Amy Bianchi

Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

How is the initial material being researched and developed at

significant stages during the process of creating drama?
The stimulus upon which our devised piece is based is the
occurrence of the 2011 London Riots. Having been presented with a
poem Londons Burning by prisoner N Angel we jotted down
words which we associated with our memories of the riots. Amongst
others, the words greed and break down (of society) were ones
which stood out as those to be further explored theatrically.
Contemplating the issue of greed, we discussed the concept of
selfishness; not only did looters want to steal for their own gain,
journalists appeared to be greedily shaping a 'juicy story for the
benefit of their own careers rather than to accurately and
sensitively present factual articles. Considering the breakdown of
society, we discussed whether common belief was that there is a
sort of person who would loot. This made us keen to explore the
issue of prejudice between social groups.
The 2011 London riots greatly affected the whole nation in
reputation and economical standing. As a hotly debated issue which
received much press coverage, the London riots provoked much
questioning. Issues such as the reasons for the rioting are largely
uncertain, causing conflicting claims. Due to the uncertainties which
arise when discussing the issue, we felt it was important to
challenge the common consensus that looting is always wrong,
questioning whether or not there could be a case in which this is
untrue. Our group believes it is important that our devised piece is
thought provoking and challenging, and so we want our audience to
think carefully about their currently held views. Our three central
aims are; firstly, to address the issue of social and class divide.
Secondly, we aim to force our audience to consider whether or not
the motives of all those involved in the riots were pure by
presenting them with a number of conflicting and contradictory
examples; we will do this by presenting looters as those who are
worthy of empathy and reporters as those who are insensitive.
Thirdly, we aim to emphasise the importance of formulating
opinions based on fact rather than speculation. In conducting
research, I asked a group of 25 teenagers what they knew and
remembered about the London Riots. The response showed that
people are not really sure what happened and why this suggests
that their opinions are not based on solid fact. By addressing the
social upheaval that can occur due to the factual ambiguity of
events such as the rioting, we aim to make an audience aware of
how important it is to search for factual evidence.
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

The riots caused havoc and chaos, so we want to make our

audience feel uncomfortable about the seriousness of rioting. I feel
we can do this by considering Artauds Theatre of Cruelty, using his
idea of Visual Poetry to create frightening, nightmare-ish scenes.
This will help us to create an engaging piece of political theatre.
How effectively are you personally exploring and developing your
roles?
Within the piece, all four of us multi-role. None of my
characters have a name, but rather are identified through their
characteristics: as a reporter, I am bloodthirsty like an animal; as a
puppet I am feeble, subject to manipulation. In one scene I perform
the monologue of a young, sociable mother who has heard of the
riots through a chain of friends. Being performed in an over the top
way, I felt it necessary to explore my character from the viewpoint
of Brecht. I considered Brechts use of stereotyping characters,
devoid of inner emotional meaning/deepness. To effectively
become this character, I speak loudly with a common, exaggerated
accent, using colloquialisms such as You what? and referring to
friends with ridiculously modern names like Kalisha. Speaking like
this successfully reflects her social situation. Much rioting took place
in Tottenham; a part of London characterised by its close-knit
society of council flats and housing estates, in which the rise of
gangs and drug wars is prevalent. Having considered this kind of
social context and its implications, it seemed appropriate for my
character to be concerned with and fearful of issues such as crime
and rioting and to show this in a dramatic, extravagant way. I use
my hands flamboyantly as I talk and rest my hand upon my hip with
attitude to convey my characters heightened (and overblown)
sense of annoyance. The character is over-the-top and so audience
members should find humour in the exclamation of her stress; but
the blatancy of her exaggeration should make them aware of the
likelihood that these concerns were shared by many under the same
stereotype this character does not have a name because she is
representative of many; there were many mothers who would have
been similarly fearful.
At another point, I portray a figure within a nightmare. Whilst
repeatedly saying Now repeating, (a phrase within the poem
being spoken) I look intently at my hands as I turn them over and
over, as though inspecting them for blood. This idea is a concept I
took from Lady Macbeths inspection of her blood-stained hands in
Act 5 scene 2. By looking creepily at my hands, I intend to make the
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

