SECTTON 4

The Sentien,t Body

The true actor recogni:es th,at realfreedom lccurs at the moment phen rphat
comes from the outside and what is brough.t from within make a perfect

blendlng.llz '

In this section we approach the less tangible dimensions of rhythrn, sound,

and emotion essential to the actor's craft. ':
r,il'
Grotowski and Brorik both refer to how a cat's impulse to jump happens
ir,
simultaneously with "he jump, and how performance requires a similar ,.1, I
fusion of intention lad action (even when that action cuhninates in .
r.l,

speech). The separai:on of irnpulse from movement, action) gesture, '.,.".,]

sound, word is an analytical tool enabling us to break dowr the process of

acting, rather as articr-rlation breaks down an action in ordel to better ttn-
derstand the physical process. So the separation here of rhythm, sound
and ernotion is theoretical. They synthesise in the body, and work syner-
getically on the audierce.
'A work of art, understood dynamically, is . . . fth"] process of arranging ,,ril
:i.!i.'. '
images in the feelings ,ind rnind of the spectator', wrote Sergei Eisenstein,
and it is this dynamic i.)rocess vital work of art from
which distinguishes a
a lifeless one.lB3 Rhyth:n and emotion are at the heart of this dynarnic pro-
cess, sources of enerl;y that fuel vitality and touch us as audience on a
rt,
sensory plane. And so'jnd, as the elemental vibratory contact between stage -,ri
and spectator, provides anothel energy which, through the actor's breath- ,tri:
ing voice, brings intiniacy, collapsing the distance of the purely visual.
The fact that rhythnic, sonic and emotional realms reside in the body
and can be accessed ri lontaneously and directly through sotnatic rather .. ,i,

than cerebral means ir; a fundamental premise of somatic work. .,,;i: r

1,. i:
The practical wor1. in this section takes actors a few steps further, or - ri.l
r:; :il l
.,.r,ft,
deeper, than those in the previous sections. Some of the more complex ''L:
ri.l,

exercises assume both i' degree of familiarity between a group, and experi-
ence of the earlier l:ctical work. Ideas for exercises here are, as else-
pr
where, open to modification according to your own ways of, working. But
for the most part they vtill beal repetition, not least because every tin're you
IIB TFIROUGH THE BODY
do them they will yield something new, not as a product, but as part of the
plocess of discovering a creative self.
Since the study of acting is as much a process of self-discovery as
acquiring techniques, self-deception in training will lead to insincerity on
stese. Re as honesr as vou can w-(h gyg1y eI-_elclg-er
. ...-
. 1.... ....
bgth 11 g_S_{oing of it
.--.,-.,t-_.-....-.._-..-._._.____-___--._la
and the refle_qdts 9n i!. odle]g
}Ve Sltt<go\il ]v-het ryg[4yq_q-u-g-cp;-11e.r$
ol been negative about ourselves or someone."g[.-s,_er.._G-.g,gd_gg-ting-requlre-1
generosity and lrumanity as well as r.rorr"rri body and a resolant v*ojgg:-
"
RHYTHM ,.1
\./ -
Theatre is rh.ythm.ts+
In theatre, alternating patterns of stasis and dynamism, relaxation and
tension, speeding fp and slowing down, constitute a constant play of
lhythms. Hence Meyerhold's belief that the gift of rhythm was the most
impoltant attribute for a director. Rhythm, however, is intangible. Meyer-
hold used the analogy of a bridge: 'When you look at a bridge you seem to
see a leap imprinted in metal, that is, a process) and not something static.
The dynamic tension expressed in the bridge is the main thing- The same
applies to performing'.l85 Rhythm is there all the time, in tirne; we cannot
see it but are affected by it, this play of tensions in the scenic space, bet-
ween light and shade, sound and silence, and of course between the living
bodies of actors, all working together to hold and, ultimately, translix the
audience.
As a musician, Meyerhold recognised a correspondence between stage
rhythm and musical compositionl86 similar to Appia's: 'When stage pic-
tures take on spatial forms dictated by the rhythms of music they are not
arbitrary but on the contrary have the quality of being inevitable'.I8?
Adolphe Appia (the Swiss architect and musician who revolutionised
scenic space and lighting at the beginning of the twentieth century) saw
research into music-as-composition as the basis for reiuvenating theatre.
Influenced by Appia, Copeau harboured faith in the essential relation-
a The stoika is a definite stop which brings the whole phrase to a close,
ship berween music and dramatic art, and consequently incorporated
music as an essential component in educating his actors. Yet his attempts
to fuse the two ran into difficulties.
(master
Copeau was not a musician himself. Frustrated by the lack of a
musician' with whom he could work with his actors, he turned to
THE SENTIENT BODY II9
Dalcroze's Eurhythrnics,l88 a systemised approach to the relationship
between music and g'r.rnnastics designed to promote a common mental and
musical rhythm between actors. Flowever, Eurhythmics was too particular
a specialism: a musical beat leads movement, and tonal quality inflects it,
so that music controls the actor rather than the actor controlling the
_
]Tb_ movement. When imusic carries the performers their work becomes
uniform, they don't {ind their own internal rhythms. Copeau also found it
encouraged actors tq invest too much feeling into their movements.
Suzanne Bing, Copeauts principle collaborator, articulates the fun-
damental problem they were trying to solve: 'The rhythmic sense must
come from the inside. Exercises are always unsatisfactory if they do
not exercise the outer manifestation of the inner sense that one wants to
develop'.189
Meyerhold encountered a similar problem when he directed his actors
to music. The music led the movement. Watching circus acrobats he
noticed they use music primarily for rhythmic support, without it there
would be catastropbe, but what happens, he wondered, if you take it
away?leoIn other wcirds could you cultivate an inner sense of rhythm? His
answer was to translrte the concept of a musical phrase into movement
training, not giving actors music to interpret via movement, but educating
them to control the ihythmic shape of anl movement.
In Biomechanics a,ctors learn a somatic understanding of the potential
internal dynamic of any movement phrase through the sequence:'otkas -
posyl - stoika'. This is the 'form' of every action, movement or gesture.
The content can var-./, as can the pace. Meaning is modified according to
where the accent is placed in a movement, as we shall see. But this basic
structure applies to every single action.
The otkas is a sl;ght movement in the opposite direction, sometimes
translated as 'preparetion'.191 You see a similar effect in cartoons as when
Road Rtrnner, for ,Axample, swings his whole body backwards before
shootin$.fofwards. The pasyl is the action itself, whether this is as simple
as bringing a cup to ttre tip or as large as a complete trajectory across space.
sometimes more liki: a comma than a full stop, because the stoiha hx to
leave room for the next phrase to begin.
In Biomechanics''' his tripartite phrasing of movement is taught as a
procedure for the w,rcle body as a preparatory exercise. It is then applied
to phrasing in the 6tt'des.l92
II8 THROUGH THE BODY
do them they will yield something new, not as a product, but as part of the
process of discovering a creative sel
Since the study of acting is as much a process of self-discovery as
acquiring techniques, self-deception in training will lead to insincerity on
stage. Bj-?!,bgttgs! ll vol can.]--ith.e.v-qty -er9"-{,-cl-s-h_b.g!h.in !.he d_oing_of it
an.l theleflecting'ot-i!-W_. ell.t"qy w-h.pl wg^hayeiui-.nr"+slxnit's,fa^GC
or been negative about ourselves or someone
"9!.-s--e.: Qo..g$;1$lng-xeqgller-
generosityI and humanity as well as a resonant bodv and a resonant yp-ige-*-
RHYTHM =f
T'he atre is rh.ythm.l}+
ln theatre, alternating patterns of stasis and dynamism, relaxation and
tcnsion) speeding up and slowing down, constitute a constant play of
thythms. Hence Meyerhold's belief that the gift of rhythm was the most
important attribute for a directot'. Rhythm, however, is intangible. Meyer-
hold used the analogy of a bridge: 'When you look at a bridge you seem to
see a leap imprinted in metal, that is, a process, and not something static.
'I'he dynamic tension expressed in the bridge is the main thing. The same
'.rpplies to perfolming'.18s Rhythm is there all the time, in time; we cannot
see it but are affected by it, this play of tensions in the scenic space, bet-
ween light and shade, sound and silence, and of course between the living
bodies of actors) all working together to hold and, ultimately, transfix the
rrudience.
As ir musician, Meyerhold recognised a correspondence between stage
rhythrn and musical compositionl86 similar to Appia's: 'When stage pic-
tures take on spatial forms dictated by the rhythms of music they are not
arbitrary but on the contrary have the quality of being inevitable'.l87
Adolphe Appia (the Swiss architect and musician who revolutionised
scenic space and lighting at the beginning of the twentieth century) saw
research into music-as-composition as the basis for rejuvenating theatre.
Influenced by Appia, Copeau harboured faith in the essential relation-
a The stoika is a definite stop which brings the whole phrase to a close,
ship between music and dramatic art, and consequently incorporated
rnusic as an essential component in educating his actors. Yet his attempts
to fuse the two ran into difficulties.
Copeau was not a musician himself. Frustrated by the lack of a'master
musician' with whom he could work with his actors, he turned to
SENTIENT BODY II9
Dalcroze's Eurhyt\rnics,l88 a systemised approach to the relationship
between music and girmnastics designed to promote a common mental and
musical rhythm between actors. However, Eurhythmics was too particular
a specialism: a musical beat leads movement, and tonal quality inflects it,
so that music contrbls the actor rather than the actor controlling the
movement. When ir.nusic carries the performers their work becomes
uniform, they don't lind their own internal rhythms. Copeau also found it
encouraged actors to invest too much feeling into their movements.
Suzanne Bing, Gopeauts principle collaborator, articulates the fun-
damental problem they were trying to solve: 'The rhythmic sense must
come from the inside. Exercises are always unsatisfactory if they do
not exercise the outer manifestation of the inner sense that one wants to
develop'.18e
Meyerhold encountered a similar problem when he directed his actors
to music. The music led the movement. Watching circus acrobats he
noticed they use music primarily for rhythmic support, without it there
would be catastropne, but what happens, he wondered, if you take it
away?ls In other wcrds could you cultivate an inner sense of rhythm? His
answer was to translrte the concept of a musical phrase into movement
training not giving a,:tors music to interpret via movement, but educating
them to control thelihythmic shape of &n)t movement.
In Biomechanics actors learn a somatic understanding of the potential
internal dynamic of any movement phrase through the sequence:'othas -
posyl - stoiha'. This is the 'form' of every action, movement or gesture.
The content can va]:'A as can the pace. Meaning is modified according to
where the accent is placed in a movement, as we shall see. But this basic
structure applies to every single action.
The othas is a slight movement in the opposite direction, sometimes
translated as 'preparation'.lel You see a similar effect in cartoons as when
Road Runner, for Axample, swings his whole body backwards before
shootin$;forwards. The posyi is the action itself, whether this is as simple
as bringing a cup to the lip or as large as a complete trajectory across space.
sometimes more likii a comma than a full stop, because the stoika has to
leave room for the next phrase to begin.
In Biomechanics'',his tripartite phrasing of movement is taught as a
procedure for the wicle body as a preparatory exercise. It is then applied
to phrasing in the 6tr,des.lez
I2O THROUGH THE BODY THE SENTIENT BODY I2I
Meyerhold's othas - posyl - stoika bears a striking resemblance to ttre created, and when an iiadividual then decides on a context for the
gesture)
central principle of Jo-Ha-Kyi in Zearni's Secret Tradition of the Noh, it will take on meaning or 'conrent'. (NB: The same applies to any
the fourteenth-century manual of Noh actor training.le3 Jo-Ha-Kyr is th" utterance: try the same experiment saying the sound .Aaahh,.)
law of changing quality in every aspect of performance: the play as a Yoshi oida states fhar the principle of
Jo-Ha-Kyu 'helps acrors to
whole, each individual scene, every movement phrase, each word: Jo is the structure their feelings, actions and speeches in a natural wayt.lgs Meyer_
quality of setting up, beginning; Ha is the quality of activity, of doing, hold's principle of a movement phrase, otreas-posyr-stoiha, has a
similar
which develops and passes into Kyu, the quality of apotheosis, or state of benefit. The slight move in the opposite direction via the otkas arso gives
climax. actions a sense of an internal impulse which propels the actor into
the
Although it is easy to draw parallels with the Western concept of classic action/moment- In speech this can be translated as an intake of
breath.
narrative structure in relation to a whole play, or even a scene, there is This next exerciselillustrates the principle of phrasing a movemenr
more to Jo-Ha-Kyu than the notion of beginning, middle and end. The through space.
Noh master Zeami derived his concept from observing natural patterns:
'Every phenomenon in the universe develops itself through a certain le6
Aeroplane
progression, even the cry of a bird and the noise of an insect follow this
progression . . . called Jo, Ha, Kyu'.le4 It is a physical law of unfolding and use o diagonol trajeaoiy ocross the working oreo from corner to comer to
conclusion. moximise the length of the'runway'. ,t is best to work without
shoes.
On the macro-scale this relates to the overall flow of a play within
which the smaller climaxes and hiatuses of individual scenes are con- rhe frst volunteer stonds with their orms outstretched tike the wings
of o
plone.They run from one comer to the other.As
tained. The whole dynamic pattern can seem like a roller-coaster in a play when you ffied yoi, o,^,
you ore exploring the possibilitie s of poc)ng the movement.
llke Macbeth or King Lear,yet always moving towards the inevitable 'Kyu' Here,the ideo is
of the final act. Each scene also has its own similar internal structure in to find the optimum moment to occererote ond decererote so you
come to o
condensed form. non-hozordous stop ot 6he opposite corner.

On the micro-scale Jo-Ha-Kyu' refers to the interior qualitative

observing thrl exercise,
yo u will see considerable vorionce in boththe speed
dynamic of each move and utterance, as the next exercise illustrates. of the'run' ond the poinit ot which the'brokes' go on and the movement

llows -
to o stop everyone wiil fry their'oeroprone' differentry.The ideor is
to
Lift the arm (No.2) find a point obout two4hirds of the woy ocross where the brokes come on,
but this is o suggestion not on imperotive.you wirt
Consider the notion lhot eoch movement contoins o whole story;try lifting
find o slight movement in
the opposrte direaion ptior to'uke+ff'herps to shope the movement
your orm from your side to the level of your shoulder and modifyingthe
tensions it contoins, occeleroting ot the beginningfor exomple, or towords some octors p!9d very heovity ocross the spoce. rt is herpfurto them
to point
the moment of stopping. this outYou,gffouldlt be abreto heor the feet rn this exercrs e when done
properly. ,r'
You will feel a different shape to the 'flow' of the movement with each
modification. The placing of the tension creates a dynamic, and different Repetrtion is essenrioL Once proyers hove grosped the intention
they ftnd a
rhythmic patterns will inflect the gesture with different meanings, so that few procfice runs enoble them to feer when they over-occererote, or reove
each person doing this exercise will generate different 'stories' for what is decelerotion too lote oi<li end up in the woll. lmprovement through proctice
essentially the same movement. The 'form' of the movement is artificially is tongible.
I22 THROUGH THE BODY THE SENTIENT BODY r23

In terms of Meyerhold's principle of a movement phrase, this exercise Body rhythms

illustrates the preparatoty ltkas, the aFtion of th.e posyl and the arrival or
conclusiorr of the stoiha- What it also shows is how the use of the 'brakes'
actually shapes the movement: varying the points at which you acceler-
ateldecelerate will render different shapes to the overall movement. You
can, of course, play around with this, and that is where the actor's creati-
vity comes into play.
The Russian word tormos used in Biomechanics is rather more complex
than 'brakes', nevertheless it is about controlling the degree of energy or
tension used to modulate the action. This concept resembles Barba's
notion of 'energy in time', where a performer holds the dead weight back
and creates oppositional tensions, thereby increasing dilation of the body
and magnifying presence. The quality of the control and the choice of Learning to maintain your own, or a character's,
rhythm whilst on stage
placing the climax, or accent) on the movement phrase is the actor's with others is essenti'- Rhythmic awareness builds
concentration, and
individual creative decision (which can, of course, be negotiated with a activates a focus on listening.
'director'). The idea of phrasing every Besture and action in this way is
fundamental to creating dynamic movement on stage.
Clap-clap
Although it may sound mechanical to employ the othas - posyl - stoiha
for every action and gesture it is paradoxically a technical discipline which
offers room for individual creativity. The actor acquires rhythmic control
of his/her body but, unlike a dancer, creates his/her own steps.
Controlling the rhythmic flow of movement is complemented by
working on inner rhythms of the body. Observing the different ways in
which the Odin actors strung together a chain of exercises, Barba realised
the variations w€re not due to differences in the ways they executed the Step I

exercises but to'individual differences in rhythm'.Ie7 The first step towards

finding your own internal rhythmic sense is to play around with different
rhlthms.
Rhythm isn't any more a particular gift than presence. The problern in
the West is that by the age of three or four, rhythm is blocked by constant
sitting, often in front of a TV, so that many of us are even unfamiliar with
ii"
our own rhythms of walking. It isn't that we do not have an inherent sense Step 2 :,
of rhythm, but little in our culture encourages us to use it, so we suffer
When
,

fi'om lhythmic amnesia. ir Phrose'ond so

onrou e fomilior with
Activating our rhythmic sensibility, even through simple clapping simple
exercises, is a primaly route towards discovering what we have forgotten.

r24 THROUGH THE BODY
Step 3
Now divide the group in holf. One holf of the group estoblish o rhythmic
pott.ern on four beots,whot we coll in music 414 time,which is basicolly o
count of oneltwolthreelfoul but they clop only on the frst ond third beot
You'heor'the other beots in your heod-
The other hof estoblish o Pdttern on three beots, 314 or wolv time, i.e. a
count of oneltwolthree, but they clop only on the first beot
Stort with both on the frst beot, clopping together, eoch group mointoining
their own rhythm. lf you foll into choos, stort ogoinlWhen eoch group is
monoging to clop consistent/y in their own rhythm,let thern toke it in turns
to quieten down so thot they con heor the other group.Then, when rtt
working roise the overoll volume, allowing o crescendo to peoK ond then let
it die down.
Step 4
Next comes the difficuh bit! Each ployer estoblishes o four-beot rhythm with
their feet, by stepping or stomping.Then they clop in o three-beot rhythm
over the top of this.You ore highly likely to fail - but don't worry, this is
normol. Gven o good deol of proctice, or o genetic disposition to creoting
polyrhythms,you moy be oble to occomplish this. lf sq ty
stomping only
on the frst ond third beots with the feet, ond clopping on just the frst
beot of the honds'threeSeot pottern.And go on to develop more complex
patterns.
Doing things where we fail is important. We are so hung up on getting
things right, we tend to focus on the result or product rather than the
process. Rhythm is all about process.
Rhythms work in cycles. We are very used to set musical beat-patterns
in the West, and consequently our music has developed along those lines.
The syncopations of twentieth-centtry iazz rhythms have their roots in
African cultures. In Brazil, Cuba, Korea and India, rhythm is not taught
by counting but by talking syllables. So, for example, Indian drummers
learn a sixteen-beat cycle, dhin-dhin-da-dhin etc., which becomes embed-
ded in their body; they learn to keep this in them like a poem over which
they then improvise.
Despite the seemingly scientific simplicity of Meyerhold's otkas - posyl -
stoika,anovement phrase should not be constructed mechanically. Absorbed
l
THE SENTIENT BODY r25
through practice, its .ripartite structure becomes embedded, so that rather
like the Indian drurnmer with his sixteen-syllable cycle, it
eventually
becomes second nature. It works when
the actor understands that discip-
line and technique paradoxically open up channels for creativity. Rhythm
has to be felt, not thought.
In addition to thg collection of sticks, boxes and bottles used in pre-
vious exercises, it's useful to have a ranBe of percussion tools to play with.
Instruments don't ne,cessarily have to be bought: anything that can be
banged, shaken or rat'iled can be effecrive, a jam-jar half filled with lentils
is a good substitute fr'' a rain-stick for example, although it's handy to have
things like a bell or triangle, the odd drum or cymbal. The cardboard and
plastic tubes mentiorrld earlier can also be played.
The next r.qrr"rri* is a complex exercise which incorporates exercises
from previous work 6-"for" moving on to use percussion. Make sure actors
have a strong grasp of'the concept of ntxnn porNrs and are already fami-
liar with ruBE scul-prunns (both of these exercises occur in sECrroN
rwo in BoDy rN spri'rE and pLAy respectively). Ideally they should have
experience of workirlg on coMpt-rcrrf, and discovering the alchemy in
playing with differerir partners. And of course the previous exercises in
this section are also a useful preface.
Rhythm-scape I
Ploy the exercl'se collerl 'Tube sculptures', with either tubes or sticks. work in
pairs initiolly, creotingt rnoving obstroct sculptures.Try not to let either person
leod, but let ployfulne{:: generote whot hoppens between you. Let the vorying
rhythms thot emerget:orry the movements.
when you construct (' seguence of movemens from this worlg choose units
with o voriety
of rhythrnic potternt for exomple rolling the tubes, stepping
over them1and possing them will oll hove different tensjons ond tempos.
. i-t L
.:- r!
once yoii'hove o seg'ence, go bock over eoch unit of oction ond construct
these os.iiidrvduol ph;.,oses of movement, opplying the orkosfos yl-stoiko.
Advonced groups may he oble to modulote each phrose using tormos, if they
hove grosped the conc.;pLThen mork the moments between each unit of
th o fixed poin\ so wherever the tubes ore ot thot
oction, i.e. the stoiko, vy
moment they become still, making o brief pouse in the overoll sequence.
Q6 THROUGH THE BODY
THE SENTTENT BODY tz7
INB: I find it more productive to use the Russian terms rather than their The sentient underqranding of moments
translations. The English equivalents (preparation, action, stop and brakes) of transitio' or shifts in r.hytrr'r
gained through this work is immensery
do not have the same impact or resonance. Student actors soon learn to valuabre. Firstly, it prepares actors
for sensing the morrrent at which an improvisation
incorporate the Russian words into a common vocabulary which they use needs to move on. In
improvisation 'as irnportant as the actual
in leflecting and critiquing their work.] material thrown up by the scene
is the moment chosen for breaking it and
Don't rush this exercise. The results, when shown, will demonstrate a beginning another. There is a
moment in armost every improvisation
whole spectrum of rhythmic variations, and the fixed points mark the shift where things reach a head and are
moving quickly towa-rds a resolution. If
between each rhythmic change. You can work in larger groups once the one can trigger off the new scene
at just that moment'rhe actor's energy-equipment
foundation has been laid between two players, or swap partners, and the is instinctivery brought
into play. Improvisaiions like these iela
results will be different again: the chemistry between players will influence ; . . . their sense of danger,.lea
This is true also in text work, where beats
the outcome. And whilst you may find individuals have a predilection for and units of action constitute
the internal dynamic of a scene, and
actors needto be able to recognise and
certain rhythmic patterns, working with new partners opens up the play the shifts between them. This
exercise can therefore be applied to
possibilities of finding others. rext
work.
The internal dynamic of these rhythmic sculptures correlate to the secondly, the appiication of the othas poryr
notion of scenes, each with its own individual Jo-Ha-Kyu. -
rhythms
- - stoiha principre to sound
as well as movement leads actors
Following on from this work, distribute various items of percussion. to a keen uni.rrr"ndirrg of the
lmportance of struc;rrring speeches
Groups of three to five are about right for this next development. as well as actions.
thms other than your own relates to
neutrality
habitual. Stick work is a useful avenue
for
Rhythm-scape 2 ivity in actors. As you play with the stick
discover a rhythmic relationship you
Actors now improvise with the instruments to creote o soundscope with an object. when working *i,r,
partner, as in ceNn neNcrxc, you "
containing o voriety of rhythmic potterns. Use the lemplote' of the previous discover a rhythmic relationstip
another actor. with
exercrse to creote these step by step,first exploring the sound of eoch
observation and aaalysis of rhythms
instrument before ploying them together.Ihe secret is to let orbitrory rn nature is endemic to the work
of many practitione's- It is the core of
improvisotion develop before ottemPting to choreogroph the whole piece. Lecoq's philosophy: he advises
acting students 'never to lose their
curiosity . . . about the structures of life
and life's phenomena'.lee Working
When you hove selected seyerol units thot pleose you, go bock over them mimetically to discover the internal
ond employ the otkosfosyl-stoikc princlple to structure eoch one into a energy and rhythm uf .I.-errts,
animals, any living form, is central
Lecoq's teaching. Hecalrs it'identificatio.r;, to
complete phrose. Moduloting the phroses here (using tormos) con be done he regards this
dimension
"nd
by increosing ond decreosing volume ondlor the intensrty of the rhythm. ring knowledge: .Corporeal impres_
When you string the phroses together mork the tronsition between eoch one expression'.200
with o slight pouse, i.e. o fixed point. ophy is for the actor ,to iclentify
being''Z'r Like
Play eoch composiilon ond discuss the resuls. lt may be thot some groups copeau,s actors, L.gfrq srudenrs .";"::,
::',to1;*tire
creote very busy soundscopes. Encourage them to remember thot rhythm plants, trees, colours, l;he elem.nts.
Lecoq,s maxim i
still underpins o pouse, just os when heoring (counting) the beots between even the apparently sirtic mountain.
The actor must
clops in the eorlier exercise. image to find the innjr dynamic
of matter rn terms of space, rhythm and
breathing.

