Given Circumstances in Burning Monkey

Burning Monkey is set to  the late 20th century period, and you can tell that by what the characters say and that it's 30 years after the war. It's set at night but includes day and night flashbacks - winter period. Characters include a 48 year old man named Old who suffers from PTSD, Monkey who is 17 and has ADHD and ASBO, Shell who is 15 and pregnant with Monkeys child, and the musician who never speaks but follows the action and accompanies throughout.  He is invisible to Monkey and Shell but Old seems aware of him sometimes. He may be the spirit of a young soldier shot by Old.

Burning Monkey

Burning Monkey relates the story of a teenage couple and their interactions with an older war veteran, trying to rebuild his fractured relationship with his daughter. While their exchanges initially show a hostile and unsympathetic clash of generations, it soon becomes apparent that they share similar pain – based on their damaged family relationships, and absent parents/children – and they begin to feel empathy for one another’s plight.

In the background, the presence of war looms; the character of Old is haunted by memories of his time as a soldier and the character of Monkey looks forward to a time when he can escape the depressing realities of his life and join the army. In the midst of this, Shell is fifteen, madly in love with Monkey, and pregnant with his child. Her attempts to try and make the irresponsible, immature Monkey stay with her become increasingly desperate.

Burning Monkey is a play that raises important issues for teenagers, addressing themes such as war, violence, separated families and responsibility.

A strongly issue-led play, Burning Monkey relates the story of a teenage couple and their interactions with an older war veteran, trying to rebuild his fractured relationship with his daughter. While their exchanges initially show a hostile and unsympathetic clash of generations, it soon becomes apparent that they share similar pain - based on their damaged family relationships, and absent parents/children - and they begin to feel empathy for one another's plight. In the background, the presence of war looms; the character of Old is haunted by memories of his time as a soldier and the character of Monkey looks forward to a time when he can escape the depressing realities of his life and join the army. In the midst of this, Shell is fifteen, madly in love with Monkey, and pregnant with his child. Her attempts to try and make the irresponsible, immature Monkey stay with her become increasingly desperate. Burning Monkey is a play that raises important issues for teenagers, addressing themes such as war, violence, separated families and responsibility.

Characters

Old is about forty-eight. He’s an ex-soldier, who fought in the Malvinas. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He has a daughter who is about 30 years old (Megan Evans) he hasn’t seen for over twenty years. She lives in number 15 Park View.

Monkey is about seventeen. He suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). He’s mischievous, not bad, but he’s been given an Anti-social Behaviour Order (ASBO). He lives with his mother in number 13 Park View. He doesn’t know his father. He wants to join the army.

Shell is about fifteen. She’s in love with Monkey. She’s pregnant, but hasn’t told anyone. She lives with her mother who’s often absent.

Musician never speaks, but follows the action and accompanies throughout. He’s young, and his clothes suggest he may have been an (Argentinian) soldier. He is invisible to Monkey and Shell but Old seems aware of him sometimes. He may be the spirit of a young soldier shot by Old.

 

ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects children and teens and can continue into adulthood. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder of children. Children with ADHD may be hyperactive and unable control their impulses. Or they may have trouble paying attention.

PTSD

PTSD, or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of a life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mock

I haven't been blogging for a while because the lessons we have had have just been rehearsing for our mock which we have done and the the exam is in three days. As I chose to do bretch the techniques used were: plaque cards, changing costume on set and others that I can't think of writing this. The mock went really well, better than I though as I didn't mess up and I said all my lines correctly. And ever since we have been rehearsing. We have made several changes/ improvements since the mock to make the performance more brecthian and hopefully better.

Devising double lesson

In our double lesson we mainly just devised for our exam. However in the first hour we did some physical theatre work, which was demonstrated at the Frantic Assembly, which I didn't go to so it was good to get some ideas. We were divided into two groups and the chair were arranged like this:

I started off in the chair labelled X. We then decided our theme would be a children's playground, so moved to different chairs and acted like children. As we moved from chair to chair we made some sort of contact with at least one other person. On the first moved I contacted another player by high-fiving each other and basically acting like a child. I then just barged through the others.

For the rest of the double lesson we devised for our exam. Everything was going extremely well, we had three scenes that lasted nearly ten minutes that just needed polishing. However, after school that day me and Kayleigh (the other member of the group) stayed after school to practice but Tom was getting stressed because non of his group was turning up to rehearse. Miss suggested that Tom could join our group, and we obviously accepted it because it wasn't fair for him. We have managed to add him into our first scene we just have to think about him in the other scenes and what brechtian techniques and political meaning behind it.

