Sometimes it is important to move away from the text in
rehearsals and concentrate on characters and subtext. Paula brought up a
question about her character Bertha; if she had been locked up for so long,
what would she be like? Madness can be a tricky element to show on stage. The
temptation is to go over the top but sometimes it isn’t the big actions that
reveal the character but the smaller moments.
Karen encouraged all of the actors to help out in this
discussion. Throughout the play, Bertha’s actions appear to be animalistic. An
improvised session was set up. Each actor would represent an animal trapped in
a small space. What would their behaviour be in this situation? A variety of
animals were acted out; dogs, rats, snakes, badgers, squirrels, monkeys, etc.
Various behavioural patterns emerged from this improvisation; scratching,
biting, digging, tearing, sliding, twisting, turning. All of these actions
could be described as obsessive, ritualistic, maniacal. By observing all of
these, Paula was able to take a lot of ideas to work on. The challenge is to
introduce these into Bertha’s character whilst still retaining her lingering
humanity.
Nick Shelton
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