]l28 THROUGH THE BODY
The earlier neutral mask exercise invites the masked actor to walk
through mist and convey that s/he sees the t.t.202 Th. aim is to sense the
rhythms of the sea in the body, as though the sea lives inside you, and to
breathe rpith the sea. Identifying somatically with the rhythms of ffIatter
irnd transposing these into breathing, action and sound is a fundantental
cxercise of Lecoq's which can be applied to virtually any material thing.
Lecoq has investigated the dynamics of nature in movement terms in
considerable depth, and you are referred to his book, The Mozting Body
(zooo), in which he describes the methods he uses for practical analysis of
nature, for a more detailed exposition of his theories and practical work.
Very briefly, he designates water as: 'a moving, resisting force, which can
only be experienced by struggling with it'; fire as both combustion and
flame, whose 'dramatic justification lies in anger'; air, he says 'is found
through flight' and is 'an element which gives support', whilst earth is clay
which can be compressed, smoothed and stretched.203
Bear these definitions in mind when you undertake the next exercise.
Earth/fire/airlwater
ln this exercise octors seorch for somotic identiftcotion with the four
elements within o collective. Nevertheless, the responsibility lies with each
octor to disploy their own identification with the e,ements, rother thon
imitote onother octor.
Desrgnote eoch of the elements to four corners of the spoce-A group af
octors move in o clockwise diredion.They must keep close in o pock rother
os in the exercise 'Shool of Fish',with the leoder chonging os necessory on
the turns.As they poss through eoch designoted element they become earth,
fire, oir or woter.The rest ofthe group observe.
At the zenith of eoch elernent they should convey their impression with the
greotest intensity.And os they move towords the next element"the previous
one lessens in degree before the new one embroces them.
ln your feedboclg discuss which octors gove o more convincing impression
of eoch element. Sometimes there ore two or three equolly remorkable
renditions of on element which ore individuolly very different
Then onother group circumnovigotes the room in the some woy. Eoch
time you discuss the Exercise, try to come to o consensus on whqt'works'
t
THE SENTIENT BODY rzg
ond whot doesn'tAnd eoch group that follows should try and put rhis inro
proctice.
Provided you have an experienced group, invite individual actors to find
the dynamic of pny element and progress to exploring other material
things. To do so with inexperienced actors is counter-productive as this is
a difficult exercisc which can induce the 'inhibition facror,.
Most practiticners use analogies with animal movement- Laban sug-
gests that actors'consider and compare' the movement rhythms of ani-
mals in order to observe the variations in intensity of energy spending. He
points out how each genus of animal is 'restricted to a small range of typi-
cal qualities', whereas humans are much more varied. cats appear relaxecl
and flexible wheu jumping, a horse will be more tense and concentrated.
A man can iumpl [ke either, or at least imitate both dynamically.zOa
Observing the rhythms of different animals forces us to be more
accurate when irnitating them. And the more accurate the mimicry, the
more precise the ;rse of the body. When actors played a shed of cows, a
thicket of blackberries or a squealing pig in Theatre de complicit|'s The
Three Liaes of Lr;ie cabrol, the accuracy of their work was not showily
athletic, but rhyttrmically convincing.
It is important to be equally accurate when imitating people.
Copy walk
work without sha+s for this.wolking round the room, criss-cro.ss the spoce.
Notice how you o/,: wolking. Find your own noturol rhythm, the poce ond
flow which fee/s rri:st notural ond comfortoble, as though you courd work otl
doy. Now exoggerute your own wolk, emphasising points of tension, whether
you ploce more weight on your Ieft or right footAnd return to normol
wolking,;
Now in'poirs, X wnlks behindY. Obserye how your portner,s body gets
involved rn the prcrtess of wolking.Whot hoppens in their hips? Do they
swing their orms? Does the boll or heel of the foot go down first? Begin to
imitote them. Be precise.
Now start to exog1erote their wolk-monnerisms. Ago in, be os precise os you
con. Don't invent onything that isn't there, and don't occentuote one thing
 I

I3O THROUGH THE BODY

THE SENTIENT BODY I3I
more thon ony other, particulorly tf it hos comic potentiol. Groduolly oll the Ys The interview -,iir four beats2os
drop out ond wotch the room-full of crozy wolks!
The following text is,leornt by volunteers ond ployed occording to the three
Then swop over ond reploy. rhythmic yersions givpn below. Don't odd onything, ond keep to the given
timings.
Rhythm is clearly a primary factor in character creation. And also in
speaking text. The foundations laid in the practical work in this section
The diologue runs otj follows (insert your own reol onswers):
can be followed up in relation to character and speech.
'Rhythm seems to be a language apart, and the rhythmic language X Your name: is?
conveys meaning without words'.205 The place where this is clearest is
Y Says name,
comedy, what we call 'comic timing'. Comedy wastes no time, situations
are set up very quickly, and an audience 'reads the rhythm'.206
X And your dgel
The next two exercises follow on from Copy wALK. It is also useful to Y Gives age
have done clapping rhythm work, particularly on syncopated rhythms. X Where do you live?

Y Says where
Foot-steps2o7
X Do you drive?
You ore working here to o rhythm of four beots, i.e. I l2l3l4. Here you need Y Answers yds or no
your shoes on so thot we con heor the beots ofthe steps.Ihe yolunteers do
X Do you orr n a carl
not speok, olthough they moy moke eye contoct.
Y Answers yes or no
Step I
Now ploy this 'text'in the fotlowing yersions..
Two people wolk ocross the spoce diogonolly in the some bect, ie I l2l3l4.
They oppeor to be in tune with one onother! ' Version , X.;peoks on the ftrst beoty speoks on the third beot

' Version 2 X speoks on the frst beot.y speoks on the second _

Step 2 ol_,:lost over the frst
Now X steps on the beat andY on the off-beot Now there oppeors to be
' Version 3 X speoks on tfre frst beoty speoks on the fourth beot.
some conflid between them.
Each rhythmic poftern will generote different chorocters ond relationships.
Step 3 There ore also hilorious moments when actors try so desperotely to come in
on the.:tfgltt beot tht?t they trip over their words ond soy something
Now X wolks on the beol andY storts ou\but tften suspends one step so
os to go onto the offbeot. AltemotivelyY con speed up o step to go onto the
inoppiwriate-And it is worth noting thot comic momen*
frequently orise
off-beot.This time they storted out in tune, ond then conflia developed. from'iiistokes' rqther thon from ottempts to be funny.

The next improvisation picks up on the idea of alternating the beats to This exercise is not only good fun but teaches very simply the principle
create different scenarios from the same material.
that rhythm is a gorerning agent of meaning.
r32 THROUGH THE BODY
SOUND
Do not think of the aocal instruntent itself, d'o not thinh of the words, but react
- react aith the body.zoe
The majority of practical work suggested so far in this book takes place
silence, although always, of coursg accompanied by the sounds of people
'doing'- and breathing while they're doing! Part of the difficulty with the
4:33 exercise at the end of sECrIoN rHREE is that it heightens the
actuality of silence, for there is no tangible'doing'. We seem to find silence
intensely uncomfortable. Perhaps because we are so accustomed to noise in
our lives, especially if we live in a city.
In order to appreciate sound we need to recognise the power of its
counterpoint, yet real silence is never really silent, as this next exercise
demonstrates.
Living silence
Toke your time with this exercise. Moke sure people ore worm.
Lie on the floor ond relox from feet up to heod by contoaing ond releosing
the sets of muscles in eoch'zone', eg feeq colves, thr'ghs, etc. Close your eyes'
Lr'sten to the sounds in the room, others breathing, o clock ticking perhoPs,
the workshop leoder podding round, o window rottling. Reolly absorb them,
become os fomiliar with them os the surfoces of the room in the eorlier
exercise on controlling the spoce in section one.Pinpoint exoaly where eoch
sound comes from.
Now extend your ourol field to whot lies beyond the room in the some
building"footsteps on corridors ond stoirs, doors opening ond closing,
computer keyboords topping,pipes gurgling.Try only to listen to the sounds
rother than imogine the coresponding oaiv|ty.
Heor os much os you con, whilst sull ocknowledging the breothing ond other
sounds in the room.
Next go beyond the building.Whot's outsideTTroffic, birds, people, on
ombulonce siren in the distonce? lt's as though you're stretching your ears.
Heor them oll. But dont lose ourol touch with the sounds in the building ond
in the room.
THE SENTIENT BODY r33
Finolly bring your ottention bock to the room ond concentrote on the sounds
there once more.
Just as in the exercise coNTRoLLTNG THE spAcr, you notice things that
normally pass you by. Focusing on sounds in this way is another aspect of
in
awafeness, and such work aids concentration. And if there is extr.ancous
noise at any poin'r- groups are more able to absorb it without being
distracted if they La.ve done this exercise regularly.
You have to tratir your ear in theatre as well as your body and voice.
Aural awareness mlrst be developed alongside visual and sensual aware-
ness. Listening is, ,rf course, fundamental. But we feel and respond to
vibrations as well as hearing actual noise. It is worth notinB that the Latin
root of the word 'pircussion'means 'through the skin'. A drum beat is an
obvious example hdre, and in primal cultures the drum is a means of com-
munication rather .ihan simply a musical instrument, working on sensory
as well as auditory wave-lengths.
The next exerclse explores the idea of the body's own percussive
possibilities and horv we 'hear'.
Orchestral manoeuvres
Remoin on the floor :o begin with, ond keep your eyes closed- Ih e leoder
tops someone who il'en mokes o sound using any part of the body, ond the
if
floor they wish.Th: Ieoder will top peopte gently to indicote when they
should join in (or hand out numbers before storting) with onother sound.
Keep it simple ond lyentle, o top on the thigh or o click of the
fngers is
enough, until the whole group crectes a quiet chorus of percussion.
At this stoge, the exe'rise is deliberotely low-key;the emphosis is on /istening
to the different sounds rother thon energl'sing them.When everyone is fully
involved osft for a grcduol increose in volume ond then let it die awoy slowly.
Enjoy ligpging to the. ftnol shreds of sound.
Now, eyes open, cot:ri'e to stonding, ond repeot the exercise moking o new
ronge of sounds. Keep them percussive rother thon vocal ot this stoge,
maybe stomping o f,iot or clopping honds.Ihis time energrse the sounds you
moke by using the u,hole body, ond seeing how loud ond sofr. you con make
the'orchestro
r34 THROUGH THE BODY
Diflbrences in the two stoges of this exercise relote to the degree in which
lrstening chonges, and how we respond when we see os well as hear, and
olso when we feel vibrations. Invoriobly o steody beot emerges to which the
sounds conform. More odvonced groups who hove worked on rhythm moy
be oble to work less rrgrdly with a beoT ollowing sounds to be mode more
or bitro r i Iy on d pun ctu oti n g th e' co mp ositi o n' with silence.
Ref/ea on the two stoges ond discuss them. Did either give the group o
or only heor port of what wos
sense of unity? When did you forget to listen,
going on? Be honest in your responses-
The followillg game activates more acute somatic/aural
players listen fol a specific sound.
Homing pigeons
ln poirs decide on o sound eoch, obstroct rother then
Make them quite different, whotever springs to the mouth or fingers, no
motter how doft. Moke sure you both know each other's sound.Decide who
is X ond who isY. Now blindfold the Xs ond then osk the Ys to spreod out
oround the room well awoy from their portner.As Ys stond still, they eoch
whisper their sound or'percuss'very quietly, ond the blind Xs hove to locote
their portner through the seo of whispers.
Swop over ond reploy.
Sometimes it is quite difficult to distinguish your partner's sound from the
others. And what is fascinating about this exercise is the way the bodies of
the 'pigeons' seeking their partners become so alert in their listening. This
is partly to do with being blindfold, which of course activates a more acute
sensory awareness. But it is a useful corollary to that notion of being'alert
in stillness', that state of readiness so essential to performance.
Suzanne Bing's mask exercises for Copeauts actors were often accom-
panied by vocalisation and bodily sound effects. Even Etienne Decroux,
the mime purist, recognised the symbiotic relationship between move-
rnent and sound despite his insistence on vocal silence in mime: 'audible
breathing, the pounding of heels, the click of the tongue against the roof
of the mouth or against teeth, seem always to have been a part of Decroux's
mime performance'.2l0 More recently in dance, which we generally assurne
THE SENTIENT BODY r35
to be irreversibly locked into using music as accompaniment, Christopher
Bruce (Artistic Direclcr of Ballet Rambert) choreograph ed a piece, ,Fbr
Those Who Die Like Cattle, which dispensed with music and used only the
sound of the dancers' feet and the percussive sounds of their bodies as
accompanrment.
The concept of vo,:al mime takes the sounds naturally emitted during
the course of moving ind develops them into expressive forms. You will
find when you do an action and release a sound simultaneously, the action
becomes stronger. Absrract movements work better than behavioural ges-
tures, such as noddirlg the head or pointing a finger, which are gestures
emphasising a thoug\t rather than purely somatic impulses.
awareness as
Action sounds
Move spontoneously otd discoyer whot sound is releosed. Doing something
energetic like o squot jump will provoke o different sound from rolling on the
literol, ond very simple.
floor,for exomple.
Discovering a sound n. an e*t".rsion of movement in this way is a method
of exploring the route from impulse to action to sound, and to word even-
tually. Don't worry about how bizarre the noise is. Sighs, cries and groans
are all part of vocalisanon and, as Artaud recognised, sometimes these can
express more than lan*uage.
Laban's observatiorr that'sounds accompanying working actions are the
audible result of an inr,er mood'2ll is relevant here. For Laban, the inner
attitude of an action ilrperson can be accessed through the external:
copying a physical mai ifestation and letting the voice out will release an
inner attitude. Freeini the voice via the body was the approach of Little-
wood's Theatre Workshop where voice training was allied to movement
training: .ey,erything whs done through Laban. And Jean Newlove, their
movement coach, has :, useful chapter in her book Laban for Actors and
Dancers (i993: gg-ro7) which provides exercises for exploring sound and
gesture through Laban s'eight basic effort actions'.
Sound tag r-r
You con opply the ideo of oaion releosing sound to a gome of tog in which
ployers moke o sound when they tog someone. Moking severol ployers
 THROUGH THE BODY THE SENTIENT BODY r37
r-16

toggers' will liven up the proceedings ond creote plenty of noise'Adopting lungs by expanding the,diaphragm (abdomen) and into the upper region
'Poss the Tog' (from section three: the body in spoce) to incorporote sound is by dilating the rib cage (thorax). These are a beneficial method of relaxing
o further voriotion. the body as well as preparation for vocalising, and can be effective in
warm-ups. The most important thing is that actors breathe using 'total
A game of N IoN THREE: rI-ev) in which respiration', i.e. both abdominal and thoracic, and have an awareness of
plrysicalreactiisationwhichcomesou'tofthe how their own breathing operates, how to place the voice and amplify it
rrrovement, is work on freeing the voice' We using the natural bodill ,resonators.2l5
rrre used to hearing tennis players grunt and sigh aftet all' Just thinking about voice as action and the notion of its having a spatial
a mechani ain- dimension gives us another zone to play in. We can all recall testing an
Just as physical training can lead to
ing can trap the actor in technique. Technical ntly echo in a cave or tunnel v'rith a shout, the wonder of hearing our own voice

rrttained at the expense of the emotive and in reverberate. Sending sounds into imagined spaces encourages you to think
the

rrctor to rules and strictures about breathing and voice production.

