Rituals

This clip shows me many things,  mainly about tribal cultures and how even though this isn't where our play is set, most tibes have simlar rituals as a part of their culture. Researching these rituals helps me to understand what they value as important and their traditions, helping me to learn more about their culture, as this is the world that we are trying to create on stage. Also as a Europian who wouldn't have seen this sort of rituals before it is interesting to look at and to think of my characters reaction to the difference in culture as to her this would seem animalistic and it would have been seen idiotic to harm oneself, however this is the world that she has entered so although she might look down on them, she might also feel scared and intimidated by them because of what they are capable of. Also it is interesting to look at the female roles in society and the contrasting opinions of wanting to impress them but also seeing the as infecious, this could effect the way that Caliban treats Stephana and Trincula, as they are beileved to infect and poisen men, this could create an internal tempest within him. Consequently this could effect the way that we treat him, maybe trying to push him or to test him and even though we are used to being lower status than men, trying to push or change this when realising his weaknesses.

Design Choices – Contextualisation

 

In our performance, as in all, the designs for the set and the costumes are of huge importance to our performance as they communicate a lot about our theme and the message of the piece that we are trying to get across to the audience. Throughout our set and our costume there is a common running theme of the British and the African culture being mixed together and intertwined. This shows in the set that the British are imposing their culture trying to colonise them with the British culture. It also shows how two opposing cultures have met and for some, especially those in the lost, it is about making the two cultures and worlds work together and to get along as best as they can. This is demonstrated mainly in our costumes, as the African costumes have small elements of British in them to show how the culture have intertwined and that the British are slowly taking over their native land.

 

Every element of our set says something about our theme even down to the rocks. The rocks show the world and natural environment that the play is set in. For the characters that have come off the boat, they have entered a world that is different to the world that they have left, in terms of culture, but also in terms of weather and heat. The rocks show that the country they have entered is a dry one, without a lot of water and the main natural element to it is the rocks and the lack of trees show that it is hard for plants to grow there, showing that it is a hot country. This is really important for the characters from the main land to understand and to take into account as they wouldn’t have been used to this amount of heat and lack of water, so it would have a huge affect on their physicality and the way that they move. Also it could affect them mentally as the heat and lack of water could make them delirious and start to hallucinate. However the rocks also hold a lot of symbolism in them, as with the lack of trees and the only thing able to survive on the land is non-living things, could show what the British have done to their country and their culture. It could suggest that the British have come in and stripped everything bright and colourful in their land and in their culture till all that is left are emotionless beings. It as the only things that are still around is dead natural element it could suggest that the British have been brutal with their take over of the country and that they killed everything that thrived in that land and culture so that they aren’t a threat to them.

 

Also on the set we have a shrine to Queen Vic, this not only gives some contextualisation to our piece of theatre and to our audience so that they can clearly understand the time that it is set in, but it also stands out in that world for a reason. Queen Victory isn’t someone who should or would have been associated with the natives culture, however by having it in there land, it shows that how the British and the British culture has imposed and forced itself on the natives culture and their world. It also acts as a way of claiming the land, like when the Americans landed on the moon they put an American flag on it, the shrine to Queen Vic gives a sense of claiming and ownership to the land, its as if they have arrived there and taken over the land and forced the natives to bow down to their monarch and consequently their culture.

 

Also all over the set, on the rocks, on Prospero’s house and on the shrine, there are aluminous, bright colours that glow in the dark. These are really important to the set and to the play as a whole as the represent Prospero’s power over all of the land. As in our version of the play Prospero is a witchdoctor and he is uses his drugs, which are paints, to control people and to keep him in power. By having the paints, showing the drugs, covering the set, it shows how he has manipulated the country so that he can stay in power and so that he can control everyone and everything around him. It shows how everyone is constantly drugged so that he can dictate over them.

 

SHAKESPEARES WORLD – HISTORY AND SOCIETY

At the end of Henry 8^th reign it can be considered as the transition into the new modern world. As this is the time that when the New World – America was discovered, printing came about, Protestant became the more prominent religion in Britain with the monarch being the head of the church and a new class was created in society – the middle class, with more people being educated. This created the Renaissance or enlightenment era, an era of creativity, from Greece, with the philosophy of life being questioned.

