LESSON TEN/ELEVEN. 12|12|12. - 'Sexuality'

We wanted to work on a piece about sexuality. In N2C we did some sequences with chairs, and we liked this physical theatre idea of including a chair and how we had to include the chair. We decided to do a series of intertwining monologues to show the family's reactions or opinions to 'gay', as well as the lesbians personal issues, and the love interests view.

Emily : Lesbian
Ciara : Love interest
Matt : Emily's Dad
Poppy (me) : Emily's Mum
Chris : Lesbian's ex
Jake: Ciara's brother

We started off creating a freeze frame that showed how we all intertwined. The chair was part of this frame too. We all slowly moved out of the frame with our pair, and the intertwining monologues began with Chris. Him and Jake then move the frame back and create a freeze frame before their comical piece at the end. Our movement sequence was repeated twice through and we each got a turn to explain our view. Here's the video of the entire performance:

I made my tone desperate but reassuring. I wanted to show how I was the understanding mother, but I was scared of what my husband thinks. When the chair goes onto my back, it's almost symbolises the saying 'I've got your back'. When Matt sit on the chair over Emily, it shows the repression he is forcing onto her. When we lift her, it shows how me and Matt brought her up, I let go because I'm okay with the decision she's made . Although these symbolic moves might not be obvious to the audience it helps us get into character and know why each move is like that. I liked how Matt almost spat his words out in the disgust of thinking his daughter was gay. We managed to show many controversial idea's of lesbians in one performance.

I had no participation in the creation of Chris and Jake's piece at the end but I really enjoyed the comedic aspect of stereotypical and cliqued views that people have of lesbians, such as 'butch' and the porn references at the start. Although it was short it was more light-hearted and was more relatable to a teenage audience because the references are for that age range.

Overall, we created a performance that allowed us to put through views of everyone surrounding a lesbian coming out in a non awkward way, but by using physical theatre, and then adding a light-hearted detached piece to show what other people thing. and then joining them together to show how there are too many views and opinions to 'box' lesbians.