Exploring sub-text and structure in the language of a play (Berry 2001:125–

reading aloud, pointing, echoing and repeating words (Berry

2001:139,140,147,148)

Berry (2001:125) says that “words are living thoughts” and the aim of the exercises in this section is to explore what lies underneath the characters’ language. She suggests first taking words out of context and not being too absorbed in the structure of the lines and their grammatical correctness and literal meaning. She encourages the actors in a group to repeat words and lines of a speech several times and to note how some words and phrases take on more meanings, as they are spoken in different ways by individuals (Berry 2001:126). This repetition, questioning and challenging of the words draws closer attention to the “world of the play…. the vocabulary of character” (Berry 2001:126) and exchange of dialogue between characters. In this way actors are encouraged to hear the words in a fresh way and find deeper layers of meaning (Berry 2001:127).

Although Sorrows and Rejoicings is a play written in realistic, conversational dialogue it consists mostly of long monologues that also have a structure with at times, poetic imagery and rhythms reflecting each character’s way of thinking and ‘sounding’. Some of these exercises in this section of Text and Action helped the cast in finding their particular, emotional responses to their character’s speeches and how they differed from each other. This worked especially well with the early scenes of the play during reading and rehearsal, in establishing the milieu of the characters physically and how they feel about this world in which they are now so closely brought together again e.g. the Karoo house, the flat in London. The atmosphere of the past impinging on the present (the memories of Ovid banned from Rome combined with Dawid’s memories of Apartheid South Africa and London) and the reality of the South African political landscape post–1994 were also made more tangible to the cast.

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Application 1: Berry specifically suggests that if working on one speech with the group as a

whole, one person can stand or sit in the middle surrounded by the actors. The speech is explored within the context of the play and the responsibility of making creative sense is then shared. The actor speaks words or lines and the group mutters aloud on words that interest them or seem noteworthy at that point (Berry 2001:139). This takes the pressure of being correct or ‘good’ off the speaker, as the listening and responding is done by all. Words may be highlighted that at first, the individual actor did not consider important. This we applied several times to the Ovid poem readings with the actor playing Ovid/Dawid in the middle and the actresses around him or on the sides. We adapted the exercise for work on the poem and it had the same aim and effect. The echoing and muttering aloud by others certainly makes the actor far more alert to his own voicing of the lines and suggests further meanings. We also used the exercise on the Running to Paradise poem and each actor had a turn in the centre while speaking his/her verse. The repetition of an exercise from time to time deepens the responses to the language and how that is owned by a character.

Application 2: Awareness of language and intentions for character can be developed further

with the individual actor being actively questioned by the group while speaking. This worked very well with all the characters in Sorrows and Rejoicings on parts of their monologues and sharpened concentration on the thoughts in lines. This kind of probing by others makes the situation slightly unpredictable and the actor has to think quickly, be clear and remember their words (Berry 2001:140). This section can be time-consuming in rehearsals and we found we could only manage to do this on smaller sections of the play and not in one long sitting. We used this exercise during one of the first read-throughs of the play, which only was done after several improvisations on the two heightened texts and some character work which was more psychologically based. By now, the characters knew more about each other and had solid background to both inner and outer landscapes and could be more questioning and critical as they began with the text itself. Interesting and thought-provoking questions were raised after almost every second line! The actors enjoyed this round-table discussion very much and felt it added to their understanding of each character’s intentions during these first two scenes (Fugard 2002:5–13,13–17). After only two to three scenes could be covered in one rehearsal evening we decided to halt this exercise temporarily due to lack of time. But it certainly could be repeated at another stage later in rehearsal time and lended itself to adaptation on smaller parts of each character’s monologue when the intentions and speaking were not clear.

Application 3: To add more variation to this scenario Berry also suggests that the group

argue with the speaker as they proceed through the speech (Berry 2001:140). This can release a good energy among the group and free up any underlying reservations the actors may have on the honesty, clarity or thought processes of the speaker. It can also lead to

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unexpected discoveries in the character’s emotional landscape such as hidden anger or resentment. On the other hand, it can also lead to some positive chaos and loud vocal release which was the case in one of our mid-process improvisations during rehearsals, where character Dawid is addressing a student political meeting and has to defend himself verbally from heckling by the women. We found this to be a valuable aspect to use during character improvisation on his early youth and involvement as an activist, addressing a crowd during a student protest. He discovered his youthful, passionate, political voice which linked up with his younger scenes in the play where he explains his reasons for leaving the country to Marta:

That is what I am going to try to do, Marta. That is why I am leaving the country. My writing is the only weapon I’ve got. Without it I’m useless. And that is what that bloody banning order has made me…useless! I can’t be read. I can’t be published. I can’t be quoted. (Fugard 2002:24)

This was an exercise that could be used effectively on text and in improvisation and assisted the actor with actively finding more layers in his characterisation.

An interesting change then concludes this sequence with a quieter scenario. This works well with dividing the actors in two’s, each using the same piece of text. The aim is to really focus both actors’ concentration on the language and subtext. One actor speaks the text aloud and another stands behind him or her and repeats these words quietly into their ear. Berry suggests that one must try and repeat as much of the text as possible (Berry 2001:140). Through this the actors both need to listen and speak and hopefully, absorb the language in a concentrated way into their thinking and speaking.

Application 4: After the middle phase of our rehearsals, when we were blocking and

working on the last four scenes of the play, scenes 6 to 9, we incorporated a few of Berry’s exercises one evening on scene (6). This takes place in characters Dawid and Allison’s London flat when their relationship was turning sour and he was drinking heavily. He was not successful as a writer and had lost his job at a private school (Fugard 2002:31–34). It is during this monologue (told by Allison as she remembers the incident from their past), that he admits he made a mistake in leaving the country and as a result has lost his creative ability. We read through the scene, discussed it briefly and tried some rough blocking in the space. By now we were working constantly in a smaller rehearsal room which was good for intimate scenes but limiting for scenes that needed more travelling space and larger emotions.