Henry 8^th changed a previously Catholic society into a Protestant one. The main trigger for the change was that he wanted to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, however the pope would not allow this divorce so as a way of achieving it Henry changed to a Protestant and the country changing to Protestant as well, and along side that made the monarch, himself, the head of the Protestant church in England. Although Britain was originally a Catholic country some people wanted to end the hegemony and the rules of Catholicism. Henry also saw this as an opportunity to move some of the wealth from the Catholic Church into the country.

After Henry’s death there was four monarchs in the space of eleven years: Edward 6^th who was ten years old, so he had a lot of people to run the country for him and ran it as a Protestant country, he died in 1553. After he died, Lady Jane Grey came in as the next monarch, although not next in line to the throne, Jane was a Protestant and when Edward became ill precautions were put in place to make Jane the next Queen as Mary was a Catholic and they didn’t want the country to go back to Catholicism. However Lady Jane Grey was only Queen for seven days and then was beheaded by Mary’s men and Mary came into power and her reign began as Queen Mary or Bloody Mary. In Mary’s reign the country was turned back to a Catholic country and in her reign there was a lot of murder and she got quite bad a reputation, for example she had 300 heretics burnt at the stake. After Mary died, her younger sister Elizabeth came into power, although she reverted the country back to a Protestant state, out of all the monarch’s over the last few years she tried to keep the peace the most. Elizabeth also started the secrete service. Throughout these eleven years the constant shift in religious power created a sense of instability in the country and danger and death was felt around the country and the countries peoples.

This is really important that we understand the state of the country that Shakespeare was born into and when he was writing, as that would influence his plays that he would put on. In our society now there isn’t censorship on the media so in contemporary theatre, playwrights have freedom to write and produce plays with whatever content in them, and able to say whatever they want. However when Shakespeare was writing he had to be very careful with what he put into his plays as if he offended the monarch or showed himself against the religious aspects of the country at that point in time, he would be arrested or in those times even killed. This meant that when he was writing he had to be very aware socially of what was going at the time as he wouldn’t want to put his own life at risk. Also for Shakespeare this was a way of making money and he would have had to write plays that would please the audiences and would pull in large audiences to the theatres so that he would make money and be able to live and feed his family.

NEW WORLDS

Even though when the British went to the new worlds there was many benefits for them as they got new foods, medicines and cultures, they often didn’t understand the natives of the country they had found and this is shown in Shakespeare’s naming of what one could call the Noble Savage: Caliban (although some may argue that Ariel is more of a Noble Savage, especially in our performance of The Tempest.) Caliban sounds like cannibal that comes from Carrien or Caribbean. This shows how the British thought that those from the Caribbean and most likely those from African or Indian countries were cannibals. This came from the British not understanding their culture and not knowing or seeing them as people but as animals, as they thought them uncivilised, because they know nothing of or understood their world or ways of life. This was so thought that a book in 1603 was written called “Of Cannibals” by Montaignt, this shows how it was widely accepted and normal in the society that they lived in. Also the timing of the book being written and published links in to the writing of The Tempest, suggesting that Shakespeare could have got some of his influences from it. This is supported by Gonzalo’s speech in Act 2, Scene 1, which is of great similarity to a passage of writing in the book. This is of Gonzalo speaking about a utopia that he wants to find and to live in, where there is no private state or labour but equality for everyone. This is very interesting as to the characterisation of Gonzalo as his opinions are political and sociological opinions that have been around though out the years and are still relevant today. This allows us to contextualise the play and the characters in a political way as we see Gonzalo present a more liberal political view, where as it could be argued that Prospero shows an extremist right wing political opinion and could be seen as a dictator over the island. This could have contextualise the play in a political point of view as the conflicts in the political world are constant throughout history and as Shakespeare and most writers write in reaction to their society at the time, it could show how he is writing about the politics of the time, which is still relevant in our society and to our audiences today.

Thought this was too good not to be on my blog :) .... but on a more educational note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfM0RFZ5cs

 (sorry it wouldn't load as a video)