...One would not usually list ‘watching people suffer’ as something that makes them laugh. I am no exception, but this changes when watching a Martin McDonagh or Harold Pinter Black Comedy. On viewing McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore and Pinter’s The Homecoming, two vastly different Black Comedies. When watching these plays, I found myself laughing at what would seem like the most inappropriate places, if one was only looking at the violent and chaotic visuals. It is in their staging that the dialogue, characters and settings mix to create laughter and cartharsis. On viewing NIDA’s production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, I discovered that one of the most laughter-inducing scenes was also one of the most violent. The second scene of the play where the mad son of Donny, Padraic, is torturing a ‘drug pusher’, James, is visually disturbing. I saw James hanging upside down, blood trickling down from his massacred feet to his horrified face. Despite this, the lyrical, song-like way in which Padraic adresses him, coupled with the highly satirical dialogue, provokes the audience to laugh and creates a funny scene. Padraic tells James sincerely to ‘Be pickin’ yer nipple’, as he feels it to be a kind gesture rather than cutting off both nipples. The extreme stupidity with which Padraic spoke incited laughter fom the audience around me, and focused attention away from the macabre nature of the scene. Inspired by my viewing of the NIDA production, I played the character of Davey...
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...Culture, Society and Art Notes Caryl Churchill: * Caryl Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatizing the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. “While reconceiving theatre in a number of important ways, Churchill's work demonstrates the value and increasing potential of theatrical representation for feminist-socialist empowerment.” * Her early work developed Bertolt Brecht's modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of 'Epic theatre' to explore issues of gender and sexuality. “Churchill challenges audiences to join their imaginations with hers in seeking answers to the difficult questions posed by her plays. She does not ask audiences to suspend disbelief or surrender to the playwright's point of view. Instead, by encouraging imaginative reciprocity, her plays empower the audience to question and see new possibilities in what has previously been accepted.” * Churchill was of the sixties generation (born in 1938), then a second-wave feminist, a socialist, anti-war and anti-colonial. Plays: Top Girls (1980), Vinegar Tom (1976), Traps (1976), Fen (1982) Literature Review FOR: - The ways in which Caryl Churchill uses the techniques of Bertolt Brecht- Brecht wanted to reveal truth and the effect of politics within his theatre. Not allowing his audience to fall into a trap or become emerged within the characters and their story, but to simply show a message. - The 1980s were...
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...On-line Resources Welcome to Part 1 of TAG’s on-line resources for our production of The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. These resources are divided into 2 parts. Part 1 is intended to give an insight into Pinter, his style of writing and the play itself by looking at previous productions of The Birthday Party. Generally aimed at Higher Drama students, this pack complements units 1, 2 and 3 of the syllabus. However, these resources are also useful for the Knowledge and Understanding elements of Standard Grade as well as the Special Study for Advanced Higher Drama. I have collated information from various sources in order to provide material for use before your students see TAG’s production. In September 2003, Part 2 will be available to download from TAG’s website. This section of the resources will focus on the process of creating our production of The Birthday Party. It will include contributions from the Director, the Designer, the Performers and other members of the creative team. I hope that Part 2 will open up TAG’s working methods and provide a real insight into how a theatre company works. Please feel free to reproduce any section of the on-line resources for your use in the classroom. We are always aiming to provide the most effective and beneficial resources for teachers and so please do offer any comments you have regarding either part of this pack. We welcome and appreciate all feedback. I very much hope that you and your pupils find the resources useful and enjoy...
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...The Birthday Party , Harold Pinter – Act 1 The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter is a play which explores many themes including binary options like insanity vs. sanity and even the conventions of society. In 1958 when “The Birthday Party” was first performed in London it received a lot of criticism due to the fact that it was very complicate to comprehend and the characters didn’t seem to have the same popular structure as many plays did in that time e.g. Stock characters\stereotypical characters, as a matter of fact the play was infested with characters who were suffering from a serious case of insanity. However as a modern audience of the birthday party people are more open to research into the deeper meaning of what Shakespeare was perhaps trying to portray under the surface of the plot. In Act 1 of The Birthday Party we are flooded with a wide range of mundane images but the dialogue used in the scene creates a strange atmosphere to what we would expect in an everyday environment. The act begins with the everyday situation of husband and wife sitting at the breakfast table alongside their tenant Stanley who joins them. Shakespeare tries to enforce the idea of realism in this act by using objects such as the tenant Stanley eating cornflakes and talking to the landlady Meg. However Shakespeare turns this around through conversation “Those lovely flakes? You’re a liar, a little liar” This is an abnormal way for a landlady to treat her tenant , the phrase “You’re a little...
