'The Man of Mode' - Post 02

Classical Theatre Performance Assignment –

‘The Man of Mode’ or, ‘Sir Fopling Flutter’

Tuesday 5^th – Friday 8^th January 2016

Movement Workshop and Character Mannerisms

     In preparation for our rehearsal process, for ‘The Man of Mode’, we began by taking part in several workshops exploring the nature of the restoration period.  Firstly, we looked to what we already knew about the play’s time period and characters:

·         It is set in the year 1676 (roughly thirty years after the English Civil War).

·         The Dramatis Personae reads the lead characters and wealthy personnel (“a gentleman” and “a lady”).

·         In our read through we noticed, several characters read in poetry (showing signs of education and manners).

     Knowing these little details were enough to support our introduction/plots to create character movement.  The plan was to understand the significant difference between high and low status characters, their movement, their mannerisms, and our performance adaptability to bring these characters to life physically.  Firstly, we looked to high status characters, in particular their walking and sitting structure; what does the performer have to maintain to achieve high restoration status?

Walking:

·         Straight back – to make their high status literal.

·         Chin raised – to impersonate as all high status characters look down on the world.

·         Chest pointed outwards – to show the gentleman’s masculine body and physical power.

·         Writing hand gestured outwards – shows polite manners and preparation to bow to friends/family or even kiss a lady on the hand.

·         Other hand tucked behind your back – to show respect to others and support of their own back as they walk and bow.

·         Toes pointing when pacing – to show precise efficiency when walking and enhance their strong physical structure.

·         and Walk leading with chin or hips – chin, to show intrigue into the conversation, and hips, to present themselves to the ladies or uphold their reputation of being a “gentleman about town”.

Sitting:

·         Sitting on the edge of the seat – to show that they are ready to leap into action, if needed.

·         Cloak brushed away as they sit – a gentleman of that time would not want to ruin a neat cloak by sitting on it, therefore they would always brush it away from their bottom to ensure it stays neat.

·         Back straight – to uphold their physical picture of being high status individual.

·         Always let the lady sit first – in one scenario we pictured that there was only one chair in the room, and a lady and a gentleman entered the room, then the gentleman would let the lady sit, while the gentleman stands behind the chair.

     I maintained these physical structures to show the gentleman quality of my character ‘Young Bellair’.  This is a character has a reputation, within the play, of being polite, loyal, and gentle to all his friends and family, and I made it a personal goal to maintain these physical structures to show the character’s true gentleman qualities and how he blends in with his other gentleman friends.

     In contrast, my second character ‘Handy’ needed a completely different physical structure.  ‘Handy’ is the loyal servant to ‘Dorimant’; while lower in status I wanted to devise a physical structure that was different, but unique compared to other lower class characters in the play.  For ‘Handy’, I would physically maintain:

·         Straight back – to show his respectable attitude about his working status.

·         Lowered chin, chest, and shoulders – to show lack of confidence and energy compared to a high status character.

·         Walking at a slow pace leading with the nose – to make a little homage to the  ‘Commedia Dell ‘Arte’ character of ‘Zanni’, a very lower status character who would lead with his nose to give a more animalist type of quality to his movements giving a significant difference to his counterparts and make him stand out.

     I believe this movement workshop was extremely helpful in understanding the characteristic traits of the restoration period and will undoubtable support our performances.  Enhancing a visual sense of realism and, hopefully through rehearsals, naturalism; bringing stereotypical character traits to life in an entertaining fashion.

The Language of the Fan

     The second workshop that was entertaining to take part in focused on the language of the fan.  It was common in the restoration period that ladies carried a fan at all times; it was in the youth generation where the fan was used to express silent/private messages to one another.  For example:

·         Drawing the fan across the cheek – means “I love you”.

·         Drawing the fan through the hand – means “I hate you”.

·         Putting the handle of the fan to the lips – means “kiss me”.

·         Fanning very slowly – means “I am married”.

·         Twirling the fan in the right hand – means “I love another”.

·         Etc.

     In many ways it was the restoration periods method of texting.  Our task was to pair up and use various methods to speak to one another using the language of the fan.  The message I sent read as:

     “You have changed (drawing the fan across the forehead).  I am sorry (drawing the fan across the eyes).  Come and talk to me (carrying the fan, open, in the left hand).  I love another (twirling the fan in the right hand).  Forgive me (clasping the hands under the open fan).  We will be friends (dropping the fan).”

     While the language of the fan is aimed towards the female performers, I found it interesting to learn the methods that the youth generation would endure when in the company of their parents.  Plus, article in which we learnt the language of the fan, came from the extract of Joan Wildeblood’s novel “THE POLITE WORLD: A Guide to English Manners and Deportment”; an intriguing read that should further support my development in embodying a restoration character in a restoration setting production.