“The Pleasure To Exaggerate.”

A rough looking vagabond arrives at the house of a bishop at night, and asks if he can spend the night there. The bishop accepts, and asks his daughter to get out their fine silverware to serve the man dinner with. He eats, without saying a word, and then goes to bed. The next morning the vagabond leaves, and takes the fine silverware with him.

Later that morning, there is a loud knock on the bishop's door. The daughter opens it to find the police holding the vagabond. They found the him loose on the streets with some fine silverware that he claims was given to him by the bishop... And the bishop backs up the vagabond's story, convinces the police there's been a mistake, and then gives an extra package of fine silverware candles to the vagabond. Before the vagabond leaves, the priest says "don't forget, I buy your soul...I buy your resurrection." 

• We have to see the vagabond is ashamed.
• We have to see the priest is fantastically generous.

~

I had a go as the vagabond. The first time I did it, I showed the vagabond's shame by looking up at the priest, and then down and away - averting my eyes from him. Philippe got us to do the scene again, but this time he got me to just stand with my head down, in a fixed point, for the entire scene. He said my looking around was playing too much - that it got in the way of the audience's imagination. But when I was completely still, I created a good image - something you can dream around. Because, for example, when the priest says "we were sorry we didn't get to say goodbye to you this morning" and the vagabond does nothing, then we imagine what might be going on inside him. But if I try to show it, then there's no need to dream.

“We imagine many things with a good image.”

“You have to have confidence with an image.”

“You have to feed the audience’s imagination.”

~

I also played one of the policemen.

Philippe got our group to do it in the style of Opera, and then Rock, which was really fun. It immediately made us all more free and playful. The fear of being bad floats away! Singing the text also helps with following a good impulse. Philippe then got us to switch from singing to normal speech when he beat the drum, and to try and keep the same impulse. It helped me!

~

I had a go at the bishop too.

I did an alright job of it, and then Philippe got me to it again, but play a fast positive rhythm - to walk around the room and in a lying-to-police kind of voice: "Ohhh Maria! We're so glad you returned! We had such a lovely dinner with you last night! And then we forgot to give you one more gift!" He also got me to really play super-generous bishop. The rhythm helped create a difference between the police and the vagabond. And allowed me to really 'have a scene'.

~

“A vagabond is never nasty in a Mélodrama.”

“You walk half circle not because you are a crab! It’s because we have to see your face!”

“If you have impulse to play, you are not boring. But if you have impulse falling down, you are boring.” = Explains my Q from yesterday.

~

At the end of class Philippe noted that it was interesting that in this workshop as a class we haven't really got to Mélodrama. Nobody has really gone over the top - we've stayed in the realm of normal theatre. He said it wasn't a criticism, it's just what happened. To get there, we need “the pleasure to exaggerate”. It kind of bugs me because I really would love to go there and 'get' Mélodrama. I think I have tried to exaggerate, but often feel held back by the thought that I'll push, or that I need to be subtle. But I know I would love to be really big and over the top. And that it's possible to do this with subtlety and without pushing. Tomorrow is the last day to play with the form (as Friday we'll be showing)...so my goal is to go there tomorrow!! Even if it's ridiculous!!