establish how trapped Ken is between the world of reality and the world of war craft.
This is projected through Ken’s constant concentration on his laptop, and his little or no attention being paid to the real world. For example, Ken and Catherine are sitting in their drive way and Catering’s dialogue states ‘I wish something would happen that would change the world’, immediately after this statement, Ken pulls out his laptop and begins to play ‘World of Warrant’, this shows the humorous element of this intellectuality by the association of the world to a computer game.
This is a common experience found in Australian society as so many Australians are engulfed in the world of technology, and thus the intellectuality of the ‘World of War Craft’ and the political leaders of Obama and ‘Kevin ’07’ highly reflect individual Australians everyday experiences. Friendship and loss are common Australian experiences in Australian society, relatable to the majority of Australian individuals. In ‘Neighborhood Watch’ symbolism of a ‘baby horse’ is used to convey the birth of Ana and Catering’s friendship as well as to project the first grieving stages of Catering’s recent loss of her partner.
Ana States to Catherine ‘Don’t be the baby horse- all the time try to run in front of the mummy horse. ” The use of the term ‘baby horse’ invokes images of an unsteady, shaky and immature creature longing to find its feet n the world. This mirrors Catherine, symbolizing her fragility, naivety and childlike nature, which reflects the loss of her deceased partner. This is further emphasizes through the direct and authorial body language of Ana when she states this to Catherine to enforce a clear message to Catherine.
Catherine body language is of a smaller frame, showing the higher knowledge Ana withholds. This clear and strong message projected by Ana acts as a catalyst for Catherine to move on from her loss as well as appreciate Ana further as a friend. Setting is essential in Jane Harridan’s play ‘Stolen’ as it reflects the negative and horrific experiences the Stolen Generation were experienced in Australian Society. Through the depiction of a barren setting outlined as ‘Five old iron institutional beds alternate across the stage.
The beds are the base of the five main characters, representing their homes at various stages of their lives’ it then goes on to depict the layout of each characters bed through props which are used to reflect each characters past values and their individual experience, for example, Anne had a relatively suck up bringing for an indigenous child living in the stolen generation, and thus this experience is reflected in her institutional bed, depicted as ‘Ann.’s bed is prettier because wealthy white parents adopt her’.
The majority of the setting is barren and isolated to reflect the characters emotions during the cold experiences in the sass Australian society. Explain how you would theatrically use ONE element of production (stage, space, costume, sound, vision or lighting) in each play to engage the audience. Through the use of lighting I would create an eerie atmosphere to engage the audience in Stolen.
For example, in the introductory where the institutional beds a large distance apart from one another I would place 5 individual spotlights on each bed to project space and create isolation between the characters which reflects the emotions felt by each character. This will visually project an isolated image through the sense that each child is alone. This will thus engage the audience as the space will be reflected in their emotional engagement. The audience will feel a sense of emptiness which will be complimented by the characters body language when ‘their eyes search the audience for compassion. The SE of lighting will also engage the audience in the scene ‘RUBY’S FAMILY COME OUT VISIT’ as ruby is projected as sitting on a hospital bed due to the physical abuse she has experienced from the ‘white people’. I would place the hospital bed in the centre stage, isolated; with a single spotlight on her with a pitch black atmosphere surrounding her visually project Ruby biggest fear and her isolation. This will reflect Ruby emotions of loneliness and isolation.
This will engage the audience as it not only draws all of their attention toward Ruby (due to no other distractions) but it will also emphasis ND project the brutal reality of loneliness and abuse that was the reality of the stolen generation onto the audience. In ‘Neighborhood Watch’ the use of dark lighting would be projected in the scenes of loneliness. For example, in Act 1 Scene 16 when Ana is in the past and her life is threatened by a serial killer, when ANA and ARTURO leave the train and go to the ’empty factory’ as it is dark, the eerie factory will be emphasizes with dimming of lights to create a visually eerie atmosphere.
This will draw in the audience in as this creates suspense engage the audience’s suspicions and perceptions of ARTURO. As ARTURO exposes his axe, the first swipe he takes with it, the lights will dim to an all over black with only the light being projected onto Ana. This will visually project fear onto the audience as: 1 . We do not know where the crazy axe murderer is, thus he could strike at any moment which causes great suspense for the viewers and 2. Black symbolizes fear Furthermore, in Act 1 Scene 10 when Ana and her siblings have just discovered her father’s death, would create space when they are mourning in the toilet.
Through the red of ANA and her siblings in the bathroom corner, he red sill symbolism the torturous death Ana’s father suffered and thus projects an uncomfortable atmosphere. This exemplifies the scared, lonely and isolated emotions that ANA is experiencing due to her father. This will engage the audience as it will draw all attention onto ANA and reflect the sad, emotional response Of ANA Onto the audience. Reflect on how TWO workshop experiences in the classroom have developed your understanding of the plays and how they explore individual experiences found in Australian society. Through the workshop experience where we had to write down:
What 2 things we loved most in the world Our 2 favorite people besides our family members Our 2 favorite local places Our 2 most beloved memories Our 2 favorite objects An AAA sheet of paper symbolizing me And then tear each individual part up and either rip it up or get another person to tear it up and put it in the bin. This truly allowed me to empathic with the loss felt and experienced by indigenous aboriginals during the stolen generation. It allowed me to develop my understanding of the emotions felt by those torn apart from their families and the hate they must have felt award the ‘white people’ in the 1 sass.
This workshop articulated the individual experience of the indigenous children of the 1 9605 and the disconnection, isolation and loss they would have experienced in Australian Society. Through the workshop where David, a refugee, came in to talk with us about his journey of escaping the deathly threats of his company and entering into the safety of Australia, it allowed me to truly connect to ANA’s individual experiences.
