Postdramatic Theatre

As part of our physical experimentation, we briefly looked into the theatre company, Frantic Assembly. Frantic Assembly are a physical theatre company who combine text with movement. They create ‘thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly’s unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text’ (“Frantic Assembly”, n.d). Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett (2009, p. 31) assert that Frantic Assembly ‘...do not want to simply deliver the expected’. They do this through constructing ‘...a new means of creating theatre performance’ (Graham & Hoggett, 2009, p.4) by taking risks and trying new things within their choreography. However, Frantic Assembly primarily focus upon ‘...physical storytelling...as a credible means of communication with our audience’ (Graham & Hoggett, 2009, p. 41). A focal point of a postdramatic performance is not to create a narrative within the physical movement. In relation to our use and development of Grotowski’s work of the exhausted state, we used a similar devising process to Frantic Assembly in which we created movement through experimentation, enabling us to showcase and consider what each performer was capable of. This was to ensure the choreography we created everyone was able and comfortable in performing them, due to the unpredictability to which choreography we each would perform at any time. I believe this made our performance consistent and precise. Graham and Hoggett (2009, p. 7) pinpoint that ‘in rehearsals we never teach “steps”. The moves come from what the performers find they are capable of through the specific tasks set. We believe this is the most productive, honest and accessible method for us’. This was a collaborative process and approaching within this method help us become a tight ensemble, which I felt with more time could have developed even further. This developed into a comfortable and trustworthy state performing together which became a vital element within our piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Clear the Space’ is an exercise which Frantic Assembly use within their devising process. Frantic Assembly ‘...often use this exercise at the very start of a session in order to help participants get a sense of the room they are working in. It is also useful in breaking down physical inhibitions as the instructions come fairly rapidly, giving people no time to worry about contact with other bodies in the space’ (Graham & Hoggett, 2009, p. 114). The performers run around the space whilst having a clear intention to heading towards a space in the room and listening out for different commands. These include: clear the space – quickly clear the space by standing up against the wall with palm of hands on the wall, person – quickly grab someone and hug each other as tight as possible, fold – slowly, as a group, fold your whole body until you are lying on the floor, look – hold eye contact with another person, even if they are looking at someone else, and so on. This exercise enabled us to build an awareness of the space around us, especially as we were performing in the garden which is quite a small space for physical movement. Furthermore, we became more focused as an ensemble because of the unpredictability of not knowing who will perform with whom at one time.

 

The use of Frantic Assembly was very beneficial within our devising process in relation to the physical work. The use of the work shop ‘Clear the Space’ helped to begin developing performance awareness, a vital skill for any physical work. However, we approached the text in a different way compared to Frantic Assembly. They develop movement to reflect the narrative of a text, whereas we developed the movement by deconstructing the text first and devised through the use of task driven dramaturgy.