Restoration Blog

Restoration Blog

Today we started off looking at Restoration as we will be performing George Etherege's Man of Mode in April. We looked at how men would have bowed, sat down and walked. As well as looking at costumes, way fans were used and etiquette.

Christian Bale portraying 'Patrick Bateman' in American Psycho.

In the 17th Century, status was a massive factor. Sir Fopling Flutter the character I play is highly respected among his peers even though they belittle him without his knowledge. Sir Fopling Flutter takes himself very seriously, and is a true 'fop'. A 'fop' is the word to described a foolish man who is very concerned in his appearance and clothes. After finding out he was a fop I started to look into modern day 'fops' in films. Someone who reminded me of a 'fop' is in one of my favourite films American Psycho. Patrick Bateman who is the protagonist in this movie, is very indulged in his looks and clothing much like a fop would be.

Going back to status, when one is so indulged in their looks they start to gain confidence and become arrogant, when someone is arrogant they believe they are better than they are. So I believe in the mind of Sir Fopling Flutter, he is of great status. This means that I may ignore certain characters as they may not be on my status level. Sir Fopling Flutter will also boast about what he is wearing which he does as soon as he is seen by the audience in Act 3 page 27, when Emily and Lady Townley ask what type of brands he is wearing, for example when Lady Townley asks what suit he is wearing and Fopling says 'Barroy'. Many of the characters play along with Sir Fopling Flutter and pretend that they care about how great he is but they only really see him as arrogant.

As Sir Fopling Flutter is very much into his looks and clothes his costume is very intricate and more extravagant then others. As shown by the image on the right, I am wearing a wig that is very extravagant, tall and has many layers. As seen behind the wigs aren't as exotic. The Coat that I am wearing is also quit extravagant, its a green and grey colour merged together with black  buttons and a gold patterned lining. Each part of the coat is extravagant and the colours contrast well which helps me get into character and is true to how the fop would have been.

The coat also was a big part for etiquette when sitting down. In order to sit down the man would flick his coat backwards before sitting down and then would sit down with good posture on the edge of the seat. The reason the coat would be flicked backwards is so it would not get creased and sat on. The way in which they were sat would also show how they would be quick on their feet if a duel was to happen as they were on the edge of the chair and not slouching. A duel could happen at any time and is one of the reasons eye contact is kept when bowing.



Bowing in Restoration would happen every time someone met, if a man would meet a woman it would be courteous to bow first to say 'welcome' or 'glad to be in your presence'. As said before while bowing the man would keep eye contact as the other person could pull out their sword at any time and so you would have to literally keep an eye on them. To bow with class, you would take your left foot backwards bend your left leg stick your bum out bend down with your upper body while still keeping eye contact and throw both arms backwards.

Charles II and Context

In Wednesday's lesson we learnt about the context of the play we are doing and the history and world surrounding Man of Mode. Me and Lewis were given the task of looking at Exile, Theatre Licensing. Merry Monarch and Restoration. All these tasks were based around Charles II.

Merry Monarch

Charles II was known as the merry monarch by many of the people in the 17th century, due to his liveliness and hedonism. Hedonism is when one indulges in pleasure and so describes Charles II well. He was also given this name as he returned his kingdom back to normality after the wrath of Oliver Cromwell who many blame for the death of numerous Irish civilians.  Charles II was once described as the most fun loving and intelligent monarch. His attitude was so different to his father’s attitude who was described as being arrogant and his own worst enemy as to when it came he was executed.

Theatre Licensing

In the 17th Century, there were Patent Theatres, these were theatres that were licensed to perform 'spoken drama', which was drama which was serious. Other theatres were prohibited from performing such 'serious theatre'. They were permitted to perform pantomimes, comedies and melodramatic plays.

As I looked at these subjects other people in my class looked at other topics such as the first actress.

Nell Gwyn

Nell Gwyn

Nell Gwyn was the mistress to Charles II. She met Charles II when she was an orange-girl who would sell oranges in the interval of shows. Once at the playhouse while ironically George Etherege's 'she wou'd if she cou'd' was playing it was said that Charles II was more interested in flirting with Gwyn then watching the play. Nell Gwyn later went on to be an actress and was reviewed well and often talked highly about by Samuel Peyps. She was trained by Charles Hart who was an established actor at the time as she was his mistress.

