Responding and Developing - Andy.

Response to stimulus

Our stimulus was a play called The Government Inspector by Vsevold Meyerhold. Meyerhold (1874-1940) was A Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. He was well known for his abstract pieces involving symbolism and being a 'physical being'. His ideas changed the way theatre was performed and the ways in which it was perceived. Meyerhold was often criticised for his experiments because they were so avant-guard, a thing which the Soviet Russian government, at the time did not agree with, soon after Stalin came into power, Meyerholds theatre was closed down. He died in 1940 by execution following torture when he was arrested by the Soviet police after his wife's body was found in thier home. During torture he was made to admit that he was working for the British and Japanese governement. He was executed on 2 Febuary 1940.

The play The Government Inspector, is the story of a poor man called Klhestakov who enters a town that is expecting an important Government Inspector to be arriving in town any day, they all wish to please the Inspector so that they can each ask him for things that they need. The town, not used to many strangers, mistake the penniless Klhestakov for the Inspector, and offer him free food, drink and a place to stay, Klhestakov, not wanting to give the game away, goes along with it and gains lots of free things, including the heart of the daughter of a weathly town member, and Klhestakov leaves the town a weathly man, it is only after his departure that the town hears news that the inspector is on his way but will be late, causing them to realise that Klhestakov was not the Inspector, but is now long gone. 

There are many possible things we could have done with this performance, we opted to choose one scene. Some of the scenes we could have chosen were:-

• The opening scene - This is where the town members are preparing for the Inspectors arrival, they prepare the town, cleaning their houses and shops, making the place presentable.
  
  - This could be used in a performance by using Mime, this would involve using over exaggurated movement, large facial expressions and many still images. By using the influence of Silent Comedy (Something largely used in Meyerholds time) we could show the rush and the scurry of the townspeople as they try to prepare the town for the Inspector. There could be many still images used, they could be used to show the facial expressions of the characters as they rush to perfect their town in preperation for the Inspectors arrival. By using silence, movement is holding full focus, and becomes the only thing that is used, which would be good for this scene because it is such a visually noisy scene, there is much going on at once, all the characters movements could be out of sync and messy, increasing in speed as this goes on, to show the urgency the characters feel.
• Klhestakovs Arrival - Klhestakov arrives in town and is instantly surrounded by people assuming he is the inspector, Khlestakov then realises what is happening and adds fuel to the fire by accepting their gifts.
  
  - This scene could be easily translated into performance by using Mime, the scene could begin with all the townspeople still preparing the town, the scene could be set in a bar, Klhestakov walks in and the entire bar turn to face him, there is a brief pause whilst the people realise who he is, (or who they think he is) there could then be a sudden rush of movement, as every person in the bar goes to greet him, they offer him free food and drinks, and as Klhestakov at this point does not realise what is going on, he greatfully accepts the gifts, he then begins to realise the full situation and decides to go along with it, he is offered drink after drink, which causes him to become a little drunk.
• The Dinner Scene - Klhestakov arrives horribly drunk to a dinner party he has arranged to go to, whilst there, he acts incredibly inappropriately, and very unlike an inspector would, but the hosts, not wanting to upset the Inspector, for they want him to improve their town, allow his behaviour to continue, giving him as much food and alcohol as he wants. He takes a liking to the daughter of the family, who is rather disgusted at the man's behaviour but also does not want to offend him.
  
  - This scene can be very visually noisy, as it is something that can involve constant movement, this is also a perfect oppertunity for exaggurated movement and facial expression as Klhesatkovs drunken behaviour can be portrayed very comically. By using over exaggurated movement, this scene can be very comical. Whilst it can be done effectively in silent mime, it may be funnier if done without silence as the dialogue of a drunken Klhestakov will mean there is more chance for reactions and awkward silences, rather than just complete silence throughout.
• The Bribe Scene - In this scene, the town members, still under the impression that Klhestakov is the Inspector, attempt to bribe him to fix the parts of the town they need to be fixed or improved. Klhestakov, still undetected, accepts all bribes, causing the townspeople to believe that when he leaves the town, he will return to help them with their problems. He is instead just accepting all bribes with the intentions of leaving. He then becomes bored of the bribes, becoming so used to them, and having so much that they mean nothing to him, he eventually starts to reject them.
  
  - This could be done by creating something we previously created called 'The Bribe Machine' which shows the imput of the bribes to Klhestakov and his output in responding, saying that he will get them what they need, or do what they want in the future, whilst they are unaware that he is an imposter. This would be done by creating a cycle of bribes, people continue to offer him various things in return for favours, but he will gradually become bored, and one by one, start to reject the offerings. Another way this bribe machine could come to an end, and the cycle disrupted, is rather than the cycle breaking one by one, he could just reject all offerings at once, causing chaos within the bribe machine to break out.

Developing the chosen stimulus


We chose to perform The Dinner Scene. I worked with James Sampson, Taran Maguire and Autumn Anderson. We researched into Meyehold and his work, and also looked at influences on him at the time, such as things like the way 19th Century Russia's government was at the time (Soviet Russia was very much against avant-guard theatre, and so Meyerholds work was frowned upon) we also looked at the influence of Silent Theatre, and considered it's use in our performance, and whilst we thought it would be effective in the scene, we felt that dialogue would vastly improve the comedic effect of the scene.

We began the scene with Khlestakov staggering about and the man and his daughter trying to keep him upright whilt the wife, stood behind him waves frantically, not wanting to be touched by the drunken man. Khlestakov stands upright for a moment before falling backwards onto the wife, she then pushes him forwards in disgust onto the floor. (An influence of the slapstick theatre we found whilst researching) The husband and daughter, wanting to keep him happy, pick him up and put him on the table, he then goes to try to get into his seat and falls over, rolling about and writhing upside down in his chair, whilst everyone else takes their seat. When finally sat upright, the Husband goes to talk to Khlestakov but is interupted when he falls off his chair and begins the entire awkward sequence again, he eventually sits on his chair correctly, looking mildly confused. The Husband and Wife are on the end of the table while the daughter and Khlestakov sit next to each other in the middle. Throughout the performance he tries to put his arm around her, to which she screams and pushes him away, or runs off to fetch more drinks.

Each time Khlestakov tries to put his arm around the daughter, she screams and gets up to get more drinks, causing the already drunken Klhestakov to become even more drunk. He becomes more inappropriate as the night progresses, the cycle of eating, screaming and fetching drinks is repeated, getting faster and faster, this is because from our research we know that comedic repitition is very effective, it also creates something similar to the bribe machine, but instead of bribing Klhestakov, the family is instead keeping him pleased, the 'machine' then collapses when Klhestakov passes out.




Note: I have three blogs, one for you, one for Penny and Rachel and one for Sarah, i had accidentally posted this on Penny and Rachel's blog which is why it wasn't here, so sorry about that! I must look so silly :P But i used your comment to improve it so thank you for the comment because it probably wouldn't have been very good without it. Thanks! (: ~Hayley! ♪