Multi-Rolling

In this lesson we did multi-rolling. This lesson was really helpful for me and Kayleigh because we are doing Bretch and one techniques of Bretch is multi-rolling. We got into groups and pretended that we were old people and we each had to come up with our own ideas and we had to transition into the others. These three characters each had to sound different and physically look different maybe in terms of levels, postures or gestures. Our first one we did a British woman saying "It's a bit chilly outside isn't it.", then we transitioned into a man with a walking stick that was hunched over so this was lower which saying  "Awwww my back" and lastly we transitioned into the last one which was a northern woman sitting on a mobility scooter and saying "Don't hurry me this machine won't go any faster." This has really helped me understand what to do for when we devise and create our exam piece.

Devising for our mock and GCSE Exam

In our previous double lesson we got into our groups and started devising for our exam. As the brecht group had six people, and the exam board says 2-5, we had to split up. Miss suggested it would be better if we had a group of two and a group of four instead of two groups of threes. I am in the group of two. Me and my friend Kayleigh, the other member of my group, had already been messaging each other ideas. We had come up with a scene where we  were both sisters, one being a nerd, the other being a cool kid who rolls up their skirt and doesn't really care. I am playing the cool kid.

For our set we had created a bedroom scene, a desk, a been bag and a chair. We start the scene off where I storm into to the room demanding for the laptop, which Kayleigh is on, so I can go on match.com. To make this brecht we are doing to stick a piece of paper on the back of the laptop that says 'Geography Assessment', because at the beginning of the scene Kayleigh is sitting at the desk doing her geography essay. The message behind this is piece is not to judge a book by its cover. We are using the quote "It's not what you look at, it's what you see." The main story line of this is that the cool kid seems all lazy and bad girl at home but at school she tries to fit in by skipping class and not doing homework, on the other hand the 'nerd' is studious at home but cool at school. This suggest that even though we look like something, inside is a whole new person, and that humans judge people too quickly.

Brechtian Work and Development

In this double lesson we decided what type of theatre we wanted to do, for our exam; Brecht, T.I.E or Physical. I originally chose  T.I.E but we were indecisive on what we wanted to do as a group as there was too many options and we didn't all agree with each other, so I moved to Brecht. We then started devising a piece that used an object on wheels. Ours was an office chair. We created a school scenario  where I played a nerd, two other members played the "mean girls" of the school, another member played the school's 'hottie" and the last member multi-roles from a "God" to a school boy. By using the chair, we created a scene where the "God" would move around with the chair and place it behind you. If it was placed behind you you'd have to sit on it and then they would say something to you, that you didn't believe at first but by sitting in that chair, it has changed your mind or opinion on whatever it was that the"God" told you. That would then make the scene turn more dramatic and striking for the audience because the "God" only speaks the truth so if you friends with someone, sat on the chair and the "God" said that she was talking about you behind your back, you would go from friends to "enemies".  The scene started with the two mean girls talking together about boys, the nerd, aka me, sitting on a chair on my own, writing in a notepad and the school's "hottie" just sitting on his phone "acting cool". The "God" then moves the chair behind one of the mean girls, she then sits down and the "God" tells her that the other mean girl likes the hottie as well as her and that she has been calling her a slut so the "hottie" won't date her but will date the other girl who is saying mean things, as they both like him. The mean girl who has been called a slut then goes over to the other mean girl and they get into a fight. Because the nerd doesn't like the two girls she just stays out of it, as does the "hottie". The "God" then brings the chair behind me, so I sit on it and he tells me that the "hottie" does like the mean girls, but he likes me instead. I react disgusted and confused because  I don't like the "cool boy" because I think he is too full of himself, and I don't understand why he'd like a nerd and not the cooler girls. Then the"God" moves behind the "cool boy/hottie" and tells him that the two mean girls both have crushes on him. He acts quite angry as he says something on the lines of  "Why is it the the girls I don't like, like me and the one girl I love doesn't?".

That is all we did for the first half of the lesson. After break we came back in and rehearsed what I have just explained and then performed it to the our two groups and we watched theirs. That took up about half of our other half of our double lesson so we only had about half an hour to come up with another scene that could either go before what we had just performed of after. We had time to come up with a scene to happen before the school scene. The chair was turned upside down and used as a clothes hanger thing in a clothes shop, that you turn. We hung our blazers on the wheels as if they were clothes. We only managed to have time to act that out as coming ip with he ideas took a while. However we came up with idea of the mean girls being in the sop and putting the blazer on backwards and they would just laugh at how ridiculous it was. Then the nerd would come in and put the blazer on properly and the mean girls would be like "did she seriously just do that."

That is all we had time to divide during our previous double lesson.