Blocking and Status

Zanni from Commedia much
like a footman.

This week in Restoration we started looking at scenes and blocking. We started with Act 1 Scene 1 and I asked if I could fill in as a footman as I wanted to do some physical work. This role is going to a Level 3 Year 1 Acting student, but I was glad to stand in for the time being. The footmen's job is to do daily chores in order to help out Dorimant in this case. In this scene for example the footman brings in a letter to Dorimant and swaps two glasses over earlier on. Playing this character for a brief time started to give me an idea of Status at the time of Restoration. In this scene The Footman is quite heavily below Dorimant as he is his servant. I also got a grip on status as one of Dorimants lines when the footman enters  is "You rogue there, who sneak like a dog that has flung down a dish, if you do not mend your waiting I’ll uncase you, and turn you loose to the wheel of fortune. Handy, seal this, and let him run with it presently." This line shows how Dorimant is of a higher status as he belittles the footman by calling him a dog and a rogue. Analysing this, I will make certain choices that will show the audience the status game at play and will give a greater truth to the scene and would have been how George Etherege would have envisioned the act. Certain traits that I will add to my character include a more dishevelled posture to show status, this is similar to the Zanni in Commedia Dell'Arte who also plays a servant.

Analysing The Script

My main character Sir Fopling Flutter, is seen as a fool throughout the play. The fop is a stock character, and is someone that is obsessive over their appearance and is perceived as a fool. This is shown throughout the script as it is obvious to me the actor that other characters in the play are messing about with the fop without him knowing. Before we even see Sir Fopling Flutter we hear other characters talk about him, he is described as a great critique by Medley and said how 'he thinks himself the pattern of modern gallantry.' Dorimant who is the protagonist goes on to say 'he is indeed the pattern of modern foppery' which means Dorimant is describing Sir Fop as a modern fop, so as a fool as fop is another word for fool. This is quite ironic considering Sir Fopling Flutter has quite a big affection for Dorimant, it is also quite ironic as Dorimant is called a fop later on in the play by Harriet "He's a fop". Sir Fopling Flutter is first seen on page 26 when he enters with a page. Instantly we as the audience find out the status of this character,  as we see the Fop enter with a page, a page at the time was a servant. So this shows his high status as a page follows him around. His first line is giving page order to wait outside, which shows us his status once again. He then goes on in his first line to talk about Paris and speaks about the Tuileries which are gardens in Paris. From the start I think that Sir Fopling comes across as very eloquent man who is quite arrogant. Even though he is seemed as being quite clever, he comes across also as being very clumsy and foolish as his name would suggest. 

Adam's Lesson

A tableaux from Adam's Lesson

Recently Adam Byron came into our college to help us with our restoration piece, this was great because he has a different style in which he likes to direct restoration, he directs it in a way which I believe is most like how it first would have been portrayed when George Etherege wrote the play back in the late 1600s. We looked at it in a more melodramatic way. We first showed him the prologue as how it was rehearsed. He felt it was very slow and was not bold and eccentric enough considering this was the first time we saw these characters, he also said about how it should be stylised. I felt I responded well to this direction as I immediately tried to be bigger with my expressions and I made bolder and more confident choices, for example in the prologue my character says 'Damn here' to express his agreement. Before I felt I was throwing this line away vocally. In order to make this bigger I added a movement which also helped me to make it vocally more expressive too. The movement I decided best gave my action was a finger point to the sky with a tensed arm, this also helped me reach quite a loud energetic guttural voice. For this I inhaled quite a lot of air and used my diaphragm and stomach to project. We also did an exercise where we would walk around the room in neutral and when Adam beat the drum we would have to stop in a restoration pose. I really enjoyed this exercise because you were made to think on your feet and you had to be quick getting from neutral into a pose. This was very fitting as when first performed the play Man of Mode would have had to of been quick and exciting to grab the attention of the raucous audience. While in this still positions, Adam would pick one and we would all come out and then we would go in one by one and make contact and create an exciting tableau. I enjoyed this exercise because it was a great way of creating an interesting image that would give insight into the life in the 17th century. As seen by the tableaux there is a lot of symbolism going on that can read into. Even precise details can mean so much, the small passing gesture from Phoebe to myself can be perceived in many different ways. It could be a love note or a billet doux as it was referred to in the Restoration area which in English is translated into love letter. She could also be passing a snuff box as that was very popular at the time. Phoebes facial expression in this is quite telling that she is being mischievous. I think Nathans physicality is also very poignant as it expresses his disgust in seeing Phoebe's discreet action. It also gives the viewer a grasp on his high status as he is leading by his chest and his head is in a upright position and can also be perceived as being snobby as if he is looking down on everyone else as if they're inferior. Brandon's facial expression gives off a lot also in this photo as if he is planning something with Milo, this may have been to spread a rumour about someone or maybe a conversation about the woman in front (Phoebe), which are both plausible scenarios in this time period. I really enjoyed this lesson with Adam because it gave me another view on how restoration can be performed and most likely how it was originally performed. 

