Summary of Week 3

This seminar could, similarly to last week, be divided in to two
halves; the first consisted of watching the video of "Total Rethink"
performed by the women's troop, which we then went on to analyse, while
the second half consisted of practical exercises relating to mime.

After watching the video, many points were raised and these were as
follows:
· Many people commented that, after reading the reviews, the production
was different to their expectations in that it was not as horrific.
· It was also suggested that the use of humour made the portrayal of
death more disturbing.
· We discussed that we may have expected the subject of the performance
to be more serious, due to knowledge of Black Mime Theatre's other work.
· Everyone recognised the use of Black Mime Theatre's comic strip style
showing violence and that in this production, the focus appeared to be
more on gender rather than being concerned with the issue of race.
· Many people agreed with the comment that at times the dialogue was
inaudible and that many moments of the performance needed more clarity,
particularly as in this performance, speech played an important role.
· It was suggested that by using so much speech and making this a key
aspect in understanding the performance, it was not a true mime but
rather a poor attempt at a play. This comment was in agreement with the
"Relationship of mime and words" article that we considered.
· It was also felt that at times the mime was not precise enough, often
with the same sounds being used to indicate different actions and
therefore leading to confusion.
· It was also thought that some of this confusion might have arisen
from the fact that there was often a lot of action taking place on
stage, with the actors each doing different things, making it harder to
follow.
· We thought that the performance lacked the 'performance/ audience'
relationship which breaks down the fourth wall, but also considered
that possibly this could not be fairly judged, as we did not see the
live performance.
· Many people believed that the performance portrayed an extremely
cynical view of a sexist and patriarchal society, but also considered
that this might be an unfair view, as we saw the performance many years
after it was devised.
· It was suggested that the performance also still had some relevance
to modern society, due to the comment it made about Hollywood films and
violence.

After discussing this video and articles, we then moved on to practical
exercises, the first of which involved lying on the floor while tensing
and relaxing our bodies. We concentrated on our breathing and on
finding our 'neutral' state. Afterwards we discussed the usefulness of
this exercise and the following comments were made:
· That the exercise made it easier to find our 'neutral' state and that
it made it easier to understand the concept of it
· That it helped to relax our bodies properly and clear our minds of
anything except finding our 'neutral'.

After this, we did a similar exercise while standing, as we jogged and
then attempted to return back to our 'neutral' position. The following
comments were made when discussing this:
· Many people agreed that they found it easier to adopt the 'neutral'
state when lying down and that getting back in to it after jogging was
more difficult than expected.
· However, it was also suggested that the more we practiced this, the
easier it became.

Following on from this, was the exercise in which we made
mechanical-like movements, while imagining we were robots. We began to
move around the room and when in pairs, one person controlled the other
while they continued to imagine themselves as robots. The subsequent
comments were made about this at the end of the seminar:
· That it made us more aware of the control we were exerting over our
bodies, by madding our movements so precise and mechanical. Also that
we had to be particularly aware of the people around us, so as to not
bang in to them.

We then did an exercise that involved everyone miming a ball, of any
kind, and bouncing or playing with it. We also then mimed playing with
this ball in pairs, playing various sports. When discussing it
afterwards, many comments were made about the exercise:
· Many people observed how difficult it was to mime the ball, when
imagining the size and speed of it. It was also pointed out that this
was made increasingly difficult when in pairs, as we had to be
constantly aware of when the other person was reacting and how,
particularly how fast they imagined the ball to be travelling. This
therefore made the mime more difficult to maintain.

Finally, we did an exercise that involved us sitting in groups and
miming the wrapping giving and unwrapping of different presents. We
each mimed the creation of a present for the next person, who would
then mime changing this in to something new. The following observations
we made:
· Many people found it difficult to mime the object and found that they
needed to use quite exaggerated gestures in order to make it obvious
· Often words would start creeping in to our mime, so as to help us
explain what the object was in more detail.

In conclusion, this week we looked at an example of devised theatre in
the form of the video "Total Rethink", which had good and bad points to
it, before then using the practical exercises to try to use mime
ourselves, with both parts of the seminar being useful in developing
our view of mime.

Kerry Edwards