Play- of sound in terms of :3hape, and helps in training to place the voice.
mechanical avenue to discovering the power Sending a sound through a wide tunnel or a narrow tunnel, across the sea
orientated vocal work is a less
rnd spirit of the voice. or up a mountain, malies different demands on the breath and facial
muscles. And the idea
'rf sound as action can be harnessed in trying to
overturn a chair or sweep the floor. You won't succeed of course, but
Operatic musical chairsz\? invoking the imagination in voice work is as important as in physical
training, and you may cliscover something about the way volition affects
the voice. Always be aware of what happens in the body. Generally if the
body is static the sound will have less power. Let the body accentuate the
sound produced.
desperote thot you've lost your choir. Both Grotowski and }-ecoq encouraged actors to use mimicry, always
rooted in the principle tirat any sound must pass through the whole body.
Many practitioners see voice as an extension of movement and, as such' Accuracy is just as crucial here as in mimed actions. Try mimicking the
,otal actionrather than simply the articulation of speech,Zl3 for the voice sound of dripping watet; shovelling gravel, starting a car, any animal. It is

is produced by bodily movement) however slight: both respiration and the reciprocal relationshi'r between voice and movement which needs to be

movement originate in the pelvic region. sounds that tennis players

make, playfully explored, fed t,1' visual and aural observation.
physical effort' Decroux's one-time,;rllaborator Jean-Louis Barrault, repudiated the
flor instance, are allied to expulsions of breath accompanying
vocal action means working on the voice as an expressive channel along- rule of silence in mime, pointing out that sound is the result of breath. He

side movement rather than training the voice per se' went on to implement A:taud's theory of the Kabbale, arespiratory pro-
,Proper voice work is very physical,' asserts Patsy Rodenburg' voice cess from th€Hebrew l,abbala, and it was this which prornpted him to

coach at the Royal National Theatre: '[It] makes use of the whole body designate the navel as th1: focal point for movement, in contradistinction

from head to toe . . . speaking and singing are really the end results of a to Decroux's emphasis ojl the spine. Fusing'Decroux's grammar of mime
you with this respiratory tecirnique and his own concept of character creation
whole series of reflexive physical actions and body placement which
simply must become aware of to gain mastery and control over your vocal enabled Barrault to deve,Lp work which epitomised the notion of the'total

instrument'.21a 16" common denominator is breathing' actor'. His mime piece exploited the organic link between sound and
Most actors a1e familiar with preparatory exercises which alternate the action, so that as perforrir.:rs struggled against waves created physically by
three breathing states of in, out, and held, drawing the air into the others, for example, thel also vocalised the sound of water.
lower
r36 THROUGH THE BODY THE SENTIENT BODY 137

toggers' will liven up the proceedings ond create plenty of noise'Adapfing lungs by expanding the,diaphragm (abdomen) and into the upper re gion
.poss
the Tog, (from section three: the body in spoce) to incorporote sound is by dilating the rib cage {thorax). These are a beneficial method ol relaxinp;
o further voriotion- the body as well as prcparation for vocalising, and can be effcctive in
warm-ups. The most important thing is that actors breathe using 'total
A game of N IoN THREE: eI-ev) in which respiration', i.e. both abdominal and thoracic, and have an awareness of
reacti
physical isation which comes ou,t of the how their own breathing operates, how to place the voice and arnplify it
rnovement, is work on freeing the voice' We using the natural bodill resonators.2l5
irre used to hearing tennis players grunt and sigh after all' Just thinking about voice as action and the notion of its having a spatial
approach, voice train- dimension gives us another zone to play in. We can all recall testing an
Just as physical training can lead to a mechanical
ing can trap the actor in technique. Technical proficiency is frequently echo in a cave or tunnel with a shout, the wonder of hearing our own voice
:rrtained at rhe expense of the emotive and intuitive self, wedding the reverberate. Sending sotrnds into imagined spaces encourages you to think
irctor to rules and strictures about breathing and voice production. Play- of sound in terms of :shape, and helps in training to place the voice.
power
orientated vocal work is a less mechanical aYenue to discovering the Sending a sound through a wide tunnel or a narrow tunnel, across the sea
and spirit of the voice. or up a mountain, malies different demands on the breath and facial
muscles. And the idea o[ sound as action can be harnessed in trying to
overturn a chair or swr'ep the floor. You won't succeed of course, but
Operatic musical chairszl2 invoking the imagination in voice work is as important as in physical
Use opero os the music for the game -something like the three tenors'or training, and you may discover something about the way volition affects
Lesley Gorret will do nicely.Ploy o gome of musicol choirs with the
odded the voice. Always be aware of what happens in the body. Generally if the
proviso thatwhen you lose your choir,i.e- when you ore out,you sing on oria' body is static the sound will have less power. Let the body accentuate the
Imitote the vigour ond verve of the opero singers'You moy be ecstouc or sound produced.
despercte thot you've lost your choir. Both Grotowski and' I-ecoq encouraged actors to use mimicry, always
rooted in the principle that any sound must pass through the whole body.
Many practitioners see voice as an extensionof movement and, as such, Accuracy is just as crucial here as in mimed actions. Try mimicking the
aocal actionrather than simply the articulation of speech,"' fo. the
voice sound of dripping water; shovelling gravel, starting t car, any animal. It is

is produced by bodily movement' however slight: both respiration and the reciprocal relationshil between voice and movement which needs to be

movement originate in the pelvic region. sounds that tennis players make, playfully explored, fed L:, visual and aural observation.
effort' Decroux's one-time :rllaborator Jean-Louis Barrault, repudiated the
for instance, are allied to expulsions of breath accompanying physical
vocal action means working on the voice as an expressive channel along- rule of silence in mime, pointing out that sound is the result of breath. He
side movement rather than training the voice per se'
'Proper voice work is very physical,' asserts Patsy Rodenburg, Voice
coach at the Royal National Theatre: '[It] makes use of the whole body
from head to toe . . . speaking and singing are really the end results of a

you
whole series of reflexive physical actions and body placement which with this respiratory tecirnique and his own concept of character creation
simply must become aware of to gain mastery and control over your vocal enabled Barrault to deve, i,p work which epitomised the notion of the 'total

instrument'.2ia 15. common denominator is breathing' actor'. His mime pieces exploited the organic link between sound and
Most actors are familiar with preparatory exercises which alternate the action, so that as perforrii:rs struggled against waves created physically by
three breathing states of in, otit, and held, drawing the air into the others, for example, thel also vocalised the sound of water.
lowet'
r3B THROUGH THE BODY
Steven Berkoff frequently emulates this way of working, for example in
t.he opening seqlrence of Harnlet: 'We hear the wind tearing round the
trrrrets. It is the breath of the actors. They make the wind. They act as
orchestla, both physically and psychically'.216 Similarly, when Dario Fo
pcrf<rrms the starving Zanni, coniuring up an imaginary feast, he creates
rll the sound effects himselfi 'syncopated sounds of gurgling stews arrd
sizzling oils' . and 'musical vocalisations that resemble a iazz singer
scltting his way through a song'.217
One way of approaching sound effects is to start by exploring indi-
vidual words physically in some depth through the body, which is what
happens in the next exercise.
Wind and sea
The oim of this exercise is to creote d sense of o boll being swept olong on
empty beoch. First of oll, experiment with ploying'Boll on theWind' (from
section three: the body), ond oftemPt to creote the sounds of the wind os the
boll is wofted round the circle, ond the seo woshing in ond out on the
'beqch'.This is likely to prove difficulT ond you moy find octors ore tentotiye
obout moking sounds.
Put the boll aside for the time being. Spread out oround the room ond
remind yourself of the exercise of running from one side of the room to the
other to disploce the oir (section thres the body in space).
Step I
Imogine the oir in the spoce moving os wind ond move ogoinst 6 finding
where the resistdnces occur in the body, then let it blow you from behind.
Ploy with this idea, surprising yourself by ohering the strength of the wind
ond its direaion. Notice whot efleas this hos on the body ond the breoth. Be
os precise os you con - ds though your'outside eye' can tell which strength
ond direction you're ploying with ot ony time.
Let holfthe group wotch ond discuss the level of occurocy ochieved ond vice
versd.
Step 2
Now ottempt to'be'the wind.This meons finding whot Lecoq colls the
dynomic of wind, rts rnternol energy ond rhythm. Remernber to involve the
; ,"" sENTIENT BoDY r3g
whole body.The more extreme your movements become the better ot this
stoge. l'
As you begin to express the dynomic, emphosise your breothing, ollowing
sound to come with it Explore the possibillties of thot sound whilst
continuing to move.
Let half the group wotclt ogoin ond discuss the results.
Step 3
L,
Now repeot the exercise with the word seo. Imagine the oir in the room
moving os seo ond exp,gre how you move with or ogoinst it. Avoid ony
pretend swimming! Nouce whot hoppens to the body ond the breoth, ond
try to be precise.
Then progress to 'beinf the se4 finding its dynomic in your movement.And
finolly let sounds emergf from your movements.Try to be os honest os you
con with these.lf you find yourself slipping into clichdd teo noises', which
you might hove mode sitting in o choir, stop ond repeot the previous steps.
Then split the group in l:olf. One holf vocalises the wind ond holf the seo
whilst possing the boll bt:tween you os in'Ball in the Air'.Try to mointoin your
own rhythm,so thot wihd ond seo remoin seporote. Notice if theret o
difference between this ,rnd your previous ottempt ot moking the sound
eflecls. Break up the cixle so the boll is possed in o more orbitrory monner,
to copture the ideo of oboll blown olong o beoch.
Work like this takes tirne to develop, and requires a lack of inhibition. Many
young actors are highly 'voice-inhibited'. Without words, they can be ex-
tremely expressive; as soon as they open their mouths they either clam up
or mutter or gabble. What is worse) they seem to shlink physically too, and
risk undoing al-l the prJvious work they've done.
.i
To a certain.eitent:rith physical work, actors cannot see how well or
I
badly they are perforriiing an action; yet when they speak their auditory
feedback tells them im.mediately. If we are self-conscious about our bodies
we are even more self-crnscious about our voice.
I{ayley Carmichaelip uts her finger on the problem when she recalls her
'I was qtrite happy to just be on stage and I could believe in
early training:
anything that happenoil as long as I didn't open my mouth . . . as soon as
I opened my mouth it',ras just Hayley . . . [I thought] it doesn't sound like
140 THROUGH THE BODY
another character. It sounds just like me'.218 We identify ourselztes with our
voice, it
represents us, our personality, our identity. The neutral mask
might help erase habits and traits from the body yet there is no equivalent
neutral mask for the aoice.
'Never listen to your own voice,' says Grotowski, ' . . . if you listen to
your own voice you block the larynx and block the processes of reson-
ance'.21eHis vocal training taught actors to set in motion the whole system
of resonances within the body, directing the voice towards the ceiling
(from the mouth) or the wall (from the chest) and listening to what comes
back, rather than what goes out.
The notion of liberating the voice in this way rests on the fact that vocal
range is not limited to sounds produced by the larynx and vocal chords.
Grotowski developed his actors' voices by using the body's natural reson-
ators. The existence of these has been known in the East and Africa for
centuries, but only recently rediscovered in Europe by Alfred Wolfsohn.
Working with these resonators, Wolfsohn was able to extend the range of
'singers, actors and ordinary people . . . from two to eight octaves, and even
nine'.220
There are five main resonators: the mouth, chest, stomach, the top and
the back of the head, which all act as amplification chambers to carry the
voice. Learning to compress the air into different resonators at will, and
exploit inactive ones to swell the sound, was a focal point of Grotowski's
early research and he acknowledged his debt to Wolfsohn. Grotowski's
Topards a Poor Theatre (1975: tzr-t34) contains detailed exercises for
working on the resonators and placing the voice, which can be practised
individually. (These techniques are primarily about releasing the potency
of the voice, the focus is on the voice in the whole body not merely the
throat and larynx-)
Wolfsohn's research led him to the conclusion that'the voice is not the
function solely of alry anatomical structure, but the expression of the
whole pelsonality',22t which is why, of course, we identify so strongly with
our own voice. His gifted pupil Roy Hart developed this research and
founded The Roy Hart Theatre, which moved from London to France at
around the same time as Peter Brook moved to Paris - both as a result of
an invitation from Jean-Louis Barrault. In fact, it was Brook who took
Glotowski to see Hart's work in the rg6os. Hart, Brook and Grotowshi
have all made significant inroads into the relationship between liberating
the voice and psychic energy. Through using the body's natural resonators
. THE SENTIENT BODY L+T
I
their actors have been.uble to tap'a fuller and richer range of sound and
emotiont.222 ':j
The Roy Hart Theatre's ideological approach lies in the way they havc
t,223
'redefined the word "1p, sing" recognising voice as the manifestation of
the psyche, and an ethos which lies in confronting psychological difficul-
ties through the voice. However, the voice is not separated from the body
as the work embraces a high degree of physical involvement.
Ugly sounds are as valuable and valid as beautiful sounds: screaming
and raw emotional expression are integral to the process. Consequently,
their work challengei hegemonic acceptance of what is natural and
pleasing. Performers riot only seek to liberate their own tensions through
sound, but also thosi of the audience. The Artaudian overtones are
evident, and, like Artaud, members of the Roy Hart Theatre often receive
a mixed reception. Enriquo Pardo, one of its members, performed Hymn
to Pan in Stockholm i:r r982, a piece which involved exploring his voice
with sudden switchesi' from animal to human, bestial to spiritual, with
screams and cries. This succeeded in alienating some members of the
audience, yet one revie'r stated '[he] has created a mythological and poetic
langu.age'.22+
You can't suddenly'liberate the voice in an afternoon's workshop. Like
mask work, the best rcute is to undertake a course run by an experienced
practitioner. The next Jequence of exercises gives a small taste of this sort
of work, and is adapted from a workshop given by Guy Dartnell (who has
trained with Roy Hart) which had a profound effect on a group of my
student actors. The elrlier exercise sprNE TAIeING is a good preface for
this. But do also use br:eathing exercises first, paying attention to filling the
lungs from both the dlaphragm and thoracic areas.
Pass the notezzs
Ploying o geme of 'SouidTog', andlor'Boll on theWind', with the addition
of releosihg o sound os'vou tag or throw the ball will help free up the voice
frst
Step I
Stond in a circle.One frr:rson sings o note ond posses it to the next and so
on round the circle. A4tlle sure you lookinto your partner's eyes os you Poss
ond receive the note.Think ofit os o present being given.
r42 THROUGH THE BODY
You might notice how moles ond femoles tend to oher the octove, men
lowering d note posse d by o womon, ond women roising one possed by c
mon.We hove in-buih culturol conditioning thot couses us to use our vocol
ronge occording to perceptions of gender, moles using the lower register ond
femoles the higher.
Step 2
Poss the note ogoin ond this time try to keep it in the some octove. Men
moy hove to find their folsetto voice, ond women their controlto or boritone
register.This moy couse loughter,portly out of emborrossment.Actors moy
be surprised ot whot cornes out when they go beyond the normol limis of
their ronge.lt is extremely useful to find the extent of your whole ronge ond
be oble to utilse h women especiolly, as mony young female actors hove a
tendency to oyeruse the higher regrbter.
Step 3
Once you hove completed o few circuits, invite octors to chonge the note by
sliding up or down the scole before possing it on- So on octor tokes tfte note
from the previous person, ond explores it to the whole group os s/he olters
the note before possing it on to the next person.
Allow the notes to be'impure'.The oim is not to creote o perfeoJy sung note,
but to ploy with the note in o spontaneous monner os o vocol sound, ond let
the idiosyncrosies of your dttempts to change it shine through.You moy find
o break in the voice creotes something interesting forexomple. F-scoggerote
ony peculiorities thot emerge ond develop them. Eoch person moy therefore
toke o minute or so to receive, ploy with ond poss on the note.
The energy required for this is guite intense, donT let it flog-Try to feel you
are filling the spcce with the sound, in o similsr woy to your work on
presence. Ihis moy meon increosing the volume, but it is clso obout releostng
the lotent power of the voice.
Stgp 4
In the next round, exoggerote the body movements tfrot hove storted to
occompany the note/sound.The leoder moy stop individuols ond encouroge
them to explore the possibilities inherent in the sound in relotion to its
emotionol quolities.Ihis is diffrcuk to describe in pring but will become
opporent if you hove followed eoch step through.
T']rE SENTTENT BODY r43
As the sounds produced beccme more complex, they ocquire on
"-otjorol
resononce beyond the everyr{oy which con be developed. h hos nothing to do
with whot an octor might be feeling ond everything to do with the
spontoneous creotivity of the moment ln some instonceg the essence of o
chorocter con stort to emerb,e, os yoice ond movement syntftesise.
The following extract from a student actor, writing after this exercise,
describes the effects:
[4/e found' ways of making nbises preuiously und.iscoaered,, and. began to ta.p int,
hidden meanings and irnp:ukes which get obscured by words with literal
meanings. often the sounds 'phich seemed as if they pere gotng nrong meated
the greatest emotional d,epth, These were particularty powerfut if they occurretl
on the breale of sorneone's tioice, a preaiously unused, sound, phich they would
h'aoe normally thought of a"s entbarrassing, but proued to haoe the greatest
emotional qualities.
In sound-making exercise; like this we are searching 'to discover how the
human voice can vibraterin a manner that matches certain emotional
experience'.226 Freeing thE: voice in this way not only alerts us to its
inherent physicality, the wey it can move through the body rike a wave, but
just as crucially its psychological impact, how a wave of sound flowing
through us awakens deep-s1 sensibilities. When the voice then meets
language, it becomes an enrrtional probe, seeking sonorities and vibrations
beyond literal meaning.
Acknowledging the para-linguistic properties of language leads us into
the realm of sound as poeiry. Poets recognise that the fabric of language
has emotional codes and rlrreads beyond the personal or eyen public. As
Ted Hughes points out, ,he tone of a sound transmits more than its
semantic meaqing: 'a sirnple syllable can transmit volumes'.227 Hughes
suggests therg.l& a 'comrri,.rn tonal consciousness' which operates in the
same way thi Jungian qollective consciousness.
"s
It was this'idea of a universallanguage of communication that domin-
ated Peter Brook's experiments in the early rg7os.
The first year of Broclr:'s International centre of rheatre Research,
based in Paris, was devotr:J to the 'study of the structures of sound',228
which culminated in the project orghast, perforrned at the ancient tombs
of Darius the Great at shiiaz in lran (then persia). During the rehearsal
r44 THROUGH THE BODY
pr.ocess, actors rgere given fragments of archaic languages to work on, in-
cluding Ancient Greek and Latin, and Avesta, one of the atavistic Persian
lrrnguages. Brook writes of how the actors brought an emotional faculty to
bear on these alien linguistic patterns 'scanning them with . ' . sensibility',
so thar gradually hidden rhythms and 'latent tides of emotion swelled up
tncl shaped the phrases unril the actof found himself speaking . . . with in-
creasing force and conviction'.22e Semantic meaning still evaded the actor,
but .every actor found it possible to play the words with a deeper and richer
sense of meaning than if he had known what they were meant to say''230
As part of this search into the somatic roots of language Brook brought
in the poet Ted Hughes to invent a new language, called Orghast, which
cxploited the possibilities of tones and sounds without being dependent
pn neaning- (A.C.H. Smith has written brilliantly about this and the
wlrole project in his book Orghast at Persepolis.) Hughes's task was to find
sounds corresponding to abstract ideas; he knew that'the deeper into lart-
gLl*ge one goes, the more dominated it becomes by purely musical modes,
tnd the more dramatic it becomes - the more unified with total states of
being and with the expressiveness of physical action.'231
Dialogue is not simply to explain but to express. Playing with the tonal
potential of language and its sonorous and rhythmic qualities is vital to
tinding channels of expression.
Invented languages, such as those used in srtcr STORIES, have a
lulsome tradition in European theatre via the commedic legacy. The tour-
irrg Commedia troupes routinely combined a number of different Italian
clialects, and the physicality of the performance in foreign countries was
lrelped along by the use of grammelot.Z3z Dario Fo is a modern exponent of
rhis kind of made-up languag;e, defining it as a'babel of sorrnds which,
rronetheless, manages to convey a sense of speech . ' . Grammelot indicates
the onomatopoeic flow of a speech, articulated without rhyme or reason'
but capable of transmitting, with the aid of particular Bestures, rhythms
,rnd sounds, an entire, rounded speecht.233
Invented languages offer a degree of freedom and licence' And Dario
Fo points out their usefulness when performers - or writers - want to escape
the censors. He cites an incident when Molidre flouted the censor's edicts
concerning an anti-Jesuit passage by using an actor who was a grammelot
cxpert, 'capable of delivering a whole monologue in phoney French, using
llo rrlore than a dozen genuin€ words and filling out the rest with
trnomatopoeic inventions'.234
TFI{ SENTIINT BODY 145
In Min Fars Hus (tgl"-,1.i Barba's Odin actors used a fabricated lar'=
guage 'based on tonal and lhythmic variations rather than on linguistic
signification'.z3s There were odd Russian words, but mostly the language
comprised nonsense words that'sounded Russian'. A similar experiment
occurred when Trestle Theatre collaborated with a Rumanian theatre
company: the result was a:ilanguage which used some Rumanian words
but, more importantly, 'sounded' Rumanian, which the actors spoke in
Beggar's Belid QggB). Although the actors in this production were
masked, voice and sound-language added a corroborative dimension,
giving out emotional signab too.
Copeau and his nephew., Michel Saint-Denis, and their associates,
experimented with what thry called grummelotage or 'the music of mean-
ittg'.t'u This form of expression 'attempted to transmit states of mind by
cries, murmurs and chantin$ all related to the dramatic moment' but lack-
ing any semantic logic,237 and, predictably, when Artaud heard about it he
was impressed. Believing the tone of the voice was more important than
conventional notions of 'e:ocution', led Michel Saint-Denis, (who took
over as director of the Ccrapagnie des Qrinze from Copeau and later
founded key drama training'outlets in London) to work without them too.
He wrote: 'If we dispense al first with words, it is only to make clear that
words are the result of an inirer state, an inner physical state, related to the
senses, which conditions the spoken word.'238
A rather more prosaic viy of approaching the sonorities and physical
expressiveness of language is to use the following exercise.
,
Sweanspeak r
Sweor wordsin most longro!., ore strong ond forcefut,frequenily with hord
consononts ond short yowe,s, and charged with sonic energy. lt is importont
"j,Yl!;,iiii'::;il';.,
them to teoch one ofthese
phoneticotty to oihers who ore unfomilior with it Don't spelt the word or
trons/ote its rneoning. Simpty'teoch it sonically.
Once everyone hos o word,thty then investigote it vocolly, allowing the
impulses it generotes in the twdy to provoke octions ond movements through
exploring every dynomic of iti sound. For example if the word has on's' in it,
 r46 THROUGH THE BODY THE SENTIENT BODY r47
occentuate it so that you reolly hiss it. Find whot kind of energy the ward
Voice Director at the RrJyal Shakespeare Company, and Patsy Rodenburg,
gives you- Explore the word fully, ond dont sett/e on one oction or gesture,
Head of the Voice Departments at the Royal National Theatre and
but find os many os you can.
Guildhall School of Speech and Drama, have both published immensely
Move oround the spoce, discovering how expressive you con be with this useful manuals which contain a wealth of exercises for actors (Berry,rg73
word. and rgBT; Rodenburg,rggT). These are especially valuable for making t\at
vital connection betweer voice, text and emotion.
Find new words, ogoin from on unknown longuoge, perhops one
frotm the
Eostern or Southern continents where the spelling is more olien ond you
hove to opprooch them phoneticoily.This tlme choose words which hoye less
force.They moy still hove on onomotopoeic resononce. Breok them up into
syllobles, so thot actors leorn them phoneficotty with no understonding
of celebrate joy and sorrow. There are several key practitioners in this field,
whot they meon. Run the some exercise as with sweor words.
including Helen Chadryick for example, who works with songs gathered
from Eastern European, folk traditions. Singing together also prornotes a
Like Artaud, Brook came to recognise the incantatory and ritualistic complicit6 with a spiritrlal edge.
qualities of language. The previous exercise reminds us that sounds
work Without any tune i". ,orrg, choral singing can uncover tonal and
on us physically iust as movements do, conjuring feelings. Certain quali_ melodic potency in the collective voice. The next exercise is like an old
ties of sound affect us even when we don't know the language, charglng
us friend which many actors may already know. Yet it is unerringly fresh with
ernotionally or spiritually. Humans also, in times of great elation or
each acquaintance.
trauma) express themselves in sounds rather than words. As the or.ghast
experiment seemed to prove, in extremis ranguage is close to music, and
music, like myth and dreams, transcends articulate expression. Choral hum
In the African experiment which followed orghast,Brook's search was Ue on the floor ond get'tomfortable.Controct ond releose the muscles from
for musical sounds which could communicate beyond words and across
feet to heod, os in'Livin! Silence', ond close your eyes. Everyone breothes
cultures. The encounter with the nomadic peulh tribe (superbly docum-
deeply, initiolly breothing.lin ond out with o beot of four or so, ond holding
ented in John Heilpern's account of that African journey, The conJerence
the breoth in between i# unison. Ihen each actor frnds their own rhythm of
of Birds) and the subsequent 'meeting' of the actors and tribesme' in a
deep breothing. 'r'
single 'ah' sound, taught Brook that 'a universal ranguage might be as
simple as one note repeated many, many times. But the right note must be Groduolly, let the oir .possing the lorynx moke a sound. Develop this into o
discovered first'.239 note you con sustoin, toking in breoth to fuel it. Don't olter your note to
.Brook's work illustrates how getting away from the notion of taming mimic anyone else, nor l.ci creote hormonies ot this stoge. Wh en everyone is
the voice and seeing it as a creative instrument, indissolubly linked to our ir note, invite them to increose the volume, letting the
emotional and spiritual core, can lead us into new territory. rqan.When this chord reoches its zenith,let it
Just as so much
physical work on the body is about stripping away, so too with the voice: ,'
it
is a question of shedding nor only inhibition, but habits, clich6s and This moy be enough for irhose encountering rt for the frst time.
personal mannerisms to find a heightened state of vocal perception.
During the last thirty years a new breed of voice teachers, influenced in ln further triols, move oiio to devetoping thesound so thot individuols vory
some degree by wolfsohn's research, have developed methods designed to pitch ond tone, exploring the resonotors in their bodies when producing the
erase the multiple blockages which curtail the actor's voice. cicely sound, ond responding to the colleajye sound of their portners.This is rnost
Berry,
r48 THROUGH THE BODY .THE
SENTIENT BODY r49
effeaive when no-one ottempts to leod or impose ony preordoined ideo of had taken part under his direction' and asked
how she should use them,
hormony or melody on the sound. Stanislavsky replied, .Birrn them all.'2u
Toporkov reminds us.Jhat early on in his career
stanisravsky had cated
Each group will find their own chemistry in creating this sound, depending for 'control, clariry and completeness in even the most
insignificant
on the varieties of voice within the group. It has never failed me yet as an physical actions',z4s and that he arways
insisted on ,good diction, in his
exercise which has a profound effect on actors as an uplifting experience. actors'physical actions. in fact he arways starred
with the physicar line
The way the sound swells and reaches towards a climax before clying of actions for any scencq ,It was c
tway in this exercise demonstrates the principle of Jo-Ha-Kyu' discussed an actor could reveal thq.,scheme o
in the previous section on RHyrHM. And once actors have a grasp of the actions or with a minimym number '
i':

