Hebras

last friday we saw a play called Hebras directed by robbie, it was performed in the school theatre.
the stage was not the regular stage, the curtains were closed leaving a closed stage inside. the chairs for the audience were in circle and the actors acted in the center and one single light illuminated the actors from above. i came late to see the play, but i was told the actors were in still picture when they got there. i know it was the same pose as like they ended, it was twist and bend, both actors crossed one over the other. They first things that come to my mind when i think of this pose is that it was very complicated to do, but the actors made it easy, the mood this brought to the atmosphere was great because you could feel the tension but at the same time you could feel the softness of the connection between them. This first image gives an idea, but not a complete concept, does this makes it an incomplete first impression? what would a good first impression require?
the play was played by two actors, a man and a woman. this gave me a hint of what the concept would be, love.

There was no speaking, it was a play without script, just like our supermarket, it all came to actions, but not face expressions because they were wearing white, plain-expression masks. The white masks were a very important factor when it came to building the atmosphere, for me it represented lack of personality, or it could be representing all human kind divided in women and men. The interaction of both characters along the play only gave me one concept, love, and indeed it was. most of the time the man was controlling the woman, making her clean, using her as a puppet, oppressing her, but there were moments were they both were free and connected with the audience and with each other only by the actions.
one thing i thought worked very well were the movement and velocity of the actions, there were tense movements followed by slow and clam ones. for example, when the man, rollie made the woman, luciana clean they played with speeds. the change of speeds really gives the actions more meaning and strength.

the meaning of the actions were supported by the sound of violins, all the play was accompanied by violins, there were short moments of tension were there was no music too, but it was most accompanied with violins. Another sound that helped with the atmosphere was the breathing of the actors, because they had a mask, we couldnt see their face expressions, but we saw a lot of body language and we kind of listened to the story by their breathing. the collide of the air coming from their mouth and nose with the mask created a lot of different sounds which i interpreted like words. there were some sobbing, breathing which heard like crying, other like laughing, other like if they were in pain. all the breathing sounds really helped with the story itself and the atmosphere.
there were no props in the play other than each other, but, the mask other than giving a meaning, it helps the audience not get distracted from the most important things in this play, which were the body expressions.

the story was very clear, it was a couple who had some problems in their relationship, like abuse which was shown when the rollie used luciana as a puppet, but there were also moments where the audience could tell how committed they were to each other, like the part when they exchanged hearts. as i said they used no props so they used their hands to represent the heart, you couls almost see the heart, they made as if they were holding the heart and pumped their fingers as if the heart was pumping. the basic key of creating a play like this i think is a lot of discipline, because it doesnt only require imagination, but a lot of physical effort to make all this actions, i could see how demanding this physical theater is, the actors ended up sweating a lot and to do this again and again while rehearsing, which it requires a lot i suppose, demands a lot of energy, discipline and effort.

the actors ended the play with the same position as they started , crossed over, mixed. it had a completely different meaning than at the beginning of the play, it was a more complete idea and understanding.
when it ended we talked with the actors and the director this helped a lot because we could ask questions, i could hear a lot of different ideas of what the play ment, that got me thinking, is it save to make a play with no words, no face expression and so not obvious, if you know that the audience will appreciate it in different ways??

supermarket

we did a small play that lasted 5 min, for the arts evening. The play was mute and in slow motion. We had to work a lot with our body and face expressions as well as with our rhythm. Because we made no use of words, our face and body had to express it all. It was hard for me to explore faces, to change my expressions for example. When it came to body language it was even more difficult for me, because of the slow motion. I had to have a balance to make all movements in slow motion and when i tried to do something like lifting one of my feet and staying standing on one foot and kneeling to the front it turn very difficult to keep balance. Other very difficult thing for me was the rhythm. All the play moved around one music that gave the sense of being under water so our movements became slow and heavy. It was difficult to keep this pace because we had to act it with other people. For example when i walked with Mauricio we had to walk at the same time, but there were moments where he did it a little bit faster, so i had to keep up with his fast pace and that is when it looked not very coordinated.