Final blog - Marie HArtland

Once Porto came together as a performance piece many themes became apparent. The whole community shared many things, the main example being united by arriving in the strange unknown place and their journeys. The main themes that I picked up on through Porto were those of trying to be accepted by others, being wanted and helping others. Lauren’s character for example, was constantly trying to be accepted and liked by pretty much everyone within the Porto community. Her character may not have succeeded with certain other characters but this not stop Lauren, all her energy and determination was apparent during the ‘showdown’ with her, Anna and Edward – which involved her craving for attention and belonging. There were many other individual journeys which also included these themes. Overall, as a community, the characters all shared feelings of anxiousness, frustration and in some cases fear. The majority of us all entered the unknown space together and didn’t know what to think or expect. This was apart from Blake. His character was stuck in Porto, and knew no different. He needed the help from others to help him let go of what was holding him back – represented by the suitcase. Despite this, Blake’s character still shared the feelings of anxiousness and frustration with the rest of the community, just for different reasons. The community were split from being a whole when Blake’s and Nicola’s characters were introduced. Other members of the community were intrigued, scared or interested in these two characters that obviously didn’t fit in with the rest of us. Although we were then split into sub groups, we were still united by the unknown – and whether we chose to accept and embrace this journey or to try to make it more difficult for ourselves or others. Our ensemble work represented us all being included within the community whether we wanted to or not. The use of the repetitive movements and the fact we all got more restless as it went on represented this. Even though the smaller group tried to be more individual at the start, the community and space of Porto was too strong and they then couldn’t resist joining the community and being united with them in their sense of fear, frustration and exploring the unknown.
Some members found it quite difficult to adjust to the performance space once we moved from the studios to the Arena space, I being one of them. Motionhouse Dance Theatre makes a point of “constantly experimenting with the performance environment” and I now understand why this is necessary. The main change was the amount of space we had. Although we had more depth and floor space, it was much narrower to the space we had within the studios. It didn’t change the work itself, we just had to adapt to not being as close to each other within the periphery. At first, I felt very fragile whilst working as I was used to being much closer to the other characters but the change in space meant we did have much more room to work whilst in the periphery. A negative aspect of this was that we had to almost limit the amount and style of the work, so as to make sure we didn’t detract from what was happening centre stage. Murray and Keefe state that; “True theatre is made in the moment in the performance space, without rehearsal or script...” (2007, (pg. 80). Although we already had the basic fabric of our piece, we were able to build and expand on our work once we got into the theatre space. We now had access to stairs, a podium and pillars within the space which we incorporated into our work. Another thing I felt difficult to adjust to was the floor. As I was so used to the floor in the studios and the floor of the Arena was different, it took some time to adjust to. When working in the periphery, the floor at the back was textured and quite painful at times to kneel on. It became apparent then that we had to work with a sense of greater lightness as it was easy to hear footsteps and landings if they were done heavily. Once we got into the performance space, I found it much easier to stay focused and in character. Whilst in the periphery, it was obvious we were all on show to the audience. The feeling of exposure was more so as we could all be seen by everyone in the audience. This was beneficial in my opinion as the focus was immense, and the work became much clearer and detailed due to the high level of focus. The characters personalities, intentions and storylines also became clearer. On disadvantage of the level of focus was that we also had to take into account the technical equipment such as lanterns and wires. On a few occasions, the level of focus was so intense that this was forgotten about and caused the lights to be moved or injuries to happen such as banging heads on them.
The performance grew and became more intense as the shows went on. Once the first show was done, we all felt more confident whilst performing and the nerves subsided. For me personally, it is hard to remember the actual performances at times as I was so focused and into the performance that I blocked everything else out. This was particularly true in the periphery work. I had to rely on the music cues to know when my characters were to perform centre stage. Whilst working in the studios, it was difficult to focus 100% at times, but in the actual performance space it was easy to get lost within the work. For the first show, my character stayed as before and I felt it was just like a routine performance. After the second show though, I was quite shocked and emotional as my characters intentions had changed. Whereas before, my focus was to separate Blake from the suitcase, during the second show my character was actually absorbed by the force and power of the suitcase itself. Rather than saving Blake, I was more concerned with the suitcase itself and felt a genuine fear about it. The way I felt after the performance was that I was in some kind of mental hospital and the suitcase was almost a figure of my imagination. I think the reason for this shift in my character was because my focus increase and the performance intensified. I was no longer thinking about my characters role, intention and story – I was just responding to the suitcase, as well as Blake and Amy and I felt at that time. The third show also reflected this, but this time I wasn’t as shocked by the transition of my character. I was more aware and just let my actions speak for my feelings. Other characters also seemed to become more intense in their actions and wants, but I also noticed some characters became more confident. As I worked so closely with Blake and Amy, it was rare that I was aware of what other characters were doing. Despite this, in the second show David approached me and attempted to look in the suitcase whilst my character was building up the courage to open it. This had never happened before, and when it did I became protective over the suitcase. My character knew that it was only I, Amy and Blake who could do anything about the suitcase and felt that David’s character was intruding on something personal. The ensemble work also became clearer and controlled as the shows progressed. We all added the sense of frustration and worked as a community, and once the end of the final show had come we all felt somewhat emotional that the journey was over.
I think RSVP did continue to apply to the performance. We were still constantly researching into our characters roles and discovering new things – even within the performance itself. An example of this is the slight interaction with David. I’d never had any contact with him before this point, and because I did it made me more aware of other characters after that point. Although new music wasn’t added to the performance piece, I used the music to help me keep track of where in the show we were as my focus was completely on my own interactions.

Motionhousedancetheatre.co.uk
Murray, S and Keefe,J. Physical Theatres, 2007. (London Routledge)