In our scene ( with Jacob, Hector Tahlia, Lara and I) we need to stick red tape on the floor to position where the lines will be on which the audience stand.
This is my plan of The Space / 'The Two Minute Hate Room'.
As you can see there are five doors and six blocked lines where the audience stand( five per line). The video will play at the front-the left side of the image.
Required Equipment:
Red Tape
Red Flashing lights
Tasers (prop)
Projector
Posters: Advertising 'Two minute hate group' and Goldstein pictures
6 significant moments in The Two Minute Hate Room:
Soldiers order the 'prols' or audience to put themselves into order of height: smallest to tallest.
Get them in. Through the doors.
Cause trouble with a few of the purposely plotted actors (which are amongst the audience) and take a few of the audience members outside to decide how they will be dealt.
(Part 1) The two minute hate clip is show of Goldstein and slowly builds up to get louder.
(Part 2) Two minute hate clip is still going but a Rebel cuts off the video to talk.
Audience dismissed.
Lines the soldiers can use+adjust to order the audience members about:
-Beginning: You are directed to address all hate towards the projector where the enemy will be shown. If we do not see you committing two minutes for this hate process you'll be sent out to dealt with immediately.
-You have...minutes to put yourselves into order of height. Shortest to tallest. Whoever does not complete this task within the given time will face the consequences with the thought police. Time starts now.
-To cause trouble: You ma'am, I saw what you did, step aside right now so that our men can assist you outside. Everyone else stay focused you have...minutes remaining.
-No hunching, mumbling, and clear anger. If anyone is out of line during the two minutes...You've been in this situation before so proceed as usual.
-After the Rebel's interruption: There have been some technical difficulties and it seems a rebel has cut into the system. If we find out anyone in this room had something to do with this plot or who knows this thought criminal ,you will assist him and the rest of the rebels in room 101.
-Be aware that there are people in this room which will be watching you throughout this video so we have an easier connection to bring in thought police if anything gets out of hand.
These lines will help me to understand my role and other than that i can improvise along the lines of it.
In this room i play the role of a demanding soldier. My character will have to be performed in a way to get an outcome of intimidation from the audience and a sense of strong militaristic force.
In the film of 1984 thought police run in control rather than soldiers but the two do differ. My costume as a soldier will be simple black attire with brown boots and a watch to keep aware of the times of my characters. A prop to go along side that character will be a tazer- it's easy to make and it's a small weapon which looks threatening and dangerous. Even if it doesn't end up looking like a tazer we can just imagine it to be a weapon like that because anyway it's the 'future'. However we won't be heavily equipped like the soldiers in the photo above.
My costume for the thought police won't change because our play isn't about expressing your self through colour. We're sticking to basic dull colours: greys, red and black. The main reason for the red is for the Anti-Sex League to stand out-they are an organisation of women only who go against sex for pleasure.
Orwell chose to flip the date from when he wrote it, 1948 to form the novel of 1984. At the time of the Second World War this is what a British Soldier would have looked like:
The two men dressed the same with buttoned up shirts are thought police and wear hard-fitted helmets. The other man whose face is showing is O'Brien-the enemy in our video in the two minute hate room.
This may be a few steps away from what the actual context of 1984 is about. However this post relates to the world of immersive theatre and having the audience step alongside similar roles as the performers. They may be spectating but the audience still take part in the action of the play, whether it's causing a bit of trouble or being tortured in room 101.
Punchdrunk is a British Theatre Company- formed in 2000. The difference and unique aspect of their shows is that the audience are free to go where they want and choose what to watch. This means the company itself have to devise many hours of production just to complete one audience members' show because you can't be in two places at once ; your friend will probably see something different to what you did.
On the right is a poster of the show- 'Inside the Drowned Man'. And on the left, a trailer of their show. It's a look into the plot of the story and the OuTsTaNdInG set piece they've put together.
On another post of mine: Set Design of The Drowned Man- there is a small gallery of pictures which shows the set of their performance hence Set Design of The..