It needed much more energy and emotional self-disgust from the actor playing Dawid. I also wanted them to be physically braver in their contact with each other and movement. The actress playing Allison was present in the space both as present-day commentator and

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active listener in the past as the scene regresses into that time and plays out in front of her again. To assist both of them to feel these emotions of self-loathing, anger, frustration, pity, drunken humour, desire and desperation, I encouraged them to use the kicking of a can on certain words on the text to vent their feelings, to change direction on each punctuation mark as they moved and then spoke and for the other two actresses to actively block or obstruct Dawid from where he wanted to go in the “flat” space. They could use the furniture available or use their bodies to provide a kind of barrier. I also added the suggestion that later in the exercise the actresses become like ghosts, whispering in Dawid and Allison’s ears all the fears and doubts they might be having about themselves. This seemed to stimulate Dawid into releasing emotions more easily and to push the scene further in his physical relationship with Allison. The blocking/movement became more motivated in the imagined space and established the conflict between him and Allison. She kept trying to escape from him, giving in and then withdrawing. He kept following her―and the bottle of whiskey as she tried to keep it away from him! The ghostly voices in their ears, links to this last exercise of Berry and enhanced Dawid’s speaking as it either reinforced what he was saying or contradicted him. A good build-up in tension and a mature interaction developed between the actors which was taken into the performances and contributed to the successful development of characterisation in the production. It also added to the blocking of that scene which highlighted one of the main themes of the play, the effect of exile and loss on character Dawid’s confidence and ability to write,

God knows I’ve tried to get it flowing again but if my writing ever had a heart it has stopped beating. I’m drought-stricken…an officially declared drought-stricken area….We should never have left. I would have survived solitary confinement back home. I won’t survive freedom here. (Fugard 2002:33,34)

A more relaxed manner of approaching this exercise could be to allow both actors to sit back to back on the floor, leaning in towards each other. They then read the text together (speech or dialogue lines) and the other actors comment on and repeat the words they find surprising “or which are in some way loaded in terms of their own character’s reaction” (Berry 2001:148). This adds a softer and more positive feel to the commentary and although meant mostly for dialogue parts, it can work on longer extracts from speeches too. One can adapt the exercise in this way to good effect. Both actors and the group are reacting and speaking against each other and this is an active process. They do not face each other and feel the presence of each other’s backs and the sound vibrations travelling between them by means of this contact. At the same time they are listening and thinking their way through these thoughts. As Berry says, “All these exercises help to identify the language, which both

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defines and feeds the thought, and which in turn feeds the emotion” (Berry 2001:140). We decided to stay with the more active approach for this volatile scene (6).

4.3.5 Structures and finding progression of words in “Ladders of thought”

(Berry 2001:149–152,157–182)

In this middle section of Text in Action Berry discusses the importance of looking carefully at the structure of a speech and the consequent layering or build-up of dialogue and speeches throughout a text for providing further clues and possibilities of interpretation. This work is interesting and valuable to focus attention on the individual qualities of words and to find which ones work together, contrast with each other or carry more weight and meaning. However, she focuses more on Shakespearean text and its rhythmical structure which we could not use as effectively in the Fugard text. She discusses aspects such as Iambic pentameter and rhythm, rhetorical devices, antithesis, the use of the caesura, awareness of the energy through lines, the rhythms of prose, the structure of the soliloquy, etc. (Berry 2001:157–180). It was very useful though for us to work on the heightened texts mentioned earlier e.g. Tristia, Sonnet 23 and Running to Paradise (see Addendum 1,2,3) and to take that awareness back into the contemporary language and become more sensitised to the shape of words, phrases, thoughts, length of vowels, sound qualities and energy of consonants and rhythms and pauses within the modern words and sentences, and then to discover the shape of a speech as a whole when applying a similar process to the Fugard text.

The awareness of the structure of a speech can practically assist the actor in finding a character’s individual voice through recognising the above aspects of which for Berry (2001:151), a sense of rhythm is probably the most important. Finding a character’s energy, “pattern” and “sound…[that] can lift and inspire beyond the meaning” (Berry 2001:155) is what the actor tries to discover in the text and to communicate. Part of finding a concept as a director is assisting actors to find or discover their individual characters’ voices which form part of the physical and inner landscapes they find themselves in. Up until the last rehearsals this was a challenge to sustain. Finding clear and strong connections to the text and embodying them vocally as mature characters required a constant process of working on aspects such as discussed earlier. The energy qualities of sounds and their lengths and weight affect the quality of the spoken words and an awareness of the rhythmic flow and the pattern and build-up of these words and phrases reveal character in a clear manner.

This I feel the cast achieved in an overall sense in the production. On reflection, after the run was over I felt that the actors created and sustained the soundscape of the physical landscape and the atmosphere of the play very consistently and found the balance in levels of volume and sensitivity in these aspects of the sound. At times though, one of the

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actresses, although making solid efforts in interpretation where she showed lovely warmth and sensitivity, found it more difficult to fully sustain her individual character’s English sound patterns and flexibility, and to project her thoughts and emotions with more technical ease in that physical landscape. This interplay between the two aspects, both personal sound and the larger soundscape, was what I wanted to develop in the performances, allowing the sound in the text and the space to resonate more than relying on visual effects.

4.3.6 Speech structures—awareness of punctuation in lines (Berry 2001:161–