otkas - posyl - stoiha explored in that section, it can be applied to shaping The point about Staniqlavsky whi
:r sound, whether percussive or vocal, to give it an internal dynamic. is that he demanded actron in rehearsal not
discussion, discirssion came
after the physical exploration: 'when actors
start to reason . . . the wilr is
't,
weakened. Don't discuss,''iust do it.'He
E_MOTION worked meticurously on the tiniest
details by provoking the ;ctor's imaginative
response to the .given circum-
Words pere rare[t the starting point - . . Out of the physical action would come stances' to uncover phyq;cal actions. As
to feelings, Stanisla:vsky .refused
the feeling.zn to let us play feelings', w.rites Toporkov, and
insisted that ,we must play :.'/
tmages .. . feeling wil come of itself as a result of our concentration
on
If training in rhythm and voice serve as pathways to sensitivity, where live action in the given circumstances.'242
does emotion fit in? It is perhaps easier to relate rhythm and sound to The essence of Stanisravsky's system was that
once the physicar actions
movement. Yet emotion is also an active force, an energy which provokes were uncovered, every action had to be justified
by a."tiorr"t and logicar
',:'
movement. Hyphenating the word 'e-motion', as I have done in the title of analysis in behavioural terrns. He worked
on characters through analogies
this section, alerts us to its active nature. to'real life', as though r.hey had an existence beyond
the text. In fact,
Actors often expend large amounts of energy attempting to pump up stanislavsky's 'physical dcdons' are rea'y psycho-physical
actions, a res-
emotional states by calling up personal memories to provoke the symp- ponse through the sensoiy body to imagining
someone in the given situ-
toms of a feeling. Intentionally seeking psychic states or regurgitating the ation' And he was' of course, preoccupied primarily
with naturaristic texts
memory of emotion, will produce at the very least an imitation of an emo- and fourth-wall realism, vrhich demanded a
literar reprication of human
tional state, at worst hysteria. What causes actors to do this is a misinter- behaviour. Nevertheress, li's advice to his
acrors to conduct daily exercises
pretation of, and over-emphasis on Stanislavsky's concept of 'emotion in rhythm and voice is itrstructive: 'Every physical
action is inseparabry
memoryt. linked with the rhythm wF,ich characterises
it.'2a8
The actor Vasily Toporkov's account of Stanislavsky's rehearsals for Meyerhold, one-time f,:pil of Stanislavsky, came to reject the psycho_
1,,.1

Tartuffe (tg:8)'at is enlightening and should be compulsory reading for er's middle years, which he thought un_
actors. By this point in his career, Stanislavsky was nearing the end of his ysiological route. Emotional expression
was
life and wanted to ensure that those he trained understood that the foun- led physical choreography; Meyerhold was
dation for his system was physical aclions, 'the chief element of stage more concerned with moiiing the spectator 1t'
'When than what went on inside the
expressiveness'.242 asked in rehearsal about 'emotional states', ir.

Stanislavsky replied "'Emotional states)'. What is that? I never heard of

it',2+3 which was cleally a denial of his own earlier work. And when an
'''::
actress said she had 'kept detailed notes of all the rehearsals in which she
r50 THROUGH THE BODY
l'{a-ha-ha
A simp/e demonstrotion of the physicol noture of emotion is to smile ond
repeat the phrose 'ha-ho-ho-ho-hs'; ft is more thon likely you'll begin to louglt
and feel momentorily 'hoppy', turn your mouth down ond squeeze your
eyelids together ond you reproduce the sensotion of being near to tedrs
for no other reoson thon you ore activoting muscles used for loughing oitd
crying.
As both Meyerhold and Lecoq have pointed out, the muscles used for
llughing and crying are the same) yet you will feel differing rhythms of
brerrthing and muscle movement with each of these in the following
cxerclse.
Face masksz4e
Line up holf o dozen octors facing the rest of the group os oudience. Eqch
octor wolks forword os though into the 'rnosk-moker's workroom'. On their
left sits the trogic mcsk, on their right the comic mosk.They try on each in
turn, using their focial muscles initiolly to represent the feotures of eoch
mosk.
fhey must go from one to the other; os though they ore looking in o mirror,
and develop a seporote stonce for eoch mosk,loughing bodily in the comic
mos( weepin g bodily in the trogic mosk.Ihe focicl expression octs in the
some woy os o troining mosk releosin g dromotic expression through the
body.Actors who hove undertoken mosk work will find their obility to do this
effedively is enhonced.Try olso to find the somatic rhythms of eoch'mask'
through you r breothing.
After o few minutes eoch actor finds thot the comic mosk is stuck. S/he
connot remove it no motter how hord s/he tries. S/he is fixed permonently
with the smiling foce of the comic mosk, ond the internal despoir of the
tropped mosk-moker.
'tr'he principle here is that you can recreate the appropriate muscular
tension and, in finding the shape of the body or facial muscles and related
breathing states, emotion becomes apparent. You are internally passive
zrnd externally active, focusing only on t}r'e doing of the task'
TH-{:; SENTIENT BODY I5I
Actors who try to play the feeling first will invariably be less successful
than those who find the physical configuration of the face and body. That
is not to say that the physica! manifestation will not provoke feeling, but
ll.'
the starting point is the physiological, not the psychological. When the
starting point is the transfoqneation of the body, the feeling gains authen- 1.,.,
- ticity through the palpabilityiof action. Instead of chasing elusive feelings
through the mind, the body traps them in the muscles. ..:
The idea of stimulating.emotions through physiological means has
recently undergone intensive research by Susana Bloch, Pedro Orthous ,.::
and Guy Santibaflez-H."0 Tt'."y suggest that actor training should include
systematicpsycho-physiologicalexercisesrnexplessrngemotlon. ..--:
The technique they developed for simulating emotions trains the actors
to adopt specific breathing,Fatterns to control muscular tensions which l
are integrated into 'dynamicor static, biztre postures)rzsl and control eye ,i
and facial muscles. Actors ,yere able to reproduce specific emotions at
will, and learned to vary their intensity through these 'effector patterns':
'When an. . . observer. . . vatches the correct execution of an emotional
effector pattern, s,/he consir-rrs the observed emotion as'truet as a spon-
taneous one', although the performers 'had not'felt' the emotion and had
concentrated only on exectrting as precisely as possible the instructions
given by the experimenters.'1152
In a controlled experimerii:, actors trained in this method of switching
on and off emotions by use rrf effector patterns performed a scene from
Chekhov's The Seagull, anc, made a more convlnclng tmpact on an
audience of seven theatre di::ectors than those who had worked on the
scene in a conventional man!ier.253
A period of psycho-physiological analysis of the play preceded this
work, and this is what distinguishes it as a potentially rigid method rather
than a creative pathway to witrking on emotions in text work, for an 'emo-
tional baseline'had to be outlined for the scene thr-ough intellectual analysis
before it ;Nonetheless, that the
correct e :tor patternstr feelings
in them fectiveness of physio-
logical means. What is more inrpressive is the way the actors were trained to
switch on and off various emri'iional states so they could shift between them.
There is, though, a huge janger in standardising emotions rarher than
allowing a free play of ernrtional registers. Bloch maintains that 'the
psychological language useri in the theatre to denote emotions is too
r52 THROUGH THE BODY
imprecise'.zs4 And she may well be correct. But any attempt to notate texts
with emotional behaviour is akin to suggesting art can be created by
joining up the dots.
One of the interesting things to emerge from Bloch's experimental
research is the way pure emotional states need to be blended together to
achieve mixed emotions. Sq for example, mixing joy and anger gives you
pride - anger generated from tensions in the back and neck, and joy from
'laughter breathing'. Each mixed emotion has a similar recipe of basic
ingredients in different proportions; irony uses different degrees of joy
and anger, for example, with tension in the limbs rather than the torso, and
the degree of 'joy breathing' is turned up a notch. This is, I think, a useful
concept for actors because it promotes the idea of emotional complexity.
Breath is the key: altering the rhythm of breathing generates a powerful
link between pattet'ns of movement and emotional expression. And Bloch
discovered that using only the breathing patterns would create the desired
facial expressions in the actors.
Artaud's ideal of the actor as an 'athlete of the heart' was looted in a
breathing system designed to elicit emotions: 'Since breathing accompanies
feeling the actor can penetrate this feeling through breathing providing he
knows how to distinguish which breathing suits which feeling.'Zss Based
on the points of Chinese acupuncture, the idea was that certain breathing
patterns release suppressed feelings held in various organs. So, for
example, dlawing and directing breath from/to the kidneys in the small of
the back produces sorrow, and from/to the solar plexus produces anger.
Long sustained breaths create subdued reflective emotions, whilst short
accelerated rhythms induce agitation.
The idea that suppressed feelings are embedded in the subcutaneous
regions of the body is reminiscent of Freud's belief that suppressed
desires reside in the subconscious. And Feldenkrais reminds us that our
bodies reflect and proiect inner states: 'Every emotion is, in one way or an-
otheS associated and linked in the cortex with some muscular configur-
ation and attitude.'2s6 This means 'each phase of movement, every small
transf-erence of weight, every single Besture of any part of the body reveals
some.feature of . . . inner life.'zs1
It is clear that muscles remember. Actors and dancers remember the
physical score of the action just as the pianist's fingers remember the
notes. Therefore, concluded Grotowski, 'memories are always physical
reactions'.Z58 In other words, the body will do its own remembering.
T}!E SENTIENT BODY r53
Rather than using will to provoke a particular emotion, he encouraged his
actors to allow the mind to: become passive, thereby unlocking the body's
own way of accessing feelirrg.
The following exercise encourages actors to discover this in relation to
a personal memory. Theib is no necessity for them to articulate the
memory orally, or describd what happened. Participants will need to be
familiar enough with each cther to touch them.
,
Memory sculptures
l
To begin with everyone lies on the floor in o reloxed stote. Feel the back
spreod over the floor, ond caltroct ond releose oll the muscles os on
previous occosions. Close your eyes.
Recoll ony inddent in which possionote. lt con be something
lyou felt very
thot hoppened to you from opy time in your life, but ir is importont thor it is
on incident you feel is signif,:ont in some woy.
Grodually olbw your boQ tot respond to the memory. Keeping your eyes
closed, let your body fnd fri>sition thot corresponds to how you feh ot the
o
time. (NB;This js not o litero! replicotion of how you stood or sot) Agoin,like
the previous exercise, this is rather like mosk work but don't over<ontort
your foce. lf you find you're doing so,try ond revert to o blank expression
ond re-route ony tension dovvn through the body.
Fxoggerote this posltlon to ioximise every point of tension.Reolly controct
the muscles ond extend youf,timbs to the moximum reoch.And work out
whot rhythm of breothing octomponies the stonce.
Now relox- Keeping your eye's closed, go bock ond forth between the reloxed
lying position ond"your'memary position'moking sure you know where every
osrent is.
peJ these positions to their moximum expression,
tattd.
Now work in poirs.Withort ii,rbolisirg, eoch oaor'sculpts,their portner,s
body into the positjon they tfrcmselves creoted. yo ur portner will cooperote
rqther like o rog doll,willingtyl:ontorting hislher body to your toctile jnstruc-
tions. Moke sure you convey,+here the tension points ore, ond to whot
 .s4 TI{ROUGH THE BODY
extent the limbs should reoch.Try notto demonstrote.Ihe workshould be
conducted in silence.
When you ore being'sculpted' by your portner, try to be os helpful os
possible but do not try and interpret the movement.You will begin to feel
points o[ tens ion, ond need to exoggerote those os you did previously. Closing
your eyesfrom time to time witl hetp you focus. Notice whot interncl stot6
the sculpting hos on you. Does it prompt ony porticulor breothing rhythm?
Do the tensions imposed provoke ony feeling in you?
Once eoch poir hos completed their sculptures,they ore presented
individuolly to the group.The rule is thot you con never osk on individuol
whot the incident wos, nor should they reveol iLThot would be dromo
theropy. H owever, in my experience, the results demonstrote some intensely
felt posslons, which ore frequently very'reodoble'in terms of emoilon if not
contexL
Ihose who are'sculpted'report bock on the degree to which the physiv
logicol impulses impoaed on their breothing rhythms ond feelings.The work
should be evoluoted in terns of whot the octors hove leorned oboutthe
relotionship between feeling ond the body from both creoting their own
m em o ry sculpture o nd' m o delling' som eon e else's.
The use of somatic memory was a cornerstone of Grotowski's practice,
and his disciple Eugenio Barba carried this on with his Odin actors. Both
agree that pumping up emotional states is very damaging. At the same
time, both demand a deep level of honesty and sincerity from actors,
constantly paring away habits and clich6s through a ztia negatizta approach,
i.e. not directing the actor towards something but away from their own
physical and vocal nrannerisms.
Grotowski believed that 'by means of concrete details it is possible to
attain what is personal.'25e He advised drawing on the most intimate and
private memories we secrete within us to use at high dramatic moments:
'In the most important moment in your role, reveal your most personal
and closely guarded experience.'260 The example he gives is that an actor
required to kill an animal in a play might recognise that 'killing an animal
in a scene fwould] give them a thrill, a sort of climax', and therefore recall
his personal experience of intense physical climax . . . so intimate, so little
neant for the eyes of others' so the 'shock of sincerity' will inform the
fictional dramatic moment.26l
THli SENTIENT BODY r55
Just as the actor working, on presence has to remember that s/he is
training an actor)s body larger, more resonant than her,/his own, s/he has
to remember that any characier is more intense. The distinction between
daily and extra-daily movernent applies ro emotion: 'If he is playing a
jealous man, that man's jealliusy is beyond his own jealousy . . . if he is
playing a violent man . . the violence he is playing has a greater charge
than his own . . . if he is playing aman of thought and sensibility . . . the
finesse of that man's feeling ii beyond his everyday capacity.'262
The actor needs not only e, capacity to feel beyond the 'daily', but also
to cultivate and appreciate a range of emotions, 'from the crudest to the
most refined'.263 And then s,/he has to be able to move from one to another,
often extremely quickly. Thrr question is how?
One strategy is to under{ake what Susan Sontag refers to as an ,edu-
cation of the heart', that is reading novels.264 Far more beneficial for
theatre actors than watching, movies, where the imaginative work has al-
ready been done, reading ncvels is an education of more than just the
heart. Reading a novel requires you to create a world from words on a page,
imagine characters, hear their private and public voices. Enough said.
By far the most important,strategy is to take the verb ,to feel, out of the
actor's working terminologyt 'If you begin by feeling something, then all
you can reach afterwards is a tense, stressed expression. A feeling cannot
be forced out- it is the result of many factorst.265 Torgier Wethal, one of
Barba's Odin troupe is refelring to the fact that feeling arises from the
integration of imagination and technique: these are the actor's primary
tools.
In performancq actors re,luire 'methods which will produce a believ-
able "human" performance every single night, irrespective of what the actor
is actually feeling.'266 The 'ray Yoshi Oida describes combining imagi-
nation and technique is instri,ctive. He suggests that you rry and perforrn
a particular emotion with marimum physical expression and then, having
achieved this, tffempt to {eep the emotion at the same level whilst
reducing the physical actior:J, which will intensify the expression.26T So
it is not more feeling, but l:.';s physical expression which intensifies the
emotion. Eventually, the ac,i,r learns to reduce the outer movement to
zero whilst maintaining the ir.ner emotional movement.
This is reminiscent of Aliaud's belief that'any true feeling cannot in
reality be expressed. To do si, is to betray it. To express it, however, is to
conceal it. True expression cr)jlceals what it exhibits'.268
r.56 THROUGH THE BODY

All the practitioners in this book recognise that emotion is not subject
to the will, and that truly powerful acting arises when authentic ideas are
shaped into communicative images. As Copeau wrote: 'Emotive expres- SECTTON 5
sion grows out of correct expression. Not only does technique not exclude
sensitivity: it authenticates and liberates it . . . upholds and protects it. It Devising
is thanks to our craft that lve are able to let ourselves gq because it is
tlranks to it that we will be able to find ourselves again'.26e ,t -'

