'13' Blog 4 (Part One): Exploring and Prearations

‘13’: Exploring and Preparing

Monday 13^th October 2014

‘13’ Presentations

     Continuing our process towards bringing our first production assignment, of the play ‘13’ written by Mike Bartlett, to life on stage, it was now our chance to present our slide shows exploring the various themes and elements within ‘13’.  In the previous week we, as a class, explored all the themes and the hidden details within Mike Bartlett’s writing.  We were all tasked to work in pairs, or small groups, and research into one of the themes or elements in the play, and demonstrate our understanding for when it comes to our main production.

Presentation 1: The Themes of War

     The first pair’s presentation explored the plays interpretation and vision of a potential war.  In their slide show, the research linked both the plays warfare and how it links to reality.

     They discovered that the fictional war takes places, roughly when the play is set, in the year 2011.  Plus important/historical events took place in reality.  The important events, roughly near the same time setting of ‘13’, consisted of, the Election Debate back in 2010, the Iran nuclear programme in 2009, as well as conflict between countries concerning nuclear weapons.

     It was important for us to take all these historical events.  As not only where they the inspiration behind Mike Bartlett’s writing of ‘13’.  But they have a vast impact on the storytelling of ‘13’, as the potential war goes against the lead characters ambitions for a good future.  Plus knowing this may come in handy for our main performance.

Presentation 2: The Morals in Politics, within ‘13’

     Now similarly to the previous pair, the theme of war has a huge impact on this play.  But this pair discussed the simple question: Is war the best option?

     We all knew from the read through that the play revolves around various characters.  This way they can show all their points of views, whether they are the politicians making drastic decisions, or the general public disagreeing with the outcome of these decisions.  Therefore, this pairs chosen theme of the Morals in Politics, showed a great deal of passion towards showing the political characters difficulties in making these decisions.

     I thought this was a very interesting slide show as it gave the students, with the actor’s role of portraying these political characters, a decent understanding of how they could present these emotions.  By showing the character’s struggles, difficulties, as well as their deep thoughts and feelings to making a different option.  The theme of war sticks and shows us and the upcoming audience that “war is never the best way forward”.

Presentation 3: The ‘Bible’ Relations

     When it came to our class discussion of what the important themes were, we all agreed that the key story similarity of ‘13’s plot was the ‘Bible’.  Through many research and completing our research we discovered that characters, such as ‘John’ have key characteristic and motivations making him, what many reviewers call him, a “Modern Messiah”.  Plus we also discovered that the title of the play represents ‘John’ and his twelve followers, the main representation of ‘Jesus’ and his ‘Twelve Disciples’.

     That is what we had discovered as a class, but this pair went into further detail of how all the characters represent characters told in the ‘Bible’.  Such as the character ‘Dennis’ is representing ‘Judas’ as both characters betray the protagonists will.

     But one area that I thought was the most interesting was this pair discovering the metaphorical foreshadows within the play.  In particular, ‘John’s metaphorical crucifixion that brings the play to an end.  While audience members of ‘13’ will not see what comes of ‘John’, as the play comes to an end.  But this pair gave their assumption that ‘John’ is socially crucified after his down fall.  I found this very interesting and it makes me all the more excited to see what else we could discover about the play as we continue our rehearsal and production processes.

Presentation 4: The Economic Links, within ‘13’

     Going back towards the political themes within ‘13’, we had discovered how the themes of war and politicians link into the play.  But it was this pair who researched any economic links from reality to the page.

     It was this pair who discovered that there have been true historical events which have been the results of economic, and near global disasters.  They also showed how they have an impact on the world and how they link into the story of ‘13’.  As the play shows political decisions and how the general public either agree or disagree.  Plus this pair also discovered the outcome of what would happen in reality if such disasters came to be.

     But my personal favourite quote from this pair presentation: “rich man’s war, poor man’s blood”.  Showing both sides of the party and making the political matters within ‘13’ all the more interesting and mysterious for when it comes to our main performance.  

