At the start of this lesson, we each decided with our double cast member what level on the hierarchy one of our characters were, using the stairs for each level. Me and Livvie thought our character 'Jane's status was at about level 6. However, we had two opposite opinions that we both then agreed with on her status level. Reason being, was that we thought in some way Jane could be both at the top and bottom of the hierarchy. As Jane has so much responsibility in her hands, with her constant protection over others in danger i.e getting raped and beaten in Lisa's place, she could be seen as an authoritative figure, even some cases a guardian angel. But on the other hand, Jane being on the receiving end of all the beatings etc. shows her getting treated as if she IS worthless, and has in fact not much power/control over her decisions. This is supported by one of her lines, in which she replies to Lisa's question of why she can't just stop the situation all together instead of taking her place. "Well, I'm not actually in the position of deciding council policy. I'm just the victim." This could mean she has a very low status because she is being controlled by a set of people higher than her. She also states she is 'just the victim', which in itself says from her perspective there is nothing significant about her, basically just a human shield for everyone else. On the contrary, her body language could then contradict this as Jane doesn't ever show a lack of confidence, through her tone of voice, her actual words nor her motion/movement. Firstly, she speaks in a high, smooth, quite false and quite irritating voice. This can give the impression that she's putting on an act, like it's a part of her job to maintain a positive attitude despite the upcoming events. She also speaks as if her sentences are already set in stone, as if she's done this many previous times in which they just flow right out of her mouth, like it's her normal routine. This then could imply that Jane is wired, relating to a previous point on her partly under the influence of a higher authority who control her. Her body positions are very stationary, so she will have a pose or two she will hold throughout a whole conversation. These positions also seem very unnatural as if she's a display model, with her hand on her hip and one knee bent. Overall I feel Jane can be seen as either levels of status. From Jane's approach, I think she sees herself as having a higher status, perhaps slightly ignorant/blinded of her actual purpose of existence (to be physically mistreated in replacement of others). Whereas from another viewpoint she has nearer the bottom of the hierarchy.
In the second part of the lesson, we continued with blocking the second part to the Jane scene which by this point Jane was just returning after being voluntarily attacked by the goat. Before we went through the scene, me Livvie and Holly Hoskinson discussed with Rachel the relationship between Lisa and Vince, her partner. We all settled on an age for both characters, Lisa being 20-21 years old, and Vince being much older at 28. Relating this to the real world, this is an uncomfortable age gap in which we all agreed that many parents would disallow their daughter to date someone this much older. However this applies more when you're younger, for example adults in their 30s and up could date someone with an even bigger age gap i.e 10 years and most people wouldn't bat an eyelid. As Vince is much older, he is easily capable in controlling Lisa due to his 'maturity' and perhaps experience in which Lisa's vulnerability is target to his power over her. In relationships with domestic violence, the person with power has ways in manipulating the other to feel like they need them. We said that Vince and Lisa live together, where Lisa was isolated from her friends and family to where she then shared a flat with him. Vince being away a lot for work, means Lisa is left alone without much socialisation due to detaching from her close ones. Left alone with her thoughts.
The Goat may resemble Vince, as in Dissocia the Goat attempts to beat and rape her which could be linked to possible flashbacks of Vince who actually did assault her. However Jane prevents this from happening in Dissocia as she takes her place. When Jane returns after the abuse, she continues to smile and stay positive even though what happened to her would have been a very traumatic and scarring experience. She even shortly after forgets it happened, responding to Lisa with "It's hardly something I'd forget...Honestly Lisa. I don't know where you come up with these things...". This side of Jane, her pattern of actions could be what Lisa does in reality, hiding her pain and emotion after the abuse and hoping it will go away by avoiding discussion. When Lisa gets upset that Jane can't recall the recent occurence, she is able to see herself from another's perspective, and can see how she acts when she is in complete denial of incidents/situations etc. We also talked about the different ways people act when they may have a lot of things going on in their life (negative). Some people may lash out and become angry, be careless and innapropriate at times and may even resort to diminishing others. On the subject of bullying, most of the time the bullies are the ones with a lot of bad stuff happening in their life causing them to take it out on others to feel better about themselves. Others may be really open to talking about what's troubling them, and may uncontrollably cry frequently. Another way people may act is to go into yourself, exclude yourself from groups of people and certain situations, and go to great lengths to avoid questions and concern from others. Both of these states are shown in Lisa. In Act 2, she starts singing and dancing proudly on the hospital bed and around her room, escaping to her own bizarre world to block out her past pain, but reacts badly to being told to calm down by the nurses and begins swearing and becoming aggressive. But in Act 1, she is entirely on her own in a huge confusing world, seen more as innocent and vulnerable with hints of her hidden emotions/past events that are shown through certain characters e.g Vince, Jane etc.
It seems there are other types of disorders shown in the play as well as Dissociative disorder, such as Schizophrenia (Voice overs), Identity disorder and Borderline depression.
We then finished off blocking the scene, I feel I have surprised myself with learning the lines as there were a lot for the whole of Jane's scene, also taking into account the way she would speak it etc. However I do need to keep rehearsing them so I am more fluent without hesitation (unless necessary), and on my cues too, overall for all my roles.
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