audience feel uncomfortable. The motion (along with its vocal

backdrop, Now repeating) reflects a deeper meaning: the riots
evoked crimes which cannot just be washed away and are in danger
of being repeated by others to come.
Because we chose to create a piece with physical and abstract
inflictions, development of relationship/work within the ensemble
became vital. Originally there was a scene in which George, Anya
and I (as reporters) each asked Katie questions in a naturalistic way.
However, we decided this gave little opportunity to show the
personality and intent of the reporters. Therefore, we changed the
scene to make it more abstract, alienating the audience from a
possible emotional link with the reporters. We do this by moving our
heads and hands as one to show the unity of attack from the
reporters. As we move as one, our facial expressions show
exaggerated feelings as they change abruptly from a cheesy grin
(implying false interest) to a stern, angry face (demonstrating lack
of care). By having all three of us perform the same actions, the
characters we represent become intimidating.
How did you and your group explore the possibilities of form,
structure and performance style?
Our piece can be broadly defined as episodic. Each of our 16
scenes is stand-alone in its nature, because individually they
contribute to the shared theme: challenging the social and cultural
stereotypes associated with the 2011 Riots. Therefore, almost any
order could be applied to the scenes. The random placement of
each scene aptly emphasises that society itself is scattered and
varied. If we throw a random succession of ideas at the audience,
we can forcefully challenge them, giving them lots of
stories/issues/events to inform their judgements.
This is not to suggest that our piece completely lacks a
narrative element. For our beginning scene, I had the idea to
introduce the happenings of the play as the result of a Pandoras
box-type mishap. By opening the box in the first scene, Georges
character unleashes the corruption explored in the scenes which
follow. The piece ends in irony, suggesting that all bad things can be
put back into the box and forgotten about. These two scenes are
vitally placed, confining the other (more randomly placed) scenes.
In this way, we are able to convey a story, albeit one which is not
recognised as such until its conclusion. We felt it was important to
include the repetition of one concept in particular to enforce the link
between scenes; each monologue is performed in front of the
scenario of items being hung up on a washing line. These
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

monologues are linked symbolically, as their backdrop implies that

all the badness of the riots can simply be hung up out of the way.
(They were also linked by the ringing of a phone sound effect to
emphasise the role of social networking in the broadcasting of the
rioting events).
Our piece is largely abstract: with the singing of out of
tune/out of time, symbolic song (Londons Burning); embodying
and producing the sounds of inanimate objects (Anya plays a police
engine and whirls a vocal siren); and puppetry (Katie acts as my
puppeteer to suggest the manipulating power of journalists over
their interviewees).
Much of our content is directly influenced by practitioners.
Influenced by Brecht, we hang placards around Georges neck,
signifying that which he has lost: dignity, pride, etc. By doing this
we aim to provoke the social implication that lower class citizens are
not well cared for/treated. Poetry is used as a reflection of our
appreciation of Berkoffs use of verse to alienate and surprise the
audience. Furthermore, we want to shock our audience, making
them feel uncomfortable: Artauds concept, the theatre of cruelty,
inspired us to aggressively portray bloodthirsty animals. Our play
has a bold message, so it is appropriate for us to adopt this style in
order to make the audience pay attention. Even so, our piece does
include some naturalism, in the style of Stanislavski. We have
highlighted the great variety within society and so it is important
that the theatrical styles we incorporate are, too, varied. In order to
evoke sympathy, Katies monologue is naturalistic, so that the
audience can really empathise with the fact that she is missing her
brother, Dan.

How did the work of established and recognised theatre

practitioners, and/or the work of live theatre, influence the way in
which your devised response developed?

Steven Berkoffs adaptation of Kaftas

novel The Trial is a piece of theatre by
which our devised
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