Presentation 5: All Aspects of ‘13’

     It was this group that went for a different approach towards their presentation.  They looked particularly at all the hidden details and delights within the play ‘13’.

     They began with hidden character relations, to both fictional or real historical figures, and how that could link into our presentation of these characters and the events taking place within ‘13’. 

     But what I found to be the cleverest details they discovered was the moral messages they had received.  My favourite particularly was they discovery of the use of colour on the front cover of the book.  Coloured blue gave a meaning of “out of the blue”, just like ‘John’ returning into his friends lives just like that.  But, sticking with the character ‘John’, they depicted his own message, for both his fictional followers and the audience.  “Keep your friends close but also focus on important things, such as politicians”.   

Presentation 6: The Religion and Politics, within ‘13’

     Two reoccurring factor of the play was it character’s visions of religion and belief, as well as the difficulties amongst the politician characters.

     I thought this was another interesting slide.  Whilst we had previously discovered multiple areas concerning the politics in ‘13’, the thought of hope and belief does stick within the storytelling.  As almost all of the characters are divided through their lack hope and belief.  This makes this particular theme all the more interesting.

       As it give us, as cast and audience members, the opportunity to back up ‘John’s point of view and bring the other character’s hope to a point where we do ‘John’ succeeding in bringing his vision of a better future to life. 

Presentation 7: The General Theme, within ‘13’

     The final presentation concerning the themes and elements within ‘13’, explored the key and essential themes which consist throughout the play.

     These themes consisted of, The Government, Social Media, Hope and Belief, and the Links within Modern Society.  All of them have an important impact on the storytelling, as well as link in with one another.  It truly brings more meaning to the play, and gives great depth to the story and the characters.   

Presentation 8: A Review from Dan Hutton; The Themes within the Review

     Now this presentation explored Dan Hutton’s Review of the professional production of ‘13’.  Particularly focusing on what simple details he placed in a short and detailed review.

     Dan Hutton managed to discover the moral messages, the characters representations, and particularly the relevance to reality.  He also brought up theories of how the impact of social media usage, gender confrontations, and rise to power can embrace audience members more.  All of which brings a vast a involvement towards the play.

     I think Dan Hutton established the play extremely well, and gave readers the suggestion of watching this play and witnessing what an impact it can have on you.

Our Presentation: The Relevance to Contemporary Society

     For our presentation, me and my partner, decided to research into the plays relevance and relations to contemporary/modern society. 

     Using research from critics reviews, and the National Theatre’s Website, to find any information and thoughts concerning to plays fictional society, and how it links to our own.  The two key areas in particular that we looked to was the impact of social media and the character’s links to modern society.  Our goal was show how social media has an impact towards our own society, and affects people.  But in particularly, how the characters give a realistic representation of people within our modern society.  This also gave us thoughts on how all of this could have an impact on the storytelling and our representation of the characters.

       I felt that our slide show managed to achieve in giving our class a decent understanding what their characters could represent for their own portrayals.  As well as show them how both fiction and reality collide with one another in both sides of the story bring true meaning towards the play and Mike Bartlett’s vision.

 

     Our Research areas:

1.       ‘13’ Review by Aleks Sierz – http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/33998/13

2.       The ‘National Theatre’ Website link; images, ratings, and actors/character details - http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/13

 

Summary

     I thought researching into a particular theme and element within ‘13’ was a grand opportunity to learn that particular theme in more detail and give ourselves a better understanding and present this information to our class.  Plus we also learnt various other themes and elements within the play, thanks to excellently presented slide shows.

     I also think these were helpful, in the sense that it will help us vastly when we perform in character.  Knowing what a realistic interpretation of the plays events would look like, and how our characters would be presented to bring the extra details to life physically and verbally. 

     This way we can bring all our research to life as our characters knowing every single detail, making the play all the more interesting and entertaining.