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...Review on “The Mustache” and “Ashes to Ashes” Both The Mustache and Ashes to Ashes by Sabina Berman and Harold Pinter, respectively, were great plays however I only thoroughly enjoyed the Mustache because of its humorous nature. The Mustache started out as a very comedic play but transitioned into a serious gender based play. Both actors were acting his/her false sexual orientation when together but deep down each character was homosexual. Ashes to Ashes was just a very confusing play to be however I progressively began to understand the allusions to massive killings, perhaps in the case of Nazi Germany. However, each play consisted of its own values and ulterior meanings, and I was able to understand each play’s message. The Mustache was a very interesting play with a married couple starting their morning as such of a typical relationship. However, the couple progressively turned from sunshine into a bickering mess. The wife was at first angry because the husband had been wearing her mustache at the party they had attended. I didn’t expect this at first because a mustache is usually what is grown on men as a sign of both masculinity and age. They then started talking back about the party and the husband’s encounter with an archetype of a woman. This started to make me realize that there was a gender and sexuality message within the play as soon as the husband started listing out what his girl had possessed. Words such as young, beautiful, skinny, etc. were used to describe...
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...Anon-code: 58238 Word-count: 1,498 This is essay is based on my presentation on the 14th of March. From the Critical Fiction to the Critical Film John Fowles’s narration, opinions and authorial dilemmas have a great impact on the reader’s interpretation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969). It is the combination of these features that make the novel a ‘critical fiction’. Karel Reisz, the director, and Harold Pinter, the screenplay writer, collaborated to turn Fowles’s novel into a film in 1981. What I hope to establish is how Reisz and Pinter transposed these multitasking efforts of the narrator and author of the novel, onto the screen, and if it has the same impact on the audience as the novel did on its readers. The film’s self-reflexive stance is symbolised in the opening shot of Sarah/Anna’s face in a compact mirror. As the film that we are watching starts, so does the film that Anna and Mike are making. After the director shouts “action”[1], the title sequences start to roll on screen and the soundtrack begins. We hear “track”[2] and the camera that the audience is looking through tracks Sarah. By allegedly letting the audience see ‘behind the scenes’, and the actors’ relationship, the film keeps us at a distance from Charles and Sarah by reminding us that the story is imaginary. This could be likened to how Fowles steps out of the role of narrator within the text, to show that the author and the narrator are indistinguishable. In reference to Sarah,...
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...This story today is called "A Pair of Silk Stockings." It was written by Kate Chopin Little Mrs. Sommers suddenly acquires fifteen dollars, which seems like a large amount to her. Feeling important and wealthy, she considers how to invest her money, feeling that she must carefully spend the money. During the night, she thinks of a sensible use for the money. She determines that she should spend a dollar or two extra for Janie's shoes, so that they will last longer and be of better quality, and she plans to buy some fabric for her children's clothing. After that, she will still have enough money for new stockings and hats for everyone, which pleases her because her children will have new clothing for the first time in a while. Mrs. Sommers used to have more money long ago, before her marriage, but she does not worry about the past or the future, focusing mostly on the present. Mrs. Sommers is used to cheap purchase, but today she is tired and forgets to eat lunch. While sitting on a stool to rest before her shopping, she realizes that her hand has brushed against a pair of two-dollar silk stockings. She continues to feel the splendid fabric and asks the shop girl for a pair in her size. After choosing a black pair of stockings, Mrs. Sommers buys them and goes directly to the ladies' waiting room to change. For once, she abandons thinking about responsibility or about why she is so satisfied at her purchase. She sits in the room for a while, reveling in her stockings...
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...The Homecoming, a two acts play, is sprinkled with diverse elements of comedy. By setting off laughing in the audience, Pinter drives the attention to the instability of characters’ relationships. Yet, the comedy darkens when facing the human perpetual struggle to handle these fragile relations. The Homecoming is articulated by comic cross-talking enlightening human relation. Thus the audience can be amused by the shouts of Teddy hoping to be listened to. The exclamations “She’s my wife! We’re married!” are vain, and even the silence imposed by the pause is not enough to be heard, he has to repeat himself. Pinter by creating this absurd and comic dialogue, in which nobody is listening to anyone, underlines the miscommunication that dominates human relations. If sometimes the protagonists seem to have a pertinent discussion, actions might reveal contradictions. For example, despite the clarity of Ruth’s brief refusal “No, thanks.”, Lenny “takes the glass to Ruth”. Along with inappropriate actions, the unsuitable and vulgar appellation “dirty tart” used by Max to designate his daughter in law creates an awkward mood, hilarious for the audience. Besides, Pinter introduces unexpected changes of topic. Whereas Ruth presents herself, Lenny cuts short by declaring “I’ve been having a bit of rough time with this clock”. The interest switching suddenly from Ruth to Lenny, punctuates the dialogue with off beats. These comic devices are used to reveal the misunderstanding messing up human...