.iI

.," l
sEcTroN 5

Devising
Actors must learn to create their own theatre.z70

All the key practitioners mentioned in this book stressed the importance
of somatic improvisation in their training, and all of them rebelled against
established theatrical convention. Yet there is little evidence of practi-
tioners dispensing with the singly-authored text until well after World
War IL
Meyerhold, for example. believed in movement as the primary element
in theatre, but he always worked with written texts, although he cut them
up and re-ordered them on occasion. He was concerned with training his
actors to serve his visionary stage compositions rather than follow their
individual creativity. And Copeau, despite his innovative use of improvi-
sation in training, was essentially a classicist who never really relinquished
his reverence for the text, though his company did work collaboratively
with the writer Andr6 Obey to produce Nod and Le Viol in 1933, after a
spell of creating their ov'ir 'new commedia' in rural Burgundy. Even
Artaud, who called so vocifbrously for the end of theatre's subjugation to
the word, wrote scripts for his surrealist productions, albeit strangely sur-
real ones. But he never advrcated the pursuit of the individual or collective
imaginary potential of the actor.
It is with the mime artis'i Etienne Decroux that we find the first call for
actors to take control of the creative process. Decroux wrote his 'order of
composition' in r93r, which is virtually a blue-print for what we now call
'devising', puttiiiC the'resfi,,rnsibility squarely on the shoulders of the new
actor for the c#fuion of a new text and a new theatre'.27I
Seventy yeafson, the singly-authored text continues to be an 'idlefxe for
mainstream theatre manaB€grents, in spite of the variery of devised work
on the touring circuit. The constant call for'new writing' in contemporary
theatre frequently means a g,lay by a young (preferably twenty-something)
writer who may have little oi'no experience of the medium of theatre, and
consequently fails to exploli the in'raginatiye power of the medium. Even
the Royal Court Theatre, lSnstion of innovations in playwriting, has been

r6o THROUGH THE BODY
known to turn down devised work from highly regarded physical-based
companies on the grounds that there isn't a text or a playwright. Like the
censor they once resisted so strongly, they want a script first - though not,
of course, for the same reasons.
Without going into the history of devising in depth, it is worth noting
that Theatre Workshop's Oh What a Looely War (1963), which transferred
to the West End of London, was essentially the most significant piece of
devised theatre to reach the mainstream British stage. It was closely fol-
LAMDA (tg6+),
lowed by Brook's experimental Theatre of Cruehy Season at
which included both improvised and text pieces, and his production of
US which, like Littlewood's, was developed with actors through a research
and development process, with a writer working alongside the process.
This was Brook's first original collaborative piece.
Both Ofr What A Looely War and US were ideologically grounded
pieces which did not conform to the idea of the well-made play but used a
more fluid collage-like structure, where contrast and juxtaposition worked
like cinematic montage to create political meaning and dramatic effects.
Both were born out of a need to convey outrage; aesthetic decisions and
dramatic effects served the political points. These were pieces unified by
theme and style rather than narrative. Significantly, creative ownership
belonged to the actors not merely through performance but in the making
process. And this was due, particularly in Theatre Workshop's case, to the
fact that the companies had worked together for a considerable time,
facilitated by gifted directors. Through training and rehearsing together
over an extended period of time, they had a shared physical and imagina-
tive vocabulary.
The more general proliferation of devised work in the post-sixties has
as much to do with the post-modern repudiation of the hierarchy of text
as the emergence of a new breed of actors or practitioners challenging the
idea of the actor-as-interpreter and reclaiming the notion of the actor-as-
creator. On a broader canvas, the newfound freedoms of the r96os
permeated theatre as much as the other arts, not least because once
censorship ceased in 1968 there was no longer a requirement to submit a
script to the Lord Chamberlain prior to performance. Performance artists,
'happenings' and a new generation of (sometimes self-taught) actors
began making use of spaces not designated as theatres (arts centres, pubs,
clubs etc.) to present performances which challenged the traditional
notion of a 'play'.
"jril
,.1'
DEVISING r6r
The seventies was thtiera of 'alternative' theatre, fuelled by politically
.tl"
impassioned theatre-workers who reinvented agit-prop to startle audi-
ences into taking notice cf social and cultural issues. The new radicalism
was finally ground down:in the mid to late eighties by Thatcherite policies
designed to reduce state support of the arts in favour of private spon-
sorship. A combination of political disenchantmenr and precarious fund-
ing resulted in many companies and studio spaces closing, and the
re-emergence of conservative text-based theatre designed to put bums on
seats so as to maximise the box-office income needed to replace lost
subsidy. For the most part, the radical devised theatre of this period w"s
more concerned with fo'm and style as carriers of ideological messages
ratlrer than exploring a irew aesthetic or championing the notion of the
actor-as-creator. More oiten than not, improvisation was a creative tool
serving a political purpdse.
Frost and Yarrow suggest that 'actors and directors have been taught to
regard improvisation only for its developmental value in actor training,
and for its occasional usc;ulness in the rehearsal situation.,ziz They claim
improvisation is put to the service of interpretation in most drama schools
so that the idea of the actor as the servant of a written text continues
to
prevail, despite rhe inflt.ence of Michel saint-Denis ancl maybe even
because of him.273 Like'his uncle, Jacques copeau, saint-Denis came to
view the actor-'s-creator as part of a training process leading towards
interpretation rather tharr towards the goar of autonomous creation. And
while copeau's pupil, Decroux, called for actors to make their own work,
he was essentially a mini.,: purist who taught silent cerebral mime rather
than acting. )
personalities.'in order to're able to make their own art: ,The aim of the
directions and so revitalii,: the rheatre'.27s
t6z THROUGH THE BODY
Unlike Decroux, who also ran a mime school in Paris, Lecoq taught his
mimes to speak. And just as importantly, he encouraged them to discover
their own performance identity as a necessary adjunct to becoming autono-
mous theatre-makers.
-fhis is sometimes painful, as some students relate:
'Lecoq strips you completely and gives you your true identity; for the first
months I was on the verge of tears . . . you go through a long process
during which he reveals you to yourself.'276 Rather like Grotowskl's t:ia
negathta, Lecoq works on the principle of steering the student away from the
known, the clich6d, the easy solution, to pare away any falsity in the acting.
This is different from excavating the self in a Grotowskian sense, for the
students' focus is urore outward looking. They are more concerned with
what they see around them than what they find within. The Lecoq school
gives students a grounding in improvisation orientated to observation iLnd
analysis of the world around them, the objects and people in it. The
founder members of Theatre de Complicit6 met at the school, and Simon
McBurney says of their early work, 'Everything was based on observa-
tions of things we could actually see and feel, combined with wherever our
imaginations would take us-'277
The study of past traditions through practical exploration is a crucial
dimension of training for devising, and in the second year of Lecoq's
proBramme students explore a range of different theatrical styles (includ-
ing Pantomime Blanche, Melodrama, Tragedy, Bouffons, Clown and com-
media dell'arte) in order to 'ground the students in the different traditions
so that they may use them as a point of reference for new workt.278 In
commedia work, for example, they learn to integrate slapstick and acro-
batics with mime and use these 'as a vehicle for emotional expression and
not just a demonstration of physical skill'.z1e
An impressive number of Lecoq graduates have been successful, and
influential, in making their own work (Steven BerLoff, Ariane Mnouch-
kine, Julie Taymor, Theatre de Complicit6), and more have been touched
by the school's teachings through the work of his colleagues (Monika
Pagneux, Philippe Gaulier) and the school's multi-national alumni. Lecoq's
ideas of training through play, with somatic improvisation as the primary
method of creativity, have fed into physical-based theatre by osmosis
through the working practice and training workshops conducted by many
ex-students.
Devising is the dominant mode of creating work in millennial physical-
based theatre, despite notable exceptions, such as the work of Steven
DEVISING r63
Berkoff,280 and Therir:re de Complicit6, who regularly mount productions
of classic texts (Tht.tVisit, The Chairs, The Caucasian Chnlh Circle) md
apply the devising ftocess to adaptation (The Street o.f Crocod'iles, I-hrec
Liaes of Lucie Cabrol and Light) whilst continuing to make devised work
(Mnemonic, rggg). I'here are indications that this may be changing as
companies with a track record in self-generated work have begun tackling
classics (The Right Size's collaboration with the Almeida to produce Mr
Puntila and His Man,Matti, r9g8; Kaos Theatre's The lrnportance of Being
Earnest, rg99, and V,olpone, zoor; Trestle's revival of Besier's The Barretts
of Wimpole Steet, 1999), and commissioning new work (eg Told By An
Idiot's production of Biyi Bandele's Happy Birthday Mister Deba 4 rqqS).
Some companies include writers as part of a collaborative team (eg Frantic
Assembly for Sell Out, ryg8; Hymns, 1999), and in some cases an actor of,
director is the writer whose script is rehearsed in a similar manner to a
devised show, and uirdergoes considerable change during the process due
to the creative inpt'.t of the actors (eg Kaos Theatre, Reiect's Revenge).
But by and large, n,ost physical-based theatre is devised by companies
whose core membelr' train and play together.
STARTING POIN] S AND PROCESS
It is from the blot thi,t ins\iration is born.zsl
The function of tiaining and improvisation is to set in motion the
creativity of actors So they not only improve themselves as performers but
also make their own work. Familiarity with physical-based devising means
actors are less inhibited and more inclined to take risks; they can also pcr-
ceive the more complex aspects of the relationship between text and word.
Above a[, they dev'elop an understanding of how theatre works.
Ail iiilr suggestilns for practical work in the preceding sections are
aimed tt actors discovering their somatic impulses, and developing a
physical articulatioir of the imagination. A shared vocabulary is what
fuels devised work:.'rhe way you train and play will inevitably inform the
style of work you pr,bdu.., even what you produce. Simon McBurney was
able to put 'half att ltonr of the show together in fifteen minutes' because
he had spent threr' weeks developing a common language between the
people working on\i rt of a House Walhed. a Man Qgg4). 'Where you begin
 DEVISING r65
fi+ THROUGH THE BODY

'I prepare them so that they Devising is rootcd in the concept of the creative actol developing ideas
is where yolr . . - prepare the groundt he states,
from tasks. It is usUally the director who both translates ideas into tirsks
ale ready; ready to change, ready to be surprised''282
because truly creative (which may be gariles or improvisations) and operates later as an cditol;
Chaos is a necessary asPect of devising, not least
quotes Picasso who' rather than view- an outside eye, a shaper of the whole, in essence as the dramaturg.
work makes use of chance. Dario Fo
might spoil a painting, Increasingly, companies who devise their work in this way refer to the
ing an unintentional blob of paint as a nless which
with sheer delight product as a scorti borrowing the musical term to indicate thet the
would watch the stain spread and 'deeply moved' begin
everything comes from the of creati,on is one of
principle composition rather than linear plot
to take advantage of that accident''Z83 When
by what happens in constructron- l
actors, what happens in performance is determined
Marcello Magni (a founder member of Complicit6 and a freelance
rehearsal, and accidental discoveries are part of that'
to director) believes t.he role of the director and designer is 'to selvice
Any group wanting to devise a piece has to discover what they want
the actors',286 and both he and John Wright (foundel of Told By An
say. Devising is 'a way of working to find out and develop ideas ' ' ' that
Idiot and a freelance director and workshop leader), describe directing as
involves stepPinB out of the conventional roles of
playwright' designer'
to become part of an facilitating. Few di,rectors have hard^and-fast methods. Each play is
clirector, actor or production manager in order
piece may be a desire to different, and each g,roup of actors have different needs. But the process
ensemble.'2S4 The prime motive for making a
rather than a piece about frequently follows .hree stages: a pre-production research period, a
create something with a specific group of people
you can make short 'making' stage whele the'text'is generated, and a final phase of rehearsing
anything in particular- Given a committed group'
you have already dis- that text.287
pieces of theatre from more or less anything - as
Many companies use video to record improvisations, and sometimes a
coveredonoccasionsduringthepracticalworkundertakensofar.Mat<ing
'scribe' to log what ,s said. These fragments are scrutinised, some ideas
apiecethatSustainsitselfovermorethanafewminutesrequiresthe
and broaden the focus will be jettisoned while others go on to be developed. It is not dissimilal to
oUitity to develop improvisational work, to build
the editing process in film, except the material is re-made each day.
ancleventuallytoeditandstructurematerialtoelicitafesponsernan
what your intended Etienne Decrouxts compositional plan posits a progression fi'om im-
audience. But it does not necessarily mean knowing
pulse to movementlo action to gesture to sound to word, and it is this
outcome is at the start.
paradigm which we lind operating in physical-based devising. Companies
Devisingisreallycollaborativewritinginthebroadestsenseofthe
.write,. Trairrirrg exercises offer a way of working that places actors speak of how their ideas come from a range of sources fermenting over a
word
period, but they *o!i. o.t these through physical improvisation. What the
in of discovery in much the same way as writing exercises'
a perpeLual state
often ct'eate final outcome of tl# piece will be is the result of this deveiopmental
The analogy with writing is pertinent: poets' for example'
afterwards' and I process. The (resear':l-red) starting point rnight be a theme, concept or even
phlases or word prra"r..,, and search for the meaning
a story but imaginailve responses and ideas are tested through perfortn-
knowseveralwriterswhohavewrittenShortStofiesandevenwholeplays
Contrary to poPular ative channels rathdilthan worked out round a table in advance. Research
from the startinB point of a creative writing exercise'
is a collectiye resporisibility. It is from research, whether book-fed, style-
belief,writersdon,tnecessarilyStartatthebeginningarrdworktlrroughto
And they research their fed or life'fed, that lireatre is made. But action arrives befole word.
the end, especially when writing for performance'
who the^y- ale and dis- The frr'st base of iil,..ro,r"'. plan is a visual scenario, and this is what the
characters while they are writing them, exploring
the writing'z8s The process commedia dell'arte r:tors constructed and built upon for their perform-
covering what they want as they progress with
ances, incorporating .rrepared lazzr. and acrobatic tricks into the scenario
is one of developing ideas and continual redrafting'
developing characters; framework. They b,:3an with a set of masked characters, but you can
Some companies, like some writers, begin with
into theatrical ideas' There develop situations thrrugh improvisation which allow characters to evolve
others start with research that gets transposed
finds its own way' through interaction rather- than deciding who they are first. Mask work
is no definitive method or starting point' Each group
166 THROUGFI THE BODY DEvrsrNG t67
(see sncrtoN rwo) is an excellent starting point for creating visual Invite actors to plal this scenario with a time limit
scenarios and seeing how characters can develop through interaction r.vith
- say five mi'utes - ancl
ring a bell to alert them to the fact that they have one minute lert t,
other masks and obiects. conclude the piece. alternativery, you can ailow preparation
tirne so thcy
I include the following examples of scenarios for those who perhaps produce a piece of work-in-progress.
have not come across one. The first is adapted from an original commedia The next scenario is a complete contrast) yet it operates o' the
same
scenario which tends towards farce, the second is much more open and can principle of giving a framework withi' and from which a host
of
be explored from a number of perspectives. Both are deliberately incom- possibilities presenl, themselves.
plete, springboards for invention rather than fixed outlines. If you have too
fixed a scenario the process is less interestingly creative because you spend ir
time working out how to get information across.
Game of strawsl8s
Fourlftve children play the oncientgorne of strows.
Commedia street
One hides the ends cf the strows in their
fst
Cost groups of six os three couples:Xl ond X2,Yl ondY2,ZI ond 22. Ihe others pick a stiaw.
The X ondY couples hove lived in this street for yeors. The one who gets the shortest strow must . ..
Xl hos o long-stonding offoir withY2.They meet behind the bccks of their Eventuolly we see thi children ore silting on o .. _

portners.
If you fill in the gops first ond then work the scenorio you
The Z couple move into the middle house. witt probobry find
Y I folls modly in love with Zl.The feeling is mutuol.They begin on offoir.

Set up the ploying oreo os suggested in Wo*ing with Commedio Mosks'in

section two.You moy wish to deslgnote entronces ond exis os specifc houses
for eoch couple - the oudience could be the third one - but it is not hoppens,you will ger s sense of surprise
lhe
- ond perhops o more imoginotive
essentioL only other item you're ollowed is o dustbin or loundry bosket - result
big enough to hide o person in-

lf you stort knowing this much, it is guite stroightfoword to let improvisotion

develop the rest of the story so thot dffirent groups hove different outcomes
ond decide on different endings.The scenorio is simply o fromeworkYou moy
decide to incorporote porticulor gomes to get the boll rolling for individuol
scenes. No-8oll lennis' is o good one for meetings between couples-in-lus\ for
exomple.And odopting'Sock-Tog'os in section three:ploy,is olso o useful
generotor.

Moke o decision about whether to wo* in o silent universe, or use gobbledy-

gook, or whether you wont to incorporote'reol' longuoge. A combinotion of
expressive sound bosed on the ideo ofthe'YeslYes'exercise ond o smotter-
ing of longuoge works quite well. Remember to keep the odion exaggeroted McBurney and lirs colleagues ser up their rehearsal room as play_
a
ground: 'we played i- lgether and we looked at the wor.ld and
ond use visuol strotegies rother thon resorting to verbol explonotions. it would rnake
us laugh and it woulc make us cry,' and out of this playground ,fragments
 168 THROUGH THE BoDY DEVTSTNG t6g
would emerge'.28e Eventually the fragments were jacked together to creilte sometimes the chernistry of performers and
how they pray togcther
the whole. enables them to wori< purely from play. The
sole purpose of .Ihe Right
At this juncture their work had a knockabout visual and physical style Size partnership, Hanrish McColl and
John Foley, is making people laugh
which operated in the realm of absurdist comedy. The performers were t:d duo they oporate rather like a doubre-acr in the
music-hall
adept at 'externalising the internal trauma of character', so although hys-
"1r
tlon. 'l'he surreal wo'lds they create include hilarious
tradi-
characters and situ_
terically funny, they also touched on the tragic isolation of characters.2e0 ations, such as a waiter on elastic (Stop Cailing
Me Wrnon,r994) and two
For example inAnythingfor a Qilet Lr.fe,Mr Pellici (Marcello Magni) and strangers stuck in a bathroom for twenty-five yeafs
(Do you come Here
Ms Box-Cooper (Annabel Arden) signalled their mutual desire through Often, ryg7). There was no reason for the elastic,
apart from its inherent
gorging on raspberry cream sponge cake, since they were unable to arti- absurdiry and comic potential, and the two strangers
end up playing Grand_
culate their feelings. mother's Footsteps lhe wrong way round and getting
,opp.J in each
The characters had arrived from exploring the theme rather than by other's memories as rhey try and work out
why they are in the bathroom.
design: 'We just dressed up and Simon took photographs of us. Then, Comic tomfoolery,is fr,rg.ty tib"."tr.rg;;;,"
" work, but its success is
when we looked at the photographs, we said, 'They [the characters] are as dependent on technique as inspiration. The exercises on ,timing, (to-
arriving. What are they going to make us do? It was a while before the plot wards the end of sncrroN FouR: nnvrHu)
offer some useful grouni*ork
was of any importance at all. What was important was to let those char- for comedy, and playi;rrg No-BALL TENNTs (srcrroN
rHREE: er_ev) is good
acters roar round the rehearsal room.'291 prepararion for this t!.xt exercise.