Run Through and Script Work

Charles II of England.

Recently we did our first run through, I felt it went well but I was restricted by my script as I didn't know my lines and I'd have to keep breaking character to look at the words. I am continuing to learn my lines so I can be well rehearsed for when the production comes. I enjoyed the script a lot, the character I am playing Sir Fopling Flutter, and from the first time going through it, I enjoyed my character. From the first run I have found that my character is very arrogant and flamboyant. I tried to play this by heightening my voice and putting on quite a camp eloquent voice, I felt this best fit the stereotypical flamboyant stock character, from reading the script my character flirts with everyone that he meets no matter whether they were a woman or man. This intrigued me as I wanted to find out if gays and same sex relationships would have been accepted in the late 17th century. I searched up quickly on my phone what life would have been like to be gay at this time in history. Having looked at time the play was set I have made the estimation that it is present day, which would have been the 1660s. At this time there was no recorded significant events of gay relationships. However in 1623 there was recorded evidence of James I being in a relationship with George Villers making the king homosexual. This is odd as in 1680 a gay marriage between Arabella Hunt and Amy Poulter was annulled after Amy Poulter posed as a man in order to get married. This may mean that at the time the play was set gay marriage was only fine for royalty, or that gay marriage was not allowed after James I died in 1625 and Charles I took over. I think this is more likely the case as Charles I was known to be very conservative in his views. Religion was also a big part of the world in the 1660s with many people being religious, at one point Charles II was scared as he had changed from his faith of a protestant to Roman Catholic after an agreement with King Louis XIV of France for alliance. He was worried that the loyal people of England would overthrow him from the Throne as he could have been a catholic king, King Charles II on his deathbed revealed he was a catholic to save himself from the Protestants. As religion and conservative views where so powerful I have came to the conclusion that gay marriage wouldn't have been allowed and so I feel that even though Sir Fopling Flutter may have some feelings towards men I feel he tries to hide them to the best of his ability which unfortunately for him isn't that great as he gets carried away and is quite flamboyant. One reason why sir Fopling Flutter may be so in favour of France and give it so much respect is because he may have turned Roman Catholic while over in Paris and wants the people of England to accept him for not being a loyal English Protestant. After analysing the script thoroughly I felt the need to look for translations. My character sometimes talks French and uses old English a lot as this is a restoration piece, for me to get into character I first need to understand what I am saying and from their I can look into objectives and different obstacles along with my characters journey in this play. My character speaks very eloquently as he is trying to impress everyone else, as stated before. Some of the translations I found quite difficult as at first I didn't understand the play and the meaning behind it, after rehearsing it a few times and reading through the script I started to understand what it meant. As I started to understand the play and the setting I manage to get what my character was saying. My first line I found difficult to translate as it didn't seem too straight forward. "Page, wait without! Madam I kiss your hands I see yesterday was nothing of chance the belles assemblées form themselves here everyday". After looking through the script many times I started to pick up on the fact that a page is a servant, Dorimant has a servant called Handy in the first scene, and even my character refers to his pages as servants in a later scene "A set of balladins whom I picked out in the best of France and brought over with a flute douces or two. My servants, they shall entertain you". So after this I learnt that I was telling my servant to wait without, which I assume means wait outside as this is my first entrance and it asserts dominance. The next line is "Madam I kiss your hands I see yesterday was nothing of chance..." the word madam I know from previous knowledge is another way of saying lady or woman, I think however it is more flattering than lady as it is used less and is more eloquent, this is used by my character as I believe he is flirting, which we then see after he decides to kiss Lady Townley's hand. Sir Fopling then goes on to say "I see yesterday was nothing of chance the belles assemblées form themselves here everyday". From this I think my character is talking about a prestigious event that happened the day before. I thought I would google what the belles assemblées are as I haven't heard of it before and it would give me more insight into what my character is talking about. The  belles assemblées translates to beautiful assemblies in France, I think at this point my character is flirting once again with Lady Townley and saying how he has never seen more beautiful woman in his life then the ladies he has seen over the past few days. The Fop then goes on to say, "Lady, your servant. Dorimant, let me embrace thee; without lying, I have not met with any of my acquaintance who retain so much of Paris as thou dost - the very air thou hadst when the marquis mistook thee i' th' Tuileries, and cried, He! Chevailer! and then begged thy pardon." From this part of my characters dialogue I feel he is trying to impress once again and I feel that is his main objective in this scene. I get this impression as when he is talking to Emilia he says he is below her by calling himself her servant, this is an attempt at gaining respect from Emilia as he is trying to act humble, however quickly after greeting Emilia he sees Dorimant and rushes over "Dorimant, let me embrace thee.." This I think is in the text as George Etherege is trying to portray how foolish Sir Fopling Flutter as he is trying to act humble but then is rude. As my character says "Dorimant, let me embrace thee.." I got the sense my character has met Dorimant before as he knew his name, my character then once again goes on to charm Dorimant by saying that he "retains so much of Paris", this I assume is Sir Fopling saying that he is above the rest of the people in England and he is much more like the civilised people in Paris. He then goes on to sound arrogant and snobby after talking about a time when he was in Paris, and so once again he has charmed someone or attempted to and lost it after from being a fool. He talks about the Tuileries and a marquis, after googling Tuileries I found out it was the gardens by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, at the time the Eiffel Tower wasn't there as it was built in the 19th century however the gardens were there. I then thought I would search up what a 'marquis' was. I found that a marquis was a nobleman, this means that when he is referring to a Tuileries he is saying how a nobleman mistook him. Throughout my characters dialogue I went and actioned it.