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...Slaves to the smartphone; Schumpeter The Economist[pic]402. 8775[pic] (Mar 10, 2012): n/a. 針對語音瀏覽器，開啟檢索到的項目反白 摘要 (摘要) 翻譯摘要 mart devices are sometimes empowering. They put a world of information at our fingertips. They free people to work from home instead of squeezing onto a train with malodorous strangers. That is a huge boon for parents seeking flexible work hours. Smartphones and tablets can also promote efficiency by allowing people to get things done in spare moments that would otherwise be wasted, such as while queuing for coffee. They can even help slackers create the illusion that they are working around the clock, by programming their e-mail to be sent at 1am. But for most people the servant has become the master. Not long ago only doctors were on call all the time. Now everybody is. Bosses think nothing of invading their employees' free time. Work invades the home far more than domestic chores invade the office. Otherwise-sane people check their smartphones obsessively, even during pre-dinner drinks, and send e-mails first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This is partly because smartphones are addictive. The faster smartphones become and the more alluring the apps that are devised for them, the stronger the addiction will grow. Spouses can help by tossing the darned devices out of a window or into a bucket of water. But ultimately it is up to companies to outsmart the smartphones by insisting that everyone turn them off from time to time. 全文 • 翻譯全文 ...
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...Just another Breakfast The candle-light fluttered upon his face, lighting his sculpted features passionately. His lips were the most perfect shade of rose, matching his faint blush perfectly. Long eyelashes cast shadows across his skin, almost as feminine as a princess’. He looked into my eyes, grazing my face with a tender breath. My own caught in my throat, and I really cannot finish this god damn book With a groan, I crumple up the piece of paper in my hand and toss it to the floor, muttering about deadlines and bards and the Gods know what else. I lean back in my chair, rubbing my temple in frustration; it’s been a month or so since I’ve been hired by the travelling band of entertainers, but my work’s not been up to its usual standards. I hiss, before throwing myself to my feet and walking out of my caravan. I shield my eyes from the blinding sun with a raised hand, looking around the camp. Children run across the fields, tripping each other with sticks before jumping away again. Women sit in circles around barrels of water, nattering about their husbands while washing their family’s clothes. Their dark eyes flicker to me, and they wave good-morning before going back to their daily duties. I reply in kind before turning away, looking at the men of our troupe. Erik stands at the campfire, turning last night’s hunt on the spit. We nod at each other and I approach him, folding my hands into my pockets. “Morning, Erik,” I say. He grunts a reply, his eyes already back...
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...Essential Guidelines for the Servant Evangelism Projects & Report How to do the servant evangelism project 1. This Servant Evangelism Report must document TWO true, face-to-face encounters a. (not a virtual encounter – via www, email, IM etc) with unbeliever in a setting in which you served them unconditionally. The servant evangelism encounter must take place within the semester that the student is enrolled in this particular course. 2. The three P’s to Servant Evangelism- b. P- PERSONAL: These 2 encounters must be personal- face to face- encounters done within this semester. c. P- PRACTICAL/PHYSICAL: In both of these encounters you must meet the physical needs of another individual. Even though prayer, and bible study are essential to the Christian life and growth. These are unacceptable forms of servant evangelism and do not meet the requirements of this assignment. This assignment is for you to meet the physical needs of another individual (Matthew 25:31-46; James 2:14-20). (SEE end of document for a list approved, and unacceptable Servant Evangelism projects.) d. P- PENNILESS: In both of these servant evangelism encounters you may not receive money for your work. This must be a free service to those you are serving. NOTE: All servant Evangelism Papers will be graded by the 3-P system (see above). If your assignment does not fulfill the three P’s it will receive a grade deduction. 3. The point of the service...
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...Kurt Fearnley “There were tears streaming down my face, but I drove myself on, screaming “Who are you? Each time the answer that kept bouncing around in my mind was “I am someone who will never stop, someone who will never give up”. On the 23rd of March 1981 one of Australia’s most inspiring and exhilarating athletes was born. That highly entertaining sportsman is known as Kurt Fearnley. Good morning members of The Australian Historical Council. This morning I stand in front of you all to give my nomination and justification on why I believe the person I have chosen deserves to be included in your documentary of Australian Heroes. But first what is a hero? A hero is a person who is esteemed for displaying enormous courage and outstanding achievements. Kurt Fearnley by far fits the criteria of an Australian hero, but mostly for overcoming what others would deem impossible. He had always had a desire to complete the Kokoda track over in Papua New Guinea. Despite being without legs - He achieved this goal in 2009 when he conquered the 96km track, crawling the entire track on his arms. This huge accomplishment took him 11 days. After the race he verbalized that he wouldn’t “turn back time.” He also said that “All the heartache and pain was worth it in the end”. These days Kurt Fearnley talks to kids and even adults with the same congenital disease as him and talks to them about how they can overcome feeling not good enough and different. Kurt also shares with them his experiences...