Escalations2e2
The waiter2ea
This is one of the most useful exercises for devising, especiolly if you ore
working in o comic or grotesgue reolm. lt works in much the some woy os You will need a tobre ind chair ond o teo-tower.Two
vorunteers ptay this
'Chonging Geors'(see section three:ploy),where eoch octor increoses the gome, one is the wort-.; who corries the
teo-towel over their orm, ond the
level of energyltension on s scole of I-|0-You con play this os octors, or use other is the customer who comes to eot ot the
restauront. Actors do not
o set of charocters you have developed through mosk work speok Everything opott from the tqble, choir ond
teo_towel, is mimed. lt is o
posh, up m orket restor rront.
Follow exoaly the some templote as changing geors, but decide colleaively
on o theme first If you ploy the escolotions of feor,fur exomple,you still ploy Do not decide onythirgelse.Just ptoy the gome.
the level of tension but in relotion to 'feor'. Make it the responsibility of the
How the woiter corriel</uses the teo-tower, how o porticuror
lost person to inyent the reoson for the highest escolation,which could be octor enters
spork ideos'Try not t6' impose onything.The
'they're going to kill us', or even thot they themselves ore the objea of the humour erne4ges from the
thot both oaors try v,t,y lrori to get Jrngs right
fod
feor, such os'moke woy for the chil[snotche/. (includingthe mime).They
foil of caUrse!
Chorocters moy emerge, or rqther chorocteristics thot you like to ploy with
otors try to inlpose on on the situotion the improvisotion usuoily
ideo
thot con be developed into'personoe'. lfyoule using o set ofchorocters, \hen
' you'lt deepen your knowledge of them. As you become more skilled, use the flounderc'when both r:ustomer ond woiter ptoy their role os seriousry
os
possible, the scene
' highest point of escolotion to trigger the next scole, so everyone might fnr s its own development through whot hoppens
between them ond cuilc moments orise
become resigned to dyingor cunningin escoping tfre child-snotcher:this wcy from,mistokes,. ttt eictty *e
sorne os being'in the rnoment'in o tennis
the hrghest escolation point octs os o tronsrtio n between Scenes'.ze3 match.
170 TIIROUGFI THE BODY
Different chemistries between new poirs of octors will generote fresh
scenorios.Allow the improvisdtion to continue until one poir of octors
completely run out of steom, then invite two more to ploy.
Design is incorporated here as part of an image system: table, chair and
tea-towel are basic elements contributing to the 'world'. The earlier you
work with potential design elements, the more they will become integrated
into the whole - they may even inspire the work.2es
Bouge-de-la are a company whose founder members, Aurelian Koch
and Lucy O'Rorke, took Lecoq's course at the Laboratoire du Etude Mouve-
ment (L.E.M.), which relates movement to architecture, in addition to the
two-year progr"amme for performers.ze6 Their work is design-led, in the
sense that they begin by exploring and playing with design concepts'
usually sparked by research into a theme or story. 'All our shows are
fundamentally about humans and their environment,' says Koch, whether
that is an arctic environment (The Man Who Ate His Shoe, 1994) or the
solitary beclsit of an autistic woman ((Jnderglass, ryg6).'e' Frequently
there are no words, although a sound-track is integral, and more recently
they have worked with dancers as well as actors .
Their shows focus on the performer(s) and a'living' set, which is integ-
ral to the action, so that walls open up or a model boat runs into an ice-
berg- Ideas have to be tested in rehearsal, where things change and evolve.
In Eaolution: Body ftgg9) the focus was on the relationship between 'set as
a costume and costume as sett for this interrogation of modern genetics:
'The original idea was to make something free-standing that the perfor-
mels could weaq but also step in and out of, so that the costume became
the set. But this was technically too difficult - we made suits lined with
chicken wire which the performers couldn't move in! You couldn't play
with them. Then we made suits with rings so they could be hung on
bungees, and as the suits got messed around and became more alive they
looked like distorted bodies, like pieces of meat hanging and this kind of
felt right because they looked like bodies and flesh. So then we lined them
in red and macle bags to hang them in.'2e8
Eoolution: Mind (rg9$ was about 'the relationship between us and
technology, our dependence on it and the impact of it in the way it extends
your potential and drives you round the twist.'299 The computer came
'alive' in this show, like a cinematic special effect, as a grey alien emerged
through the rubbery keyboard to haunt the performer.
DEVISING I7I
The game called ;ulrnr-E pLAy (srcrroN rFrR[,E: pLAy) comes fi'onl
Bouge-de-la and of.fers a fascinating insight into how objects carn lead
movement. Extendqel improvisations developed from this ganre can lezrd
actors to create chafacters and scenarios through play. This g:rme also
works as a solo improvisation (see luueln soI-o, p r74).
Organising the sp{ce is a key factor, as it will affect the style and design.
Ridiculusmus began the process for one show in a room with three white
boxes: 'We were worf<ing on improvisations which started in a room with
three white boxes a{ld after two days we realised we were in a gallery.
It wasn't preconceivbd.rs00 4tr6 so the art gallery setting for The Exhibi
tionists (rgg7) arrivefl by accident, and the company have since performed
the piece in art galleries as well as theatre spaces.
Rejects Revenge played on stepladders and a plank during the rehearsal
process for Crumblel\rgg4), which Tim Hibberd states was half the fun:
'You swing them abo{rt and you stand on them, you stand under them, you
pick them up, you rnake a boat, you make a plane . . . almost the entire
show [was] based on the fact that we picked up ladders and played with
them.'301 With Peasouper Qgg6) they decided on side-screens and a back-
cloth, but as the work progressed the back-cloth became a box because
they needed to stand on it, and then that became hollow so they could
crawl through it.
Rejects Revenge dl'e unusual in that they begin with a devising phase
and then Tim Hibberd writes a script from what has developed, which
then goes back into f€hearsal. The three actors employ a freelance director
to facilitate their woik from the beginning. The director is 'an audience
member with priorl knowledge', who tells them what works and what
doesn't, acting like i .nirror for the actors.J02
Other companies'trely more heavily on a director to'provoke'a text,
working on the basXs of an agreed idea. In Told By An Idiot (which
, a ,{
consists of two actc')s, Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter, who hold
equal art 6ontro{ with director John Wright), for example, the actors
are activ involve,J in imaginative play and have considerable input
at every stage, but iii rehearsal they develop the work via the instigation
of the director: he orchestrates their physical play. A designer is involved
at an early stage and so a set is integrated into the play/rehearcal pro-
What is clear from the actors is that their notebooks are a key factor,
cess.
both in the generatirn of ideas and the continuous reflection on the
process.3ol
172 TIIROUGH THE BODY
Their work treads a thin line between comedy and tragedy; the aim is
to make 'visual poetry' rather than tell stories in a conventional narrative
mode. You Haoen't Embraced Me Yet (1996) for example, has echoes of
Beckett where 'delicious absurdity and theatrical economy'3O4 meet in the
telling of a tale about a man torn between two women.
And in I Weep At My Piano $ggg), the company took the friendship
between Lorca, Dali and Bufiuel as their inspiration to produce a moving
tribute. The piece worked independently as an evocation of love and loss
rather than being a direct biographical account, the research operating as
a springboard for the actors to create a piece which evolved organically out
of their imaginative responses to the material.
Foursight Theatre begin with research, and performers are set specific
research tasks which fuel their character creations. They worked with
the set and the songs from the start of rehearsals for Slr Dead' Qreens and,
an Inflatable Henry (tggg), and even though the directors (two on this
occasion) had a clear idea of the style they wanted: 'the creative impetus
comes from the actors, [the directors] worked from images the cast bring
alive'.30s
Many pieces of devised theatre are based on extant stories or scripts.
The most inventive are imaginative responses of the collaborators to the
source material rather than straight adaptations. This is the way Theatre
de Complicit6 approach source material. Work on Bruno Schtiz's The
Street of Crocod,iles began with a workshop at the Royal National Theatre
Studio in r99r and went through a series of evolutions and productions
with different ensembles from rggz-rgg4 and a revival in rg98-r999, with
the input of each new company member affecting each production. This
is an important element of devising. The personal and cultural experi-
ences of the collaborators inform the work, are part and parcel of it.
The choice of material is crucial. Ideally, whatever it is, it has to matter
to everyone involved. At the very least, everyone needs to be able to res-
pond imaginatively and bring their personal skills to the process.
The key point is that whether your starting point is a style of perforrn-
ance or an idea about content, the process begins with generating visual
material: characters, action, images, all frorn physical improvisation.In The
Street of Crocodiles the major focus was finding the kind of images that
reminded them of the world of Schulz's stories, images which Mark
Wheatley, the company writeq says 'we believed . . . to be the most impor-
tant aspect of the piece . . . they had to summon up this lost world'.306
DEVISING 173
The notion of creating 'theatre of images' is important. But the images
need to be a step away from the everyday. Bim Mason (who runs the Cir-
comedia course in Bristol, and who directed Rejects Revenge in Crumble
rnd Peasouper) suggests that working in a pantomimic dirnension allows
the work to go into othat non-realistic world, that switch into fantasy',
which he believes is an essenrial feature of physical theatre.307 Visual
metaphor arises from what he calls 'semi-abstract work', where you create
'telling images' through making a concept visual.
li
tl
I
IMAGE AND GESTTJRE
We d.o not go to theatrti to und,erstand. but to experience.3}s
However you start) it is essential to grasp the principle of moving
from impulse to acrion, and to acquire primary compositional tech-
niques. Solo work is important: discoveries can be made individually and
through working with a director which are equally as valid as rhose made
with acting partners. Such work is particularly useful for developing
characters.
Barba's conc€pt of collective creation eschews collaborative work in the
initial stages. He argues that when improvisations involve two or more,
'actors tend to focusrt,n the interactive process rather than the theme of
the work', i.e. they aie more concerned with ,reading' their partners and
responding to them ihan 'exploring their own physical dialogue with a
theme'.30e For him, the individual actor's responses are the major resource
he works with; in the final production they are like soloists brought to-
gether through his vilion.
The following seqtrence of exercises focuses on individual responses
with the aim of exploring the route from impulse ro gesture and image.
View theriiis experirf,ents through which you further your own creative
understanfi ng and development.
Actors need to be cromfortable working in their own defined ar.ea of the
space and able to ign,;re others around them. In terms of showing their
work, they need to ,']ave reached a degree of confidence and lack of
inhibition with the greup andlor direcor. with the following exercises, it
is assumed you are familiar with practical work from the previous sections,
or similar work. They ill take place in a'silent universe'.
r7+ TFIROUGH THE BODY . DEVTSTNG t75

Workilg with obiects is fundamental to the Odin actors' training; their
improvisations with objects lead to character creations. In the following
exercise) the idea is to develop your engagement with the obiect at a mole
than superficial level so you and the object become partners in evoking
A similar process carr be applied to a controiling idea or trreme
- thc
simpler the better. Sirigle words are often very productive, ,boredom' for
example, or even something as basic as a colour. Givi'g individual actors
a level of intensity on a continuum from r-ro, rather like the escalations

imaginary worlds. exercise, will give group work a compositional dimension.

fumble solos ldeographs3lo

Set up o colledion of items os suggested in'Jumble PIoy'in section three: once you hove decide( on q theme, eoch octor deverops o physicor response
ploy. Aaors let ony of the items choose them, ond, os in Step I of 'Jumble to whot this conjures in them, producing o gesturol imoge, whot Herbert
Ploy', conducr o motion study of the item. Ensure this is o thorouglt Blou colls on ideogroph. Like o Joponese brush paintlng, on ideogroph is on
investrgotron of eoch item's properties: how heovy it
is, its texture, how it obstroction of the essqpce of on imoge, o pored-down
form thot contqins the
moves, whether it hos ony moving ports, ond most impdrtontly, how it essence of on oction. It corries o concentoted meoningexpressing the
mokes you move. kernel of on ideo, not rts reolistic outer illustrotion.

Let the object leod your movement ond experiment with moving ot floor Theoaion without offering ony disffaaing detoil.Try
level ond ways of troveLling ocross the spoce. (Split the group if there is thin
not to respond spontaneously, in o similor woy to
Iimited spoce.) Dont toke the object ot rts lfterol level, let it surprise you; o the'memo in sectlon four.
hondbog over the foce becomes o k)nd of mosk,for exomple, or o fur coot lf you find yourself storting with on everydoy behoviouror gesture remember
a flag.lf o music-stond presents problems, explore how you constontly foil you ore working in o nrore symbolic or surreal reolm, seorching
for o physicol
to control iL expression for your inner respons e, connecting the inner ond outer to

After on initiol explorotory period, eoch octor tokes obout ten minutes to concentrote meoning rather thon producing on illustrative monnerism. rhis
is
choreogroph o solo piece which incorporotes these early discoveries, or
whot Bim Moson meons by stepping owoy from the everyday into the
'pontomimic dimension' ond creoting,telling imoges,.
excmines one porticulor ideo provoked by their response to the obiea.Try to
remember the principle of structuring phroses of movement vio the o*os- clorifuing ond exoggercting the movement ond tension points wiil hetp
to
posy/-stoiko, so eoch piece hos rhythmic shope. moke o gesture more powerful. Like the srghs ond cries emitted in the
sound
exercises, on ideogroph moy be guite obstroa. ltis your honest imoginailve
When presented these solos will oppear os o series of imoge-based
response, expressed iq, physicol terms.
performonces. Ihose wotching then select which sections of eoch
performonce worked most eflectively.Ihese ore then reheorsed agoin ond a woy into it ond out of it
re-presented.At this poinlthose wotching become directors (or designote o to the otkos-posy/-stoiko
smoll group os directors) ond decide which solos hove some kind of rough employing tormos.
oesthetic correspondence, perhops by virtue of their line or rhphm of
Present the ideogrophq to th them decide os
movement,the texture or colour of the obieas themselves, or some other
directors which ones ere mo mode o selectron, try
reoson. Experiment with ploying yorious solos in tondem or consecutively ond
observe the results.As in the eorlier stick-work,'meonings' emerge which may
stringing them togethlr, or p me of eoch other,s
ond ottempt to string'ifiem together. Do they work os comprementory
or moy not correspond to the performers'intentions. focets
of o theme? Are they lust weird? whot ideos and
fee/ings do they prouoke in
the spectotorsT
 DEVISING 177
176 THROUGH TFIE BODY

grasp of compositional When you present these, spectotors moy like to suggest what kind of person
Remember this is a training exercise leading to a
at one day will they'see'in the koto.They ore not meont to guess who it might be, but often
techniques, not a 'how to devise' lesson! What you arrive
the impact of your work some connections to the origlnol person ore mode. Notice how ony emotionol
be different on another. What you deduce about
them' is part of colouring is interpreted.
on spectators, whether you fail or succeed in affecting
your self-development- Avoid asking'what does it mean"
or'what did you
to discover what These exercises work ol tn" i.raiuiaual actor's personal responses to objects,
mean' to any actor. It is more important at this stage
aesthetic levels' ideas and people to prrrduce images and gestures. Finding a breathing pat-
communicates and what doesn't at the sensory and
tern to accompany them and working on what sounds might complement
Notallactorshaveatalentfordirecting'norarealldirectorsactors'
them is a further stage.of development. Starting points for devising work
althoughlwouldarguethatagooddirectorhastounderstandthechemis_
in the devis- may emerBe, although that is not the primary intention. A more important
try of acting. However, the role of an outside eye is essential
members of a outcome is the way in which you begin to see how meaning can evolve in
ing process, whether taken by an individual or shared by
shape and poten- response to a stimulus, how image and gesture can be arrived at without
.ornp"ny. Without this dramaturgical input, work lacks
first deciding on character or situation, and, in the final exercise, how
tial dramatic moments remaln unexploited'
next one personal feelings can inform movement.
Building on the foundations of the previous two exercises' this
impulse' You will need Grotowski's studeds were asked to make two columns in their note-
uppro""h", the relationship between research and
a biographical dictionary to distribute' books and write in one'everything they had d,one during an improvisation,
copies of random pages from
and in the other everything they had associated inwardly.3l2 By associations
he meant all those things that arrive in the mind unbidden during improvi-
sation. Recalling both columns would enable them to repeat the improvis-
Character katas3ll
ation before working on structuring it and perfecting it for performance.3ll
octor hos
Distribute rondom poges of a biogrophicol diaionory so eoch This was during the ffnal phase of Grotowski's research, when students
ond then explore
informotion on one person to work with. Reod the moteriol produced 'acting prop'trsitions' from working on personal memories and
the physicol responses it evokes in you in terms of ideogrophs''
through which they fciund new relationships between gesture and voice,
to see how you con move
between the inner imaginative world of the actor and outer physical
Once you hove found three or four,work on thern
octions thot is manifestation. These r,l.ere then developed into a 'line of physical actions'
between them, ond then structure o short seguence of
and eventually presenttd in-house as individual compositions.
on it to shope its
repeotobte.When You hove o repeotoble cYcle'work
o mortiol orts Thomas fuchards,'v,ho documents his work on physical actions with
rhythmic structure. tt might oppeor like o'koto'from
Grotowski in his illunijnating book At Work With Grotowski on Physical
discipline, o kind of obstract gesturol donce'
Actions (lSgS), writes ttrat it is important to choose memories which touch
ossociotions thot the actor at some deep level. S./he must define the situation, make the line
It is importont in this exercise to chonnel the feelings or
so thot the koto of physical actions clear and, when performing, think only abour what
ore coniured in you by the moteriol into your octions'
your personol response' s/he is do-ir1g and the dssociations. Grotowski insisted that actors always
becornes o cornposite of the originol stimulus ond
leuing your emoilonol structure their improrll;ations. Reliance on chance and 'the moment' led
This does not meon idena'fying with the persoq but
exomple' ot the to superficial work, hel1cund.
response feed into the work-You might feel ongry'for
.' or sympothY for them'You might Torgier Wethal recalls working with Eugenio Barba rlong similar lines
indignities sufltred by your'biogrophee',
in the sixties. These 'stiidies', as they were called, worked on the principle
evenfeelindifferenttotheirrichesondsuccess.TrytoincorPorotetheseinto
of a guided fantasy thJough which the actor fixed a sequence of actions
how you colour your performonce of the koto'
supported by inner fisualisation: 'Nature and all the details of the

r78 THROUGH THE BODY
experience were to be seen with the inner eye'.314 Some actors will see
inages on an internal 'movie screen' and then show them in space, others
'livet the experience and their body carries out what happens. The crucial
thing is that 'the improvisation must not illustrate this world,' says
Wethal, 'the actor must simply react completely, both physically and
emotionally, with respect to what is happening, to what he is doing'.1ls
This process of creating individual compositions is applied by the Odin
actors to character work for their productions. They frequently work from
objects or costume iterns chosen by themselves. EIse Marie Laukvik began
working on a stilt character who appeared and developed over three
productions (The Book of Dances, The Million rnd Anabasis) by working
with a prop, 'a fringed flag on a staffi a butterfly. When I held it up in front
of my face there was a person in the butterfly. The character went up on
stilts shortly after it got a white dress . . . Then I made a wig of long, black
silk fringe and attached it to my head with a red headband. Even the
butterfly had a headband'.316
The character is developed through solo improvisations, using props
and costumes, and shown to the director, Barba, who makes suggestions. In
further shows, Laukvik's stilt character acquired a red and black dress with
white Rangda-inspired trousers, roses from Thailand, an English umbrella
and Kabuki-style hair - and a puppet-daughter, which was incorporated
into The Million; all these additions were made by the actress herself.
Several things are worth noting about the Odin actors'working process.
One is that the charactels grow out of their training (they started training
outdoors - hence Laukvik's stilts, for example), so there is a 'continual
exchange of inrpulses between the two: ideas about a coming production
take . . . training in a new direction; a discovery made in training can in-
spire a [new] scene'.317 Secondly, their characters are sometimes played by
another member of the company; in other words, once the character is
created it becomes a 'text' another actor can play. Drawing on personal
experience and imagination, connecting the interior psyche to the exterior
world is an integral part of their devising. They are inspirational both in
the ways they develop characters and themselves through their work, aird
in the way they retain their individual performance identity within Barba's
unique method of creating montage.
Odin's work, like that of most other companies, arises from research
and source material. Like Grotowski, Barba is attracted to myths, and many
of the charactels his actors cleate are rooted in archetypes. His interests
i
DEVISING r79.
,
lie in historical perspectives, such as the destruction of the Indians, or
Brecht and the situation in Nazi Germany (Brecht's Ashes, ry82). Source
material is transposed'into theatrical ideas via the :reations of individual
actors and their dialogue with the director. Music is an irnportant feature
too, and the eventua!'performance text' is 'a polyphony of the actors'
actions, use of text, changes in the lights [and] space'3t8 woven together
in a labyrinthian structure which puts the onus on the spectators in
constructing meaningts). Words are one dimension of a whole spectrum
of performance elements, as in the work of many other companies. In
physical-based devising spoken language is on an equal footing with all
the other performance elements, and is frequently the last thing to be set.
GENERATING TEXT
i
Words are & p&ttern on'.the canoas of mooernent3re
Physical theatre is mo:'e than choreographed movement, and even though
there are examples ol purely visual theatre (usually accompanied by a
sound-track), speech is more often than not a component. Language for
the actor-creator (actir-author) is one of the tools of the trade and it is
important to get it right even though it is not potential literature. The best
praise is when an audi'ence don't seem to notice it, when the language is so
much part of the pieie that it seems knitted in.
Few companies erriploy a writer. The post-modern distrust of language
seems to have spread into a distrust of writers. Yet frequently the textual
aspect of physical-bas;d devised theatre - both the words and structuring
that are the writer's rlaft - is its Achilles heel. Performers are trained in
the poetry of space but not in the poetry of language and the rhythms of
structure.
The exercises in sr-i:uoN roun offer a foundation in working on sound
and voi accomplished that work, you can return to some of the
earlier such as CHANGE THE oBJECT, or JUMBLE pLAy for
exampl therrrr again with sound and speech. What you may find
is that onie people s6rt speaking they tend to think first and block the
spontaneity of the imp ulse. Trying to marry action and speech so that one
is indivisible from the other is the aim of the exercises that follow.
The half-masks of commedia are excellent catalysts for generating
speaking characters f i,m a physical impulse. When actors allow the masks
r8o THRoucH THE BODY
to lead them, there is no gap in which to think before doing; consequently
speech accompanies action.
Rather than attempting to play the masks as the original commedia
characters caught up in archaic scenarios, let each actor find his or her own
character through working a mask, using it as a catalyst in the creation
process. The characters produced may resemble the originals, but it is
surprising how many variants these masks can spawn. Remember that the
cut of each mask will influence the way the character speaks and the
physical stance the mask provokes will release the character's voice.
Commedic characters may speak in heightened or grotesque voices, but
they operate in quite prosaic worlds where motivation tends to be quite
basic. Working on the simple notion of knowing what a mask wants (see
sECrIoN rwo) offers considerable mileage in developing improvisations.
The scenario exercise in the previous section is also a useful starting point.
You can play this next game with characters you are exploring, or
purely as actors cleating something on the spot.
The letter
A blonk sheet of poper folded into on envelope is the only prop you need.
(Hove o few ready ds they sometirnes get crumpled or torn-) Ploce the leLter
onstoge.A volunteer enters. S/he sees the letter ond reocts ond ploys on
imoginary situotion physicolly ond verbolly.The letter isnt necessorily
oddressed to the recipient lt is entirely up to the octor who it is for ond
whot is in it.The'world'you creote does not hove to be reolistic.
Try to ovoid te/ling us whot is in the letter:"OhWow! l've won the lonery.
Great." or "She's leoving me. Oh god. I con't live without her." Diologue is
there to intrigue os well os inform.The less you let us know, the more you
will arouse curiosily and oeote suspense, os in the following exomples:"l
don't believe it No.Yes. lt soys . . . lt's true," or "No. Pleose. Don't. Don't
ieoye."Ihis leoves the meoning open to possibilities.
The donger with this exercise is thot octors decide on whot is in the letter
before they get to ,t ond produce o preconceived reaaion.Trying to be
inventive often bockfires. lt is more productive to woit until you pick up the
Ietter, ond keep your response to o simple ideo ond work thot honestly. Ihis
meons trusting the moment, letting on ideo arise unbidden.The exercrse is
I DEVISING r8r
not obout succeeding qr foiling but unearthing o moment of truth. ldeally
whot is in the letter sheuld be o suprise to you os well os the oudience.
The most important questions at this stage are: Did we need any words?
Did the words gloss dhe action or surprise us? Do we want to know any
more? What happens
'next?
If we can 'read' the action then the words need to do something else.
When words do not ineed to carry the action, speech may add a sonic
dimension or serve another purpose.
The three principle functions of dialogue are: to embody action, move
the story along, and reveal,/conceal character. In srrcr sroRrES (srcuoN
rHREE), gobbledygook language carried the action and moved the story
along, and actors were storytellers rather than characters. Telling stories is
in itself a highly productive way of developing yourself as a creative actor,
providing you realise that storytelling is not recitation but a reinvention of
the story - in effect a solo improvisation where the actor is him,/herself as
narrator, but plays clraracters in the story, acting out the action and
dialogue. Storytelling also requires you to cultivate an open and direct
relationship with your audience.
Once actors start speaking, a common problem is saying too much.
Learning to condensr: language is as important as acquiring economy of
gesture. Theatre distih life; a conversation that would take three hours in
real life may take less than three minutes on stage. And in life we fre-
quently reveal more by what we don't say than by what we do say. Impli-
cation not statement governs our exchanges. The most effective dialogue
is unpledictable, so lines that elicit predictable answers, or duplicate
gesture, are redundarlt.
Yes/yes '.,.
Work in PS"iff. Eoch duo plays on improvisotion, olong the lines of 'NolBoll
Iennis', intelmting spep-ch ond movement but the only words you con soy
ore'fes'ond rts yorionis, e.g.'okoy','uh-huh','yep','yeoh'etc.Again it is the
reoction thot's importlnt rother thon o preconceived ideo. Limit the number
of exchonges - ten is elnough.
Situotions emerge out trlcoctions ond speech, sometimes with o cleor sense
of potentiol developmertt. More importontly, you reolise thot words in theotre
ore the tip of the iceberg.
t8z rHRoucH THE BoDy
When you have a situation, dialogue has to selve more specific objectives
in conveying information and moving events along. The following two
exercises foster an understanding of this.
Who and where
It is situotion thot mokes longuoge come olive, more porticulorly situotions
thot demond oaion. Locotion rs o good storting point knowing where you
ore generotes situotions ond contexts in which chorocters ond storylines con
be explored.
You need o set ofpeopleloccupotions for this exercrse, such os; boby,zoo-
keepe4 witch, troPeze ortrbt, dentrst The odder the mix, the better. Moke up
your own ond write them on slips of poper ond distribute them.Actors do
not reveol who they are.
Now split into poirs ond give eoch poir o locotion.Agoin,the more bizorre
the betteri such os: conoe,top of o building,for-owoy ploneTboth.
Each poir knows where they ore, but not who eoch other is. To begin with
improvise only the situotion ond allow who you ore to become o$orent to
your portner, i.e. don't stote who you ore but imply it through oction ond
speech. Once you reolise eoch other's occupotion then go bock over the
moteriol you hove generoted ond compose o short performonce which
conveys to the oudience who ond where you ore without stoting rt
There is no reoson why the charocters should not olready know eoch other
nor why they should be living in present time.Try to ensure thot eoch chsrac-
ter hos o distinctive speech rhythm os well os o physicol stonce ond gesturol
languoge. Umiting the number of exchonges (lines of diologue) helps to pro-
mote economy of speech; wrth less to ssy octors focus on other performotive
strotegies ond when they do speok whot they soy corries more weigltL
When you show these pieces, notice how effedvely octors ore oble to
convey who they ore without resoru'ng to literol gestures or dropping big
hints. ls it cleor where they ore? ls where they ore integrol to the oction of
the piece? Work out which porticular detoil, either in oction or word, gove the
spectotors the necessory informoton. How subde wos this?You may olso like
to think obout when the wholwhere become opporent, ond whot effed thot
hod on the spectotors'interesl
I r"vrsrNc rB3
The notion of subtext is usually associated with naturalism, but arche-
types and caricatures'lrre also driven by desires which frequently reside
under the surface. Soinetimes it is useful to realise that what a character
says is not transparent. They may say one thing and mean another.
Contradiction keeps c;haracters vital. And internal conflict is as irnportant
as conflict between characters and their environment, or each other.
For an audience, knowing everything about a character renders that
character lifeless. Au<iiences want to be involved in working out the char-
acters. Although, eventually, you will need to know far more about your
characters than will bd revealed, knowing what they want, and discovering
how or whether they: get it, is far more productive than knowing their
shoe-size (unless that is integral to the plot). Revealing or concealing
motivation through language is what the next exercise plays with.
Roundabout
Work in poirs. Decide cn (or distribute) o situation which demqnds oction,
such os grove4igging, putting up o tent- Develop on improvisotion in which
X gets whot slhe wonrs fromY without stoting iL Limit eoch octor to o
moximum of ten lines.
As in the wholwhere g(lme,the chorocters moy know eoch other ond they
need not be rn presen,q time.You con use chorocters you ore alreody
exploring,or from o fairy tole or myth, or stort from scrotch.
What becomes rntereiirng here is how the speech con be removed from the
oaion (unless you rei|ot into the obvious, eg X wonts tfre spode or guy-
rope fromY) ollowing dte words to meet the oction os o surprise.
rhepointthata"'Iff
x:T:::Jil'#:#j;::il::l##i;i
ure - it's the right word.
useful tips:
' avoid explautions which tell the audience what's going on or
who you are
' find a speectr style for characters through exploring their
movement
' value silencei
.84 THROUGH THE BODY DEVISING r85