Max Stafford Clark

Actioning is a device created by Max Stafford Clark and is used to help find the characters emotional intentions. If my character says "Lady I kiss your hands" his intention is to charm her as he wants to impress her and seem gentlemanly. In my opinion to use this device to the best of its capability I would say the words "I charm you" in my head before saying the actual line. I feel this helps me understand the intention behind the line and also helps me to convey it. I found after actioning most of my script that I was using charm or synonyms of charm a lot. I think this is because George Etherege at the time made these stock characters quite 1 dimensional so that the audience at the time could relate. As I have researched the audiences would have been very boisterous and rowdy and so if the play was too hard to follow and the characters were quite complicated the audience wouldn't have paid attention. The way Man of Mode is received now by audiences and then I think has changed quite a lot. In the 1660s when the play was first put on the play was well received and I think in some ways better received then than it is now. I think this is because of the language and also the style of the piece. The language is difficult for the audience of today to understand because there are terms that aren't used anymore in modern culture. I also think that the play is wrote to be performed in quite a melodramatic way and now that naturalism is more preferred by a modern audience the audience for melodrama is quite low. This I think is due to the fact that people want to emphasise with characters and they want to go on a journey and be thrilled. I think it is harder for an audience member to relate when the language and style it was intended to be performed it in is quite hyperbolic, it's difficult for someone to understand what the character is going through when they don't know what they say. This is why I think the acting needs to be at a top level for the audience to be able to identify with the characters and understand their intentions.