piece has been greatly influenced. Within the performance, actors

used their voices to convey the sounds and noises of inanimate
objects: the ticking of a clock or the beep of an alarm. This is an
effective way of personifying inhuman objects, so we decided to
create the sounds of a fire with our voices whilst waving our arms as
flames. By producing not just the appearance of a fire, but also the
sound of one, we aimed to reinforce and emphasise the menacing
and devouring nature of a fire. Obviously by creating the sounds
with our mouths, we make it clear to the
We waved rags to help us
audience that we are simply symbolic of a fire,
represent the fire
rather than aiming to become one. Also
within Berkoffs The Trial was the fascinating and masterful use of
a basic set of blocks and frames which could easily become other
objects of set. The versatility of staging such as this is practical and
inventive. Drawing inspiration from this, we decided that we can
effectively present a sleek and polished style if we do not need to
go off stage to bring on set and so all of our set stays onstage
throughout. Moreover, in a piece designed to provoke the
contemplative thought of our audience, using minimal set allows us
to challenge the audience to use their imagination encouraging
them to focus on content rather than
Our frame, which represents a TV/the
decoration. One direct influence from the play "limelight" is covered in newspaper to
emphasise that Reporters want a juicy story.
is the use of frames. In our reporter/animal
scene, characters in our play fight over a
frame and speak through it to the audience.
Attention can consequently be brought successfully to one single
point of focus, highlighting that particular speech as important. A
number of the characters within our play are drawn from the
influence of such as those in Berkoffs plays. Drama critic Aleks Sierz
points out that the characters of Berkoffs plays experience
unpleasant emotions and become suddenly violent. He describes
Berkoffs style as that which forces audiences to react. We, too,
want to be forceful in presenting our audience with brash characters
and uncomfortable suggestions (eg. that perhaps rioters had
reasonable premise to loot, as was the case with our portrayal of
Jonathan Mason).
Bertolt Brecht used placards within his pieces of theatre in
order to make bold statements about what was happening. We were
inspired, by this concept of Brechts, to use one-word signs around
Georges neck. The poignant words such as hope and dignity
were clearly associated with the character George was playing
(Jonathan Mason) and did well in allowing him to remain
independent and not emotionally involved with the character. These
signs were snatched from George in order to convey his character
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

as one who is being stripped of all the

Placards show what George's character
stability he has: both materially and
possesses. Material things (eg. a phone)
and emotional things (eg. hope) are
emotionally. The bleak message of this
taken away from him.
scene is typical of Brechts style, and
incorporates his intention to alienate the audience by exposing the
unjust social relationship between those who inflict punishment and
those who are subject to it, thus challenging the audience to assess
the relationship in a new way.
How successfully did your final performance communicate your
aims and intentions for the piece to your audience?
Our audience feedback would suggest that we were largely
successful in communicating our aims and intentions. By; talking
with audience members after
the performance,
having a question and
answer session,
and observing the reaction of
the audience
during the performance, we
have an
understanding of how the
piece made our
audience feel.
Firstly, we aimed to
address the issue
of social and class divide. I think we highlighted this well at points
throughout the play, the most obvious being the scientists
observation of the Posh totty, City Scum, Grumpy Grandma
and Highflying Businessman. We used placard type headbands in a
Brechtian style to make clear which member of society we
represented and used repeated actions as a type of gestus to
reinforce the stereotype. We could see the audience smiling at these
over-the-top characters, but this suggests that they understood that
we believed the events of the play were those which would affect all
types of people. In our question and answer session, we were
asked about our use of multirole; the group concluded that by
playing many different characters, we, as actors, could show
something of the extent of the broad and varied society we aimed
to present. Another example of the interaction between characters
of conflicting statuses was in the scene between the reporter (Anya)
and the youth (George). The reporter used a higher level to enforce
her position of status and used exaggerated sarcasm and a

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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

patronising tone, whereas the youth appeared subject to the

manipulative reporter, questioning: can I have my money now?
Secondly, we aimed to force our audience These headbands are clear
and bold, simply stating who
to consider whether or not the motives of all
the actor represents.
those involved in the riots were pure by
presenting them with a number of conflicting and contradictory
examples; doing this by presenting some of our characters as
unpredictable or contrary (for example, a school teacher who seems
to commend the actions of a looter, or an immoral teacher), and
others as exaggerated stereotypes (for example, an extravagant
mother worried about her children, or a looter who thought it was
acceptable to follow the crowd and steal trainers). After a practice
run in front of a trial audience, we had the audience answer a
questionnaire. The responses suggested people found it fascinating
to think about why people got involved with the riots. The idea was
that they would question their original assumptions and
questionnaire feedback implied this was the case. Varied intentions
were depicted in the following scenes: In the story time scene,
Jonathan Mason was depicted as a poor man who stole so that he
could afford yummy meals, warm clothes and a cosy home. One
audience member commented on the effectiveness of telling a
serious story in an ironic manner in order that we might feel sorry
for him. At the other end of the spectrum, we see a heightened,
immoral policeman (in Georges monologue) who happily declares I
locked them all up without any sense of him caring or showing
remorse. This instance was designed to make the audience aware of
a number of motivations. Georges exaggerated character made our
audience laugh, but one audience member mentioned that the
humour made him think poignantly about what he was laughing
about, admitting that he was actually made to feel bad for laughing.
Our third aim was to emphasise the importance of formulating
opinions based on fact rather than speculation. This was a more
difficult point of view to enforce, but there were ways in which I feel
we did this effectively. The policemans monologue again ties in
nicely with this concept. By allowing the audience to have insight
into the mind of the legal force behind the issue, we could suggest
the possibility of corruption some audience feedback suggested
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

