'Road' - Week 1

Today, we found out that our second contemporary performance would be 'Road' by Jim Cartwright, I hadn't heard of this play or playwright before, so I was excited to learn about this play. I knew before starting this project that this would be our second contemporary piece. Our first being '13' by Mike Bartlett. In '13' our first contemporary play, i portrayed a very clever atheist who had lung cancer cancer. His name was Stephen Crossley. I didn't want to play the same sort of character in 'Road' as I wanted to show diversity between both roles and challenge myself.

After hearing we were going to 'Road' we all sat down and read the script, I was asked to play Brian, this character seems to have quite a sexual relationship with the character Marion. As indicated by the direction from Jim Cartwright. 'He stands over her, pulls his zip down'. Marion replies to this 'no I want a butty first'. This line shows how this is most likely not there first time having sex as there is no passion from Marion. This could indicate how they are an older couple, who are lacking excitement in the bedroom. I'm quite relecutant to play this character as his old much like Stephen Crossley. After hearing other characters speak, I was instantly pulled to the character of Bisto. The pub DJ, who is seen as a bit of a nutter and to me would be an outcast to the rest of society away from 'Road'. He has the catchphrase 'you'll get used to me, you'd better', this catchphrase sums this character up and shows how he craves attention. I really like this character because he is quite unique amongst the people on 'Road' and his is quite a lot different from Stephen Crossley as he seems fun to be around, loud, foul mouthed and also dumb. This is the character I would like to be and will be asking to be cast as. 

As we read Jim Cartwrights debut play, we thought about the main themes and how most are contemporary. The main themes are: 

Sex, Poverty, Alcohol, Miners, Nostalgia, Drugs, Aggression, Music.

A rally against Margaret Thatcher after she closed the mines

I felt sex was the main theme and will always be contemporary as sex will always be had as its the way people are made and will allow humanity to flourish. After researching into the 1980s I found out a lot about Margaret Thatcher, who was the first women prime minister for England, she was nicknamed the Iron Lady while in power, Thatcher was a key icon to many but wasn't at all inspirational to the lower class. The Iron lady closed many of the mines throughout the UK because they were making a loss of profit, as the miners wanted a pay rise and they weren't getting enough resources from the mines themselves. This put many of the working class and lower class people out of work and would eventually lead to depression, the lower class would look for anti depressants to try and cover up these bad times, they would use sex as an anti depressant, and many women would be more vulnerable to this theme as they had no money and would turn to prostitution. The character I'd like to Bisto is very sexually oriented and I think this is due to the fact that he was put out of work due to the closing of the mines. Sex was a escape mechanism for Bisto and many other characters like Scullery, this is shown as Scullery is always flirting with women with lines like 'come and taste me', as he is trying to have a fun time with the other sex and not fall into more depression like he already had. I also think Scullery was in the army as it has been hinted at many times, and he may of lost some friends in the war which would of made him even more sad.

Poverty is also quite contemporary as there will always be parts around the world where people are struggling. Throughout Road there is a lot of Poverty as I have gathered from reading the script, due to the lose of jobs, people had no work and weren't making much money if any at all, this is shown in Road, as we see the narrator Scullery looking through old rubbish to find things that he can have and maybe sell. Thatcher who was the prime minister at the time, was a conservative she led the UK in the Falklands war in the 1980s, I think many of the characters in Road were in this war and resent Thatcher as they may believe that the reason there friends have been killed is due to Thatcher taking the UK into this war. 

Nostalgia is a big theme in this play and will remain contemporary as people will always think about how the past were the best days. As said before many of the characters in Road where in the war, I think that many characters miss their companions and loved ones that they lost in the war, they think back to these times, as they miss the times they spent with that person. Nostalgia for these characters may also come in the way of politics even though the people on Road aren't perceived as clever, they may wish Thatcher and the Conservatives weren't in power and think back to a time when Labour where in power. 

Music is another big theme, specially for the character of Bisto, Music was a massive theme in the 80's and before, around this time was the era of disco music, artists like Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Roxy Music were very popular in this era. This was another way to let go of any negative energy by listening to music and dancing, these two activities are known to relieve stress, and this is one of the main ways Bisto alleviates himself. 

After thinking about themes we were set homework, our task was to sit throughout different times in the day and listen to the road outside. Once I had completed this task at 1pm, 9pm and 1am. I had very different results. At 1pm I heard the pub next door on my road and noticed things like men talking about sports and laughing. I also heard kids running around and having fun as there parents drank on a sunny Saturday afternoon. At 9pm the results were quite different, the chatting in the pub was more aggressive and loud. I also heard a motorbike reving its engines as it was about to set off. In addition to this I noticed mum talking to my step dad about Coronation Street. At 1am not a lot was heard as it was quite quiet as the pub had closed and the birds were asleep, I heard an odd car go by about once every 2-3 minutes. After doing this excercise we presented our results back to the class, after everyone had given back, we were told to pick one time and pick three sounds from that time. I chose to pick 1pm as it was the most stereotypical to my road. Once we had picked the three sounds we all did our first chosen sound very quiet and getting louder, this gave the impression that many things were quite far away but we're getting closer. Our class also did this with the two other sounds and it was recorded by our lecturer Deborah. This will be the soundscape that we use for our play 'Road' as its quite naturalistic and gives the impression of something building to a climax with all the sounds getting louder. It also gave the feeling of a stereotypical road as there were kids playing thinking their invincible, angry mothers and fathers chatting and laughing in the pub about sports and other stereotypical manly things. 

As we had done our soundscape it was time to do our set design, my idea was quite simple compared to others in retrospect, In mine I have chosen to put each scene in a way similar to a vending road, I also have the audience following this road to give the impression that they are a part of road. As said by Scullery in one of the opening scenes 'This is our Road'. There were some other really good ideas, Matt had the idea that we use different rooms and that the audience walk through as the performing arts area of the college is easily connected. This was a good idea, as it meant the audience are active and engaged throughout the piece.

I'm really happy about the piece chosen and I'm excited to find out what character I will portray and how this production will progress.