Our Immersive Show
In our performance of 2050 (the future from 1984) same plot and same characters but different names, all of the actors play a part as a floater. It's their responsibility to watch the time and change character when their next role is instructed to start. Personally, i'm a soldier and a thought police. As a soldier it's my 'duty' to look out and keep the audience in order in The Space or in other words the two minute hate room. In the space of two minutes plotted actors and hopefully audience members will take that time to express hatred for O'Brien-another character in 1984. There will be multimedia footage of O'Brien and one of the rebels on the video. To make sure the audience know of O'Brien, posters will be stuck around the room and possibly outside. During the performance i'm in the hate room twice for 15 minutes each because another organisation (The Anti-Sex League) will also be having their presentation in that break. When i'm not in charge as a soldier i'm in charge as a thought police.
In the role of a thought police i'm allowed to go into room 415 (O'Brien's office), the hallways, the cafeteria which will be recreated into 'The Ministry Food Hall' and the reception space. Although i'm not allowed into Winston's home, the torture room or the the operating room.
Although our overall piece of 2050 isn't in chronological order, mainly because it's immersive theatre, we know that the end of the play will be the start of the rebels' revolution.
My time schedule:
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For the reason I have to be somewhere at a certain time requires me to wear a watch as part of my costume.
(source from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dystopia)
It's a creative an thrilling theme for a movie or novel and that's why many authors have chosen to use it. These are some examples of books that underline the meaning of a dystopian world:
Back to George Orwell:
He was a middle class man and was very much in sympathy with the working class.
At the time the class system was strict so if you were categorised as a class you'd keep to it and would care about what only you had.
Orwell was an experienced man and he lived through rough periods of Empire, two World Wars ; the Great Depression and Decolonisation.
History Fact (1): By 1947 we ,Britain, decided to decolonise and gave India its independence.
George Orwell was a Socialist. His father was an Imperial Civil Servant when India was still British and took care of the Opium trade in India.
Orwell Fact (1): he was schooled at Eton College.
History Fact (2): 1984 was written during a social revolution-written in 1948.
Interesting Fact: Room 101 ,which is the torture room in the book, is the place thought-criminals could taken. The torture itself is whatever the person fears most and in the case of Winston Smith it was rats. In a way Room 101 actually did exist! It was a room in London's first skyscraper (as shown below) where university students would get there results. So in the eyes of a student it really would be their greatest fear.
:Was a Socialist (believed in equality) and went against totalitarianism. He is known for the dystopian novel of '1984' and allegorical novel-'Animal Farm'. Orwellian is a term used to describe totalitarian or authoritarian social practices. Other neologisms have also entered the language, such as: Big Brother, cold war, doublethink,thoughtcrime, Room 101 and thought police.These are all aspects of his the book and play a huge role for the base of our immersive play.
This source (a video clip) is from George Orwell: A Life In Pictures. Which was a 2003 BBC Television Docudrama telling the life of the British author.
His final words: "Don't let it happen, it depends on you". It's hard to say from this short clip whether the man was a genius but i'm sure we can all agree that what he predicts is scary to believe in.
The interviewer herself looks uncomfortable from what he says and quite worried in her mind that what Orwell is saying could have some truth in it. He states that the book was a parody but could likely happen due to the direction the world's going in. His further predictions:
Orwell believes there will be no emotion-except fear.
The sex instinct will be eradicated
There will be no loyalty apart from loyalty to the party.
There will always be the intoxication of power
You can understand why he thinks in such a negative way and how it connects to the current time of the 1940s from a lesson I had during Theatre to inform the class or the important context of the play: On Mr Moir's lesson.
George Orwell also mentioned how he was under the influence of TB when he wrote it.
Tuberculosis (TB)
The infectious disease attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. It can be spread if the person who has an active TB infection transmits fluid through the air: coughs and sneezes. It was a three year battle for him.
In addition Orwell was a heavy smoker and rolled his own cigarettes from strong shag tobacco; loved strong tea.
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