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...Facts: Colbyn (plaintiff) went shopping at Kennedy’s, Inc (defendant), a clothing store. Colbyn was 70 years old and wearing an ascot when he entered the store. He purchased a sport coat which he left for alterations. When leaving the store, Colbyn stopped at the front door to put on his ascot that he had placed in his pocket while picking out the sports coat. Goss, an employee of Kennedy’s, stopped Colbyn from leaving by putting his hand up and asking where the Colbyn got the ascot. Colbyn asked why. Goss responded by firmly grabbing Colbyn’s arm and said “You better go back and see the manager.” During the incident, an employee was standing next to Goss and other individuals watching Colbyn. Colbyn stated he would go back in the store. Goss and Colbyn went upstairs to the second floor with Colbyn pausing twice due to chest and back pains. The salesman on the second floor confirmed the ascot was Colbyn’s. Colbyn looked ill so the salesman called the store nurse. The emotional upset of the situation caused Colbyn to have a heart attack and be hospitalized. Colbyn sued for false imprisonment. Issue: There are two issues: (1) Does grabbing an elderly man’s arm in a public area and requesting he stay for investigation of shoplifting constitute false imprisonment? (2) Does the evidence show that the plaintiff was detained for shoplifting in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time on reasonable grounds? Rule: There are two primary rules: (1) A demonstration...
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...She was a frail old lady at the age of 92 with long grey hair and a small frame body. Helen looked at me with despair as I calmly approached to meet her acquaintance. Her caseworker, Anna, sitting by her side, attempting to reassure her safety and provide comfort makes the introduction. “This is Maria, you’re new caregiver, She will be staying with you tonight” she says to Helen as she writes it down on a pad of paper. “Oh Thank God, Oh Thank God” Helen responds. Helen relaxed her body with and sighed with relief. Dawn the current caregiver; an average height, blond, blue eyed middle aged woman had an attitude about her. She appeared to be anxious, impatient, aggressive and fed up with Helen. Dawn has had no previous experience with care giving and had taken this position on to support her family at home. Spending all days and nights with Helen for the past three months seemed to be taking a toll on her mental and physical abilities. Seeing that Helen was wrestles, afraid and paranoid, I reassured her safety. “No need to worry Helen, I will not leave your side”. I will make sure you are safe from now on and all your needs are met”. Helen looks back at me and smiles with a sense of comfort. “Thank you very much for bringing me an angel to look after me” she says to Anna. Reassures Helen that everything will be fine and leaves the apartment. It is Friday late evening, and as I sit next to Helen holding her hand, Dawn continuously approaches to speak with me. In a...
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...WWANTED: A CHAPERON Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero To the memory of Amalia B. Reyes First Performance: The Filipino Players, under the author’s direction, at St. Cecilia’s Hall, November 21, 1940 CHARACTERS: DON FRANCISCO (the father) DOÑA PETRA (the mother) NENA (their daughter) ROBERTING (their son) DOÑA DOLORES FRED (her son) FRANCISCO (the servant) PABLO (the mayordomo) TIME : One Sunday morning, at about eleven. SCENE: The living-room. Simply furnished. A window on the right. At the rear, a corridor. A door on the left Sofa, chairs, etc. at the discretion of the director. When the curtain rises, DON FRANCISCO, about sixty, is seen sitting on the sofa, smoking a cigar He wears a nice-looking lounging robe. Presently ROBERTING, his twenty-year old son, good-looking, well-dressed, enters. He wants to ask some. thing from his father, but before he gathers enough courage, he maneuvers about the stage and clears his throat several times before he finally approaches him. ROBERTING (Clearing his throat). Ehem-ehem-ehem! FRANCISCO (Looking up briefly). Ehem ROBERTING. -Father- FRANCISCO (Without looking at him). What? ROBERTING. Father- FRANCISCO. Well? ROBERTING. Father- FRANCISCO. Again? ROBERTING. Well, you see it's like this- FRANCISCO. Like what? ROBERTING. It's not easy to explain, Father FRANCISCO. If it isn't then come back when I'm through with the paper ROBERTING. Better now, Father. It's about-money. FRANCISCO. Money! What...
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