Final Performance Evaluation

In my opinion, our final performance was really successful and I feel that it flowed really well. I feel that as a group we really thrived as we put in the most energy and excitement, where as before in rehearsals we lacked in energy. I feel that we definitely progressed throughout our rehearsals and this showed through our final piece.  I think that the strongest aspects of my performance was my physicality's, I tried my best to present myself as stuck up and disinterested as possible but at the same time have a character to play. I attempted to try a posh accent to make myself come across as a snob to the audience, so that they would take a dislike to the character. The A's and B's were all very blunt and pompous and I think this also added a sense of comedy into our performance. When going up to make a coffee, I walked with my strong posture and nose up deliberately. I also attempted to involve and address the audience on all sides of the stage. I feel that I confidently knew my lines and cues which was good because I was then able to focus on my character rather then when I was meant to be speaking. I feel that this made my performance more truthful. 

I really enjoyed watching Ms.Goodall's group as i feel that they took a modern approach to "The Most Horrific". An aspect of Ms Goodall’s group’s performance I really liked was their use of music. At the side was Isabella and Roary singing and playing guitar which I thought was really creative and kept the audience feeling involved throughout the whole piece. Their characters were well defined and characterised. I particularly enjoyed watching the C's and D's, I found it really funny to watch how they portrayed their desperation to win over the manager. The play overall was very comical and light-hearted, however, Mr.Rennisons piece was a lot different. It looked at the play a lot deeper and seriously. Oscar being the main character of the play, portrayed an evil almost ring master character alongside Hayden the gimp. I found the portrayal of both characters extremely interesting as they both suited their roles. This was to show the dark and eerie side to the media. It definitely kept all of us engaged throughout. I really enjoyed how Oscar would tell Haydn what to do and what to write, almost portraying the sense that the media tell us what they want us to hear and we listen because we have too. The C's and D's use of the chairs was really creative as they would use them to represent how they felt.

Myself and some of my class mates made up a mini scene to perform before our piece for the audience to get a feel and experience some of the issues occurring in the media today. Our scene addressing the issues with being gay in Uganda went really successfully all three times and I was extremely happy with how it turned out, which was much better than we had originally rehearsed. Our piece was to show the audience what it felt to be gay in Uganda, as this is illegal, and how people are not aloud to speak out about their sexuality openly. I think that we could have improved our piece by being stronger and using our facial expressions more to really show our feelings, However, I am certain we made an impact on the audience and that they understood what we were trying to get across. I particularly liked at the end of our piece when we split in half to make a path way for the audience to go through, as we stood silent with our hands covering our mouths. This was to show the audience how we feel we can not speak up and that we are ignored.

I think that as a group we presented hierarchy really well, I felt one of the strongest performances was that of Felix. For me he stood out in the performance because he had a sarcastic personality. I especially liked how at the end of the performance he stood up to show his disinterest towards the C's and D's and answers his phone to 'Nigella, darling". I think that this shows how political theatre doesn't always have to be serious and that you can still get a point across even if its comical. I think we portrayed the relationships between A's and B's and C's and D's really well. It was clear to the audience which made it easy and enjoyable to watch.

Personally, I think our performance was perfect and that everybody tried really hard to do the best they could. However, I believe in constructive criticism and I feel that we could have developed on the A's and B's even further. 

One of the weaker aspects of the performance on a whole was that I felt the A's and B's weren't showing enough disinterest in the performance, even though I think everyone found this quite difficult. Maybe I could have developed my character further and pretended to fall asleep or been creative with my character. A strong point in the performance was when Mia said the word 'terrorists' and the A's and B's moved to the front of their chairs to show interest. I think that this really worked because everyone remembered the cue and A's and B's reacted. Another strong aspect of our performance was the gradual leaving.

Over this term, I have developed my understanding of Brecht and his different techniques which has definitely helped me to produce a strong political theatre performance and protest. I feel that our performance "The Most Horrific" and our protests got the audience thinking which is what Brecht believed a piece of political theatre should do. I feel we definitely managed to achieve this successfully! I have gained a thorough understanding of Brecht and will use it in the future. I am really pleased with myself and everyone else this term and found it so much more interesting than I first thought!