A useful way to practise generating verbal text is to use fairy tales, as their The spectator is rrot aware of the existence of structrlre; it is the
structures and characters are malleable and situations are presented in invisible map on which the journey of a piece travels. Yet although invis-
only their essential elements. If we unravel Little Red Riding Hood we find iblg there are definite transitions which guide the spectator. In narrative
the following components: terms these are the turning points of the plot. Certainly not all theatre is
plot-driven, in fact at.the turn of the millennium narrative is under threat
' people and, as I have already pointed out, physical-based devising is more often
o one mother compositional in structure. Narrative does, however, offer a useful starting
' dne daughter polnt.
' one grandmother Classic narrative iR recognisable as the paradigm used by Hollywood
' one wolf screenwriters. Comrhercial cinema demands a beginning, middle and up-
' one woodcutter beat end - in that order. We are all familiar with this restorative three-act
. p laces structure) with its logic of cause and effect and its linear progression punc-
o two houses tuated by twists andiiturns in the plot. We call it story, yet there is a fun-
' one wood damental distinction to be made between story and narration. Story is the
. objects raw material of the events, narration is the way those events are organ-
' one basket of food ised.32t Devisers, like writers, need to understand this distinction so they
t one red cape recognise the need to crganise the raw material in a way which tells,/invites
t one axe an audience how to c,)nsffuct the story/stories, and infer meaning(s).
Stories can be told in different ways, and they offer different experiences
This gives you a set of characters, locations and objects, in effect a scenario depending on how they are told. Separating story from narration enables
on which you can build images, gestures and verbal text. In literal terms, you to see how the sfrry is assembled, in other words how it is structured.
the journey of the story travels from one house to another through the It is not dissimilar tc' taking an engine apart to see how it works.
woods, whilst symbolically (and emotionally) Little Red Riding Hood travels The most immedi,tte way to get to grips with this is to consider time.
from innocence to experience. Telling the story chronologically means fol- In plot-driven dramd, the material is traditionally organised in chrono-
lowing a linear path so that the consequence of each event promotes the next. logical order, hence lts linear progression. The fact that the story appears
But a consideration of structuring from a compositional perspective means to be 'going somewhire' is reinforced by the time-structure which is also
these components can be shuffled and stitched together in other ways. moving forwaids. Hi-l'wever, the necessity for time to work in tandem with
chronology has been challenged and there are increasing numbers of plays
in which chronologicd order is disrupted, for example Caryl Churchill's
STRUCTURING TEXT
Cloud. 9 4nd Top (ilrls where the time-structures are disjointed, and
C ompo sition is organising chaos.320 Pinter's:BeIrqtal, where dme moves inexorably backwards. Perhaps theatre
has beeri influenced ;n this respect by the cinematic device of the flash-
Structure is, essentially, the architecture of a piece. An architect draws up back. You could lay out the raw material, i.e. re-assemble the iigsaw pieces
a pattern or template for buildings without which they would fall down, of these plays in therr.correct chronological order to create a more conven-
but is aware that diflbrent shapes have different functions and give differ- tional narration. But ,he way Churchill and Pinter play with time offers an
ent pleasures. So, for example, the arching cathedral might give a feeling alternative experieni:,;.
ol' spiritual uplift, square houses might signify safety. Similarly, different Cut-and-paste tinre-structures still have plot embedded in them, but it is
structu lirl pir l.tcr ns yield tlifferent theatrical experiences. not the controlling nlechanism; the disruption of time is not gratuitously
r86 THROUGFI THE BODY
chaotic but operates as a layer of meaning so that the spectator has to piece
the jigsaw together and, sometimes, search for the sense in it all, seeking
connections through poetic resonance and implication. The primacy of
the story is qualified by the reshuffling of events, reducing the focus on
upcoming events and suspense and refocusing on other areas. Rather than
being passive spectators, transported and 'carried away' on the wings of
the story and by an empathetic response to characters, the act of piecing
fragments together makes spectators more actively involved and more
questioning of the relationship of one thing to another.3z2
Experimenting with Little Red Rid,ing Hood, or any familiar fairy ttrle,
and working out alternative time-structures in which to present the story
will generate a host of different ideas. The skeleton of the story and its
components remain unchanged, but their treatment can be altered by
playing about with the chronology of events and the time-structure.
As long as you have a sequence of events to work from, i.e. you have
constructed an outline scenario, you can begin to play with time as a
structuring device. Remember too that you can also suspend time. Theatre
has always been aware that suspending story time allows you to go into
dream time, inner world tirne (someone's mind), or theatrical time
(addressing the audience). A word or two of warning, however. Playing
around with time structures is only possible once you have a sequence of
events in place. Otherwise you are putting the proverbial cart before the
horse.
At its most basic, structure relates to capturing the attention of the
audience and hanging on to it- However amusing or intriguing the
characters, however lyrical or punchy the dialogue, if interest and sus-
pense are absent the audience's attention will wander. The strategies you
employ in organising the rnaterial are closely linked to how you control or
manipulate the spectator, and how much freedom you give them to inter-
pret. In plot-driven drama the most obvious of these is the manipulation
of suspense or tension: the spectator is hooked by wanting to know'what
will happen next?' The structure here becomes a series of small explosions
detonated by events. The journey of the story is 'plotted' to maximise the
effect of each explosion.
In Little Red, Ritling Hood,, for example, the key plot-moments are when
she strays from the path and meets the wolf, when he kills grandma and
dresses up in her clothes, and when Red Riding Hood assumes he is
grandma with devastating results.323
DEVISING r87
Martin Esslin remirtds us that interest and suspense 'need not necessa-
lily be aroused merely by devices of plot', for interest can be roused by visual
irnages, and there are many kinds of suspense. He elaborates on the potential
questions raised in the spectator's mind by structure: 'What will happen
next?' generates one [,ind, but equally, knowing what will happen might
generate the question af hotp it's going to happen, essentially the prernise
upon which Greek dralna was built for spectators who knew the stolies in ad-
vance. There are also tlre questions
twhat fu happening', or even'there seems
to be some kind of patfern to what's going on, I wonder what it is?'.]24
Esslin refers to Bqgkett's Waiting for God,ot, where suspense is more
reliant on these latter fluestions. [t is a play which marks a significant shift
in modern theatre away from narrative into more poetic structures. In
Waittngfor God,otinteiest and suspense are embedded in the underlying un-
certainty of waiting whilst we are 'entertained' by Vladimir and Estragon
as they kill time. Beckltt's play reminds us that structural considerations
are bound up with wliere you situate the audience in relation to the con-
struction of meaning, the degree to which your audience will experience a
common view or inter:pret meaning(s) in a more individual manner. It is
more akin to the experience of reading poetry than reading a story.
Rejecting the concept of the dominant story is a distinguishing feature
of postmodernism, sitrnmed up by Simon McBurney in his programme
note to Tlreafte de Ciirnplicit6's 1999 piece Mnemonic:'We live in a time
where stories surrourril us. Multiple stories. Constantly. Fragmented by
television, radio, prinl, the internet, calling to us from every hoarding and
passing us by on ever:y street corner. We no longer live in a world of the
single tale.'32s
Disruption and frJgmentation tailor the assembly of Mnemonic, reflect-
ing its theme of memci'y. The sequence of events is governed by the theme
of the piece, which d[jes in fact contain stories, but is not overtly depen-
dent o sttry as the binding agent. It travels back and forth
across ce;'dwelling on moments, jumping track, just as in life
where iniolved in solving problerns out of sequence: 'The
shards of stories we hc,ve put together, some longer, some shorter, collide
here in the theatre, leflecting repeating and revolving like the act of
memory itself.'326 ';
Borrowing the ide'l of memory as the structuring plinciple for Little
Red Rid,ing Hood, openlup possibilities for telling the stories of the mother,
the woodcutter, the lrtrl( grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood from
r88 THROUGH THE BODY
the interior perspectives of each character's memory of the events. These
can be worked on imaginatively to create a new telling of the tale. You
could even depalt from the tale and simply use it as a springboard frorn
which to create a series of story-fragments connected more obliquely. To
do this, you retain the characters as archetypes, and open up the creative
possibilities of exploring them via the the thematic concerns of the
original story, in this case 'from innocence to experiencet.
Do we need story at all? This was the question raised by Gertrude Stein
when she started writing plays: 'Everybody knows so many stories and
what is the use of telling another story.'327
Stein's own work is enormously challenging for performers and audi-
ences and, perhaps as a consequence, rarely performed. Yet her attempt at
getting beyond story to a presentation of the relations between things in
their essence is insightful. Her concept of the play as landscape enables us
to cut loose from the idea of story: iust as a landscape 'has its formation'
so should a play, since landscape does not move yet always presents things
'in relation, the trees to the hills the hills to the fields the trees to each
other',328 in other words detail by detail without the need to rely on story.
The journey/experience is connotative, metaphoric or symbolic rather
than event-bound.
Invoking the idea of a play as landscape reduces the necessity for story
and embraces the significance of texture and detail as binding agents,
creating an image network which opens up material to more individual
rnterpretatrons.
Improvised material and ideas thrown up from collaborative responses
to story, theme or political/cultural concern become the basis of this kind
of work. Using an image network, rather than a plot, weaving these to-
gether offers alternative textural (as opposed to textual) threads to follow.
Spectators are less concerned with cause and effect (character-orientated
or plot-motivated) and more involved in interpreting what they see.
Without a dorninant narrative, the onus shifts towards the spectator as the
constructor of meaning, and frequently away from the notion of a corn-
mon view of what is happening.
The opening of Bouge-de-la's Und,erglass is an illustrative example.
The show was based oir a book about an autistic woman whose obsession
with routine dominated her life: 'We spent t\ryenty minutes repeating the
same routine over and over again and in doing that we altered the
audience's perspective on how they see things. They watch the opening
DEVISING I89
and they think they've,seen it. Then they have to watch it again and they
notice more things. Tfen again and they start to zoom in like a close-up
camera and focus on cbrtain details. Then I change the colour of the shirt
I put on and suddenly ryor canfeel them there. There have been occasions
when people applaud and shout out at that moment. Ah she's taken the
yellow shirt instead of,',:he green one.t329
The idea of repetition that is eventually challenged is reminiscent of
minimalist music. Steve Reich, Arvo Part and techno-music all use similar
strategies, building a cumulative effect out of patterns of repetition and
small changes.
Presenting somethirr.g which uses an essentially visual language to an
audience activates a cqrtain part of the brain and puts them in a more
meditative and reflective mood of reception. Leaving space for the audi-
ence 'to invent and dream while they're watching' is part of Bouge-de-la's
philosophy, but at the'same time the progression of things is very clear:
'The pictures are very ;eadable very quickly,' says O'Rorke, 'but they can
also write their own version. Some people saw themselves in that charac-
ter) some people saw relatives they had, some people saw all sorts of differ-
ent things. We want it,to be a very individual experience.'330
Bouge-de-la have friund that gradually audiences lind their own way of
reading their work: 'S<;,me audiences find it difficult at the beginning when
they don't understand that kind of concept. But when they've seen more
of our shows they really enjoy that aspect. . . [and then they say] you can
just let it wash over then images come back to you afterwards.'331
yoLr, and
It is important to reniember that thematic concerns Bovern their work,
that they have 'somett ing to say' and are not merely creating aesthetically
interesting patterns of lmages. Their trilogy Eaolution: Bod.y Qg98), Mind,
(tggg), Spirit (zooo) il'underpinned by a deep concern for contemporary
problems confronting'liumanity, and their work is grounded in consider-
able research
The choiee of sourt- material lies outside the parameters of this book.
But by far the most sutcessful pieces of devised theatre are those inspired
by a shared passion forlthe subject matter. Heartfelt passion can, however,
divert you from thinki[g about the audience. And it is the experience you
want to give your audir:;nce that should guide structural decisions. If you
are adapting a story tiren that story must be told. If you are exploring a
theme then that themd::nust be clear. If you want to make them laugh then
the mechanics of laugi:ter must be evident.
r90 THROUGFI THE BODY
In the previous section you were encouraged to create visual images
through engaging with objects (sot-o ;uvrelE), themes (IoEocnerns) and
biography (cHenecrrn reres). And when presenting these solo pieces I
suggestecl those observing might work directorially to sift out corres-
pondences between them and perhaps put them into sequences, selecting
colours, textures, or gestural style which offer similarities and contrasts to
create counterpoints and balance. Perhaps also there were moments when
repetition, or the leincorporation of a previous image/gesture created an
effect, when one thing became more interesting through variation. These
are likely to Benerate image networks which operate on an aesthetic plane,
rather in the mannel of contemporary dance.
Images do not have to be aesthetically pleasing as the recurrent 'ideo-
graph' of burning in Brook's US, which culminated in the onstage immo-
Iation of a butterfly, demonstrates. When Brook and his collaborators were
searching for a new language of acting during the process of preparing US
(a highly. controversial devised piece about Vietnam, which prompted
questions in the House of Commons), they came to the conclusion that
the complexity of the material was such that 'it could only be done
through a flow of imagery, with actors who could move backwards and for-
wards between several different styles.'332 There was no dominant story;
styles were mixed, as in montage,333 to create effects through contrast and
juxtaposition.
An image network generated from source material (whether story
theme, political, cultural and/or personal concerns) can be developed to
incorporate spoken text and/or music. You will end up with a wealth of
images, scenes, ideas, stories which need to be consolidated and organised
into a coherent whole.
If
you regard the images o[ scenes you create as 'cells' that form a
network, these have to be selected and then placed in relation to one an-
other just as a film editor cuts and cross-cuts in the post-production room.
It is how the cells relate to each other and the cumulative effects of them
in sequences or in counterpoint which determine the spectator's experi-
ence. This is an ongoing procedure. Unlike film, where such editing occurs
in the cutting l'oom after the images and scenes have been fixed on cellu-
Ioid, in devised theatre choosing the cells and deciding how they fit
together occurs as part of the developmental process. In this sense) struc-
turing is daily decision-making. It requires taking the spectator viewpoint
and deciding which of Esslin's questions you are provoking and what
DEVISING I9I
experience you want tc offer your audience. Be prepared to reject material.
Scrapping scenes and ideas is part of the editing process.
Transitions between cells become signposts in structural terms. Just as
the twists and turns of plot provide transitional moments in narrative, the
shifts between scenes.,and visual images serve to provoke transitions in
compositional structirres. You need to find bridges and links between
them, or ways of putling them together to create desired effects.
Some of the exercises suggested earlier in this book incorporate
foundation work for tfois aspect of structuring. In particular, the RnvrHu-
scApEs in sncrrou FouR encourage an instinctive sense of 'feeling the
moment' when an improvisation is ready to move on, the point at which a
shift into a new scene is needed. Similarly, EScALATToNS foster a sense of
the contrasts between different dynamics and how shifting through the
'gears' deepens the intcnsity. The sentient understanding acquired though
such work is useful preparation for structuring material where you need to
be able to sense moments of change.
Finding transitions which push things in a different direction, when a
fresh idea takes over and moves things on, is the key to creating fluidiry.
As you develop work on your raw material, try moving between different
styles. So, for example, act out Little Red, Rid,ing Hood, by starting quite
realistically and moring the action into the surreal, exaggerating the
fantastical elements and finding ways of moving between different styles.
Do you jump betwech surreal and real or slide gently from one to the
other?
These acts of chcosing and placing images and scenes are fundam-
entally the craft of ii writer: 'This is the largest part of a writer's job
whatever the workirig method: not dialogue . . . but the choosing and
structuring of the scdaes.'334 This is the most problematic area of struc-
turing, finding the beit order so as to create a coherent whole. If you are
not working with an ixperienced writeS the outside eye of a director is
essential. , .-iri. '
I have nroved away lrom the idea that theatre is about story to emphasise
that narrative is not the only way of structuring text but merely one parti-
cular structuring device, just as naturalism is as much a particular style
of theatre as melodrema or commedia dell'arte. Narrative is, in some
respects, one of the nr,rst difficult, for although it is often easy to generate
material for the begin,,ring and middle of a narrative, unless you have an
ending which is borP inevitable and surprising, structuring the latter
r92 THROUGH THE BODY
stages can present problems. There are many excellent sources for advice
on narrative structure in screenwriting manuals, and if your material falls
naturally into that mould you mey find consulting such manuals extremely
helpful.
Story structures have much to offer, not least a given internal dynamic
which shapes material. It is not iust the cause-and-effect logic of story that
holds an audience but the emotional journey of characters. This is where
Zeamr's law of unfolding and conclusion comes back into play, for the
principle of Jo-Ha-Kyu (which is dealt with in sEcrIoN FouR: RHYTHM)
is extremely useful in thinking about structure. And indeed, rhythm is at
the heart of structure. Even films are predicated on rhythmic structure; it is
the edit-rhythm in particular which governs the levels of tension we feel.
As I explained before, Jo-Ha-Kyu is more than simply beginning-
middle-end; it has more to do with the interior dynamic, the flow of the
whole. Just as the flow of water is determined ultimately by its final
destination, the flow of a devised piece is determined by its conclusion.
That ending may be a return to the beginning (creating a cyclical structure
as in Wahing for God,ot), or the resolution of a problem posed at the start
of the piece, or a point at which characters come to a new realisation
through what has happened. The more definite the ending, the more
closely everything that happens has to lead towards it. This is easy to see
in narrative structures where the logic of cause and effect is the governing
principle.
By contrast, in circus the experience is governed by the variety
principle: the clowns are followed by trapeze artists and then by the strong
man and so on until perhaps the clowns return. Like a theme-park ride,
there are varying degrees of thrill and tension, and plateaux in between.
Each individual act has its own interior dynamic, its Jo-Ha-Kyu, and the
whole is bound together by spectacle. The conclusion is the end of the
event, not of any interior journey.
A central preoccupation of modern theatrical exploration is that the
spectator experiences theatre as an event. AsJos Houben puts it,'We don't
go to the theatre to understand, we go to experience.' Although the sense
of communion that comes from the collective presence of the audience is
valued, a cornmon view is not necessarily the aim' So the experience can
be closer to circus than narrative satisfaction. However, it is still necessary'
I believe, to take the audience on a iourney that has more than simply
. DEVISING r93
spectacle and visual,excitement as the outcome. Theatre is able to probe
the human conditiort Circus is not.
In traditional nartative structures, the spectator's attentioD is held by
the cause and effect r:nd linear progression of story where meaning is set,
and every spectatolivill receive and decode the signs in a similar fashion
and from similar (vi5ual) points of view. In compositional structures, the
spectator's attention is held by fascination with spectacle and the experi-
ence of the whole, uihere meaning is not particularly set and the perform-
ance may have in-built ambiguities so that spectators are invited to
construct individual,meanings from different points of view.
The (literal) repositioning of the spectator in Grotowski's experiments
(see sncrtoN THREE: euoIENcE) gave them differing visual perspectives,
but essentially he was working with narrative structures rooted in myth
which focused on a central character. Although Eugenio Barba has
followed suit (placing the spectators in the scenic space is always integral
to the Odin performances), he has developed a distinctive way of using
montage to structure improvisation work so that an audience has an active
and individual respcnse rather than a collective empathy for a central
protagonrst.
Barba will suggesr. a theme to actors; they create improvisations from
their personal respoirse to the material, which he then reworks. He does
not enter into any diblogue about the actor's motivations, but orchestrates
their solo improvisations into 'actions', sequences of action, and scenes,
re-ordering and strut:turing according to his own intuitive sense of tempo
and rhythm. Meaniiig is virtually shunned. It is the experience of the
spectators which counts. In fact they cannot always follow a scenic whole
but must choose wtiere to look as different and apparently discontiguous
events occur in various corners of the scenic space. This is closer to the
idea of circus spectacle than narrative unity, yet Barba's work is much
more than variety 'acts. What unifies the work are deep philosophical
concerqC:.rather than simply entertainment, plus a desire to affect the
spectatoi on a primat level.
Here is Meyerhoid's idea of reaching the spectator in the sensorial
plane, where the rhvr;hms of stage composition provoke responses rather
than engagement with the inner psychology of character or the narrative
drive. For Meyerholil 'the spectator's impression is richer when it's per-
ceived subconsciousltr.'335 Artaud too felt this. His vision was of a theatre
r94 THROUGH THE BODY