that this monologue made them carefully question how loving and
caring policing really was. Furthermore is the example of my
monologue as the pregnant mother, in which reference was made to
the long list of friends through which news of rioting had been
gathered. My character made a fuss over events that she could not
verify this scene explored the concept that with so many people
offering individual input, it is difficult to know anything as fact.
Although we dont present factual events in our piece, our scenes
help the audience to understand that searching for evidence is
crucial.

How effectively did the social, cultural, historical/political context of

the piece communicate to your audience?
It was important to find out from the audience themselves
what they thought of the messages within the play, and so we were
able to conduct a trial performance with a questionnaire which
included optional sections for general comments. This helped us to
refine our final performance.
Our play explores a theme which was in the public eye. The
accounts of the 2011 London Riots were told through all forms of
social media, and therefore we knew the issue would be relatable to
our audience. However, we knew that our audience would have
many misconceptions, and so it was important to create a political
piece of theatre which challenged their thought. By presenting
rioters in both good and bad lights, and by depicting the
exaggerations of reporters, we were able to make the audience
think more carefully about the events that took place. One audience
member remarked on how interesting it was to see events from a
thugs point of view; another said it provoked them to think of the
damage caused as more than just the actions and results, but also
to dwell on the array of motivations some did not really want to be
involved, others wanted to cause as much chaos as possible.
Despite the events of our play being centered on a recent
series of events, I believe our play has a timeless nature. Having
seen Roy Williams Advice for the Young at Heart whilst devising
our piece proved to be very influential. The piece is set during both
the 1958 Notting Hill riots and the 2011 riots and, as its
advertisement says, asks how a new generation of teenagers can
learn from the mistakes made by a previous generation. Watching
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

this piece made me realise how naturally evil people of any time or
generation can be; and so a part of our piece (which I have
previously referred to) reflects this well. The repetitious chanting of
now repeating I voiced within our poem scene, paired with the
staring and scrubbing at my hands as if they were stained with
blood helps to communicate the unfortunate repeating nature of
violence, corruption and rioting. We wanted to invoke the realisation
that continued havoc is a reality, and this makes our play relevant
to any time period. Feedback from one questionnaire suggested that
the events of the riots need attention and response if they are not
to be repeated.
Another important aim was to show how the riots affected all
aspects of society and therefore all different types of people within
it. One of our earliest scenes represents a scientists observation of
the behavioural differences between class statuses. Using signs on
our foreheads, we exploded the stereotypes of the following
characters: Posh Totty, Grumpy Grandma, City Scum and
Highflying Businessman. This allowed us to draw attention to
extremely different people who would be similarly connected
through the same series of events, albeit affected in different ways
a number of completed questionnaires made reference to the
surprisingly large amount/varied types of people affected by the
riots, making them reconsider its effect on the nation as a whole.
Not only did we depict breadth within society, but we did this more
convincingly by incorporating the detail of colloquialisms and
mannerisms of a specific culture. So, for example, as the primary
school teacher I spoke clearly and slowly, with formal, simple
English whereas George as a common policeman used informal
language, with a purposeful lack of grammatical sense, using
swearwords and slang. Costumes were also used to emphasise
cultural background, and so hoodies were worn by all actors at the
beginning to represent the youth/street culture of today.

Whilst devising our piece, we learned that the 2011 London

Riots were a series of events that caused huge uproar and continue
to be important and influential today. We could see how important it
was to make factual opinions about the events which took place in
order that we might learn from the mistakes made and be sensitive
in how we act towards and treat one another. Our play evoked
political thinking, suggesting many different types of people co-exist
but that despite our differences, the unity of our human nature
means we are affected by the same things.
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Amy Bianchi
Candidate number: 9024

Word count: 3,490

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