which touched spectators on a visceral level, where their unconscrous

response was the heart of the experience.
In this sense, structure is very much bound up with directing. A SECTION 6
director is the eyes and ears of the potential audience, and structural
decisions are bound up in how s/he wants them to 'read' the work. And a ,The physical text
directorial vision is what ultimately provides coherence. It is not arrived at
by chance but is the organisation of chance elements and collective
creativity.
Structure is complex. It can seem like a crossword puzzle with no clues
in the rehearsal room! One way of ensuring you are clear about the way the
piece hangs together and its potential effect on the audience, is to write
each scene - however small - on a 5x3 card. If you lay these out on the
floor it is easier to organise the material you have created into a coherent
journey. Inviting people to view the work before production night is
always a useful way of testing whether it works.
Given time, and a commitment to experimenting with ways of struc-
turing material, you may arrive at the point where you make structnral
decisions on an instinctual level. However, it is vital to consider the
experience from the audience's point of view in the process of devising.
Structural decisions inform how audiences will interpret and responcl to
your work, and the art of theatre demands that you communicate with
your audience.
SECTION 6

The physical text

We haoe to . . . make wtrd; fart of our rnhole physical self in ord'er to relea,se
them from the tyra,nny of the mind.336

Although it may appear very different to work on a play rather than the
collection of fragment-s and scraps that you have when devising, the
starting point is very similar'. The difference lies, of course, in the fact that
the words and structure are already there. You meet the story and char-
acters through language, rather than arriving at them through from play-
ing with ideas. However, as with devising, using instinct rather than reason
lies at the heart of a physical approach to text. Too much thinking can
stifle the creative process, as Berkoff puts it: 'Too much analysis, like too
much choke, can make you stall.'337
Text work requires exactly the same preparation as devised work: a
company needs a comlr;lon physical and imaginative vocabulary. The pro-
cess is organic. The responsibility of the actor is to work creatively as part
of an ensemble and cor,tribute ideas. If you have no ideas iq rehearsal you
will end up doing notlt ng interesting on stage.
Although texts do, some extent, determine the style of a production,
lo
a company's way of #crking is also a key factoS and physical approaches
to text frorn contempoiary companies reveal a range of styles as the fol*
lowing examples illus/.'ate. The distinctly energised delivery of Steven
Berkoff's work has a magnitude reminiscent of Meyerhold's concept of
the grotesque. Kaos Tlieatre deploy an acutely stylised physicality, which
the ilhi;trative rtance of Being
4nd Ren,tissance ards the 'glot-
Theatrq's The B oo) exploits the
company's distinctive'handle on visual storytelling - a highly legible
gestural language rootrd in their explorations of mask work. Theatre de
Complicit6's forays inir extant plays (The Caucasian Chath Circle ryg7 rnd
The Chairs rgg8, being the most recent) have capitalised on the highly
imaginative and playfri: ensemble skills that are the cornpany's hallmark.
r98 THROUGH THE BODY
What binds these disparate styles is the way the physical life of'the
actor is the imaginative conduit of meaning, narrative, and character, so
what is said is simply one layer in the multiple layering of meanings. In
other words, they encourage a complex seeing. It is largely through the eye
that the spectator's imaginative sensibilities are drawn in.338 But the actors
do more than merely illustrate the text.
Games and play foster irnagination and spontaneity within a framework
(the rules of the game). A play supplies a framework, and the situations
and words act as a stimulus for the actors' creativity. The ability to cnter
into imaginative worlds, to make transitions between worlds - those
momentary fleeting worlds of emotion as well as the environments of the
play - is vital. Ultimately it is your imaginative response to the text that
allows character and style to emerge.
Joan Littlewood had a masterly grasp of the relationship between
Bames and text, and led her actors into the imaginative world of the play
itself through games allied to situations in the play. Consequently, the
actofs made discoveries about the characters and events in the text
through playing games. Qrite frequently toq Littlewood left casting until
later on in the process so the ensemble had a grasp of the whole play
before being assigned specific tasks/roles. Although this is virtually im-
possible to emulate in the commercial theatre, it is an immensely valuable
method of working. Even if a play has been cast, beginning the rehearsal
process with a collective exploration of the whole play kick-starts the
process of mutual collaboration.
Actors' imaginations can be stimulated by ideas adjacent to the text in
exactly the same way as a devising process uses research. So paintings,
photographs, music, history - all the items sparked by a play but additional
to it - are part of the cauldron of ideas that fuel the process. It is every
actor's responsibility to research the play as well as the role s/he might
undertake; that is how true collective ownership of the process and
performance occurs.
Berkoff frequently uses actors as a chorus, who transform themselves
into environments as well as other characters. In Agamemnon and The
Trial, a chorus created the design, manipulating sticks and rope in the
former, and door frarnes in the latter to conjure the worlds of the play. In
Hamlet ten actors not only doubled the thirty roles but also sat on chairs
around the stage-area as a chorus, watching and commenting on the action
via their body language: 'They change like chameleons) or sometimes
THE PHYSICAL TEXT r99
become a mirror for the events in the centre neutral observers,
sometimes staying within their characters, but often as people caught up
in the environment - as in religious paintings where the subsidiary figures
enhance the whole by focusing on the centre.'339
Multiple role-pkLying, or doubling of roles, is a common strategy. This
is not simply economic necessity, for it can also be seen as a tangible ack-
nowledgement of t1te duplicity of acting: the actor can be simultaneously
storyteller, charactqr(s) and member of a chorus creating environments, or
commentating on,,the action. In other words, there is a demonstrable
awareness and execution of transitional acting. Chalacter is something
arrived at and conv,gyed through predominantly physical rather than intel-
Iectual or psycholo.g'ical means, and the actor's skill lies as much in an
ability to shift between characters as well as between worlds.
Doubling enablEs actors playing smaller roles to become genuinely in-
volved in the whols play. And, in terms of technique: 'Doubling presents
a great opportunity for an actor to work around the range of their
talent.'3€ The richness of some of Shakespeare and Brecht's silent roles,
for example, (which are frequently cut in the mistaken belief that they are
unimportant) offer considerable challenges to actors.
Although many practitioners have ditched text as an 'authority', they
are often still dravin to classical texts- All Breat rexts embody somerhing
universal or profound. Like myths in the ancient world, they explore the
human condition 1ct leave the door to interpretation open. Asked why he
chose texts from the 'great tradition', Grotowski replied: 'These are like
the voices of my anr:estors . . . [they] fascinate me because they give us the
possibility of a sini;cre confrontation.'341
For Grotowski, lris encounter with a text is similar to his encounter
with an actor: 'The author's text is a kind of scalpel enabling us to open
ourselves . . . to transcend our solitude.'342 By confronting it, the actor and
prod emselves, their beliefs, experiences and prejudices.
The open to the text, of allowing it to work on the actor
and, omething new to him/her, challenges the notion of
being tiue to authorial intention. Instead of approaching the text as
sacrosanct, with thp actors as servants of a work of art, the actor's respect
for the text is thatltf a craftsman for another craftsman's material; s,/he
meets tJre 'author' ln equal terms.
There is no fooli'roof method of physicalising text. The danger lies in
thinking that physi,:alising means simply illustrating. Although visualis-
 THROUGH THE BODY THE PHYSICAL TEXT 201

ation plays a central role in animating a text) a physical approach has as IMAG(rN)rNG THE:iEXT
much to do with searching for the underbelly of a play, so that com-
munication with the audience happens on the sensory as well as visual and
I want them to hold, the piece in their hand.s; but that understanding is not an
intellectual process, it is a. physical one, they haoe to feel it.3+s
auditory levels-
Energy is crucial - what kind of energy does the play demand? To
Whilst the spontaneous reactions demanded by improvisation can help to
think of the text itself as a physical entity, brimming with energy, with pat-
teach the necessary hor,esty of performance, in improvisation everything
terns and colours embedded in it, means starting from a position of not-
is happening for first ilme; it is more difficult to get that same sense of
knowing, of innocence if you like, so that meanings emerge rather than
truth with a script when the outcome is preordained. To get 'behind' the
being imposed.
text, to find the impufse behind word and action, you need to tackle the
To cover the possibilities of physical theatre in relation to text in real
rhythmic and sonic patterns of a text, to find the underlying dynamics,
depth deserves more space than can be dedicated here. It is, however,
and allow them to provoke your imagrnatron.
absolutely vital that text work does not start without prior training. You
won't get very far without establishing a common physical vocabulary, and
In ngytnpr-scApE^! and souNoscApEs in sEcrroN roun, tubes and
then percussion were used to create abstract, or free-form, pieces using
the notions of play and complicit6 and other concepts illustrated in this
the otkas - posyl - stoiha as a structuring device. The following exercises
book are as essential to working on scripts as they are to devising.
follow on from this work, applying the same idea in principle to text.
The aim of the exercises in this section is to offer some routes to
Prefacing the next exercise with those earlier ones will enrich the work.
searching out meaning, story, character, through somatic encounters with
a text. They build on exercises used earlier in this book in order to provide
some continuity. It would be pointless to attempt the exercises here with- Scene-scape3a6 l

out exploring those in the earlier sections. This is not to suggest a rigid
Scenes l,lV ondV from .)a I of Hamlet work very well for this, provided
method, but rather to indicate how preparatory training feeds into the
everyone knows tfie plot.3a7 Distribute o collection ofpercussion tools ondlor
process of interpreting text.
Many of the following games and exercises approach text from abstract
instrurnents - homema,Je ones ore os eflecttve os the orchestrol vorieties -
(the onything thot con be shrike4 rottled, banged or chimed will do, but ensure
or tangential angles in the belief that sudden surprise of discovery can
you hove o voriety ofsolnds.
often reveal more about a text . . . than approaching it directly'.343 They
are not designed to forge a particular style, but simply offer a physical Eoch group reods o scene througlt ond pinpoints the mojor moments of
approach to unlocking the text. tensio4 using these to st;bdivide the scene into smoller units- Once these ore
The text examples used here are predominantly from Shakespeare for ogreed,the group shouht onempt to lobel these using on active verb.Aa I
one very good reason: the heightened language of Shakespeare encourages Scene lV for exomple, rltight end up in six sections lobelled: Woitingl
the exploration of the limits of expression, and lays a foundation for Debotingl S;ein1l Becktningl Fightingl Following.
approaching modern plays with a respect for the playwright's choice of
Hoving estoblished these units, eoch group uses the percussion to improvise
words. The tendency to render modern prose (or even Shakespeare) as
o soundscoPe of the whcle scene.Ihis will go through o few 'drofu' to creote
'everyday-speak' belies the fact that any writer worth their salt uses lan-
o finol piece.Try to ovoili the literol,such os replicoting the sound of
guage deliberately to resonate with more than surface meaning. In Cicely
Berry's words: 'Work on Shakespeare opens our awareness to language in footsteps. Be coreful oluays to be concerned with copturing the ebb ond

modern writing by adding to the resonance of the words we speak, even flow of tension rother t|'ttn mimicry - it's o soundscdpe not o soundfricture.
when they are rooted in a modern reality.'l#
2O2 THROUGH THE BODY THE PHYSICAL TEXT 243

Another pointto beor in mind is how to moye between units.The principle of
o'fixed point'is useful here, in other words punctuoting the moment of
tronsition from one unit to the nexL
Ihese compositions ore played to the other groups.Ihose working on the
sorne scene moy well find points of similority between their soundscopes,
ond olthough it's qurte common to ftnd thot groups will inflea the some
what's happening thrtt'.rgh the physical interaction of actors. I-Iowever, in
orcler to work beyondlihe merely pedestrian and illustrative, you need to
work on the transference of energy.
The earlier exercise, srICK-sroRIns is a useful corollary here.
Stick-scenes 'i

scene slightly differently, the unrts usuolly foll into o similor overallpottern. Building on your shored. understonding of the rhythmic potrcrn of the scene,
Rernember the importance of silence. ln the eorly stoges, mony soundscopes present it now os o dumb show using o stick to poss the energy between
ore too busy.And the discovery thot'less is more'is o yoluoble lesson. players.Try to keep os much spoce between you os possible, so thot the
moment of possing the "sti,ck gains urgency.
Action-scape
Adding gobbledeygook ;in ploce of diologue (along the /ines of the exercise
Now creote the oction of the scene in movement using the previous exercise stick-stories) brings it inio the realm of storytelling.The importont thing is
os o bosis. ln other words find physicol eguivolents for the sounds in terms not to use gobbledeygoo,k to porophrose the diologue, but for rts sonic ond
of the ebb and flow of tension. Actors moy represent chorocters, but you tonal properties.
moy decide to work os o chorus, or o combinotion of both, ond the
movement con be guite obstroct.The oim is to copture the rhythm of the -
Possing the sti,ck forces octors to interoct you hove to look someone in the
eye to poss and receive the strckl lt olso promotes on understonding of how
scene in physicol terms rother thon mime the scene's octlon. Use no words.
focus shifts, ond how irnportont it is to keep every moment olive onstoge.
Present the scenes os choreogrophies using only percussion to occompony or
Wen the stick 'dies', so does the scene.
punctuote the movement
Another woy of using tli: stick is to poss it before you speok.The person
This work encourages actors to recognise the underlying pattern of a receiving it hos to reoct to what is being soid.
scene, its peaks and troughs, where one unit ends and another begins, from ,l

the intuitive perspective of rhythm.
It is a variation on the (Stanislavskian) notion of scoring the action,
which operates by stripping the text to a small selection of key words and
building the action around them, a method which depends more on
analysing language than sensing rhythm but is nonetheless a useful way of
getting to the action of a scene, discovering what is happening.
If you move on to cleating a more literal action-scape after the previous
exercises, i.e. playing out the situation on the battlements, you will find
By now you will have i deeper knowledge of the scene you've been work-
ing on. And you'll st?iit to see how the possibilities of your own imagi-
native interpretation itpen up. Once you have the lines (see p. zo5 for
advice on line-learning in nnertruc wITH woRDs) and you return to this
scene, re-play this stick-passing exercise. You'll find it energises the scene
and offers you choices 1or where to place the focus. You can then play with
modulating the energiy along the lines of the game cHANGTNG cnnns in
SDCTION t THREE.
i!::

that actors render the scene more vividly than if they had simply attemp- Thinking visually iri theatre does not mean thinking pictorially. Playing
ted to portray the action from a reading. with different configrirations of audience to stage, e.g. in the round,
Any scene can be presented as dumb show, with no words, in the traverse, thrust, is a vdfuable deterrent. It serves
to energise performance,
manner of visual storytelling, sometimes called tableaux aioants. Dumb even if you know you will eventually play the piece end-on-
shows rnd scenarios reveal the skeleton of a scene or story and serve to At the heart of inuging' a text lies the art of suggestion. Peter Brook
bring the narrative into focus. They are a highly effective way for actors to remarked that if you f r rnish the stage, you furnish the mind of the spec-
grasp the story of a scene, and bring an awareness of how an audience reads tator. Metaphor can hq far more powerful than reality. In Brook's Marat
20+ THROUGH THE BODY
Sade, the actors poured buckets of red and blue paint to represent the
blood of the peasants and monarchy shed in the French Revolution.
Brook's work is awash with such vivid images, from the red ribbons
dangling from the mutilated Lavinia's arms in Titus And,ronicas, to the
arrows carried across the stage in The Mahabharate. cHLNcE THE oBJEcr
is a good exercise for laying the foundations of creating images and worlds
through physical improvisation.
Berkoff makes an interesting point about props, saying that in Hamlet
the cast would use props in rehearsal, but if they got in the way - or in the
way of the inventiveness of the actors - they would mime them instead.348
He recalls getting very tired using fencing foils to rehearse his fight with
Laertes at the end of Hamlet- One day he suggested rehearsing all the
moves without the foils, with the beat of a drum marking each move; they
fought with a new power and agility. This'fight without foils'became part of
the production, the audience'inventing'the steel blades flashing through
the air and the blood they drew, which made the scene far more horrific.34e
Such moments of collective imagining are the very essence of theatre.
Sound effects serve as an imaginative support for the suggestive power
of mime, and working initially with percussion encourages a sensitivity to
the relationship between the audio and visual that feeds the spectators'
experience. Sound, like design, should be part of the process of exploring
and imag(in)ing the play rather than something tacked on. There is the
added pleasure and fascination of watching sound effects being made.
Watching an actor shake a thunder sheet as King Lear hurls abuse at the
sky, or hitting the timpani as Pericles struggles to keep his ship on course
in a storm, adds another dimension to the spectator's experience and
involvement.
Using musicians who respond to and react with the actors in rehearsal,
as Berkoff and Brook dq developing the musical score along with scoring
the action, is an increasingly common strategy. Using musicians, or actor-
musicians, working to create an integrated musical score during rehearsals
is an ideal which some companies pursue, Kaboodle Theatre, for example,
whose musicians share the stage with the actors, and sometimes play small
roles in performance. Then there are companies like Commonground,
whose actor-musicians create and play the music as part of the making
process, integrating the two in performance.
Even if you have no musicians, actors can work on exploring text
through rhythms and sound. Just as we need an extra-daily body on stage)
THE PHYSICAL TEXT 205
using different energies t,r those we use in everyday life, we need to recog-
nise that language in thbatre is removed from the daily. We need to see
language as charged with an alter-energy. Rhythm and sound work are a
route to discovering the hidden energies in a text.
DEALING WITH WORDS
Be conscious of the action behind the words.3s0
Because we meet texts as words on a page, our first reaction is to approach
them in terms of their t'reaning. Yet, as Peter Brook has pointed out, 'a
word does not start as a word - it is an end product which begins as an
impulse.'3sl And, as *. [i,"n. already noted, Brook has found the secrets of
text are hidden in the sound, rhythm and texture of the language as much
as in its meaning.
For Brook movement r meaning. The actor does not need to analyse
whether they are interpleting the meaning though their actions; nor do
they need to understancl how the words, or the rhythm and sound of the
words, beget action antl/or meaning through them. They need only to
trust their physical respr,nse to rhythm and sound via the suggestions of
the director. It is not a state of identifying with the character that Brook is
working towards; it is a state of 'being' which allows action and meaning
to become inseparable, aitor and character to become so entwined, that the
actor's body is a condui; of meaning(s) for the audience to read.
Voice work is an obvrous starting point, and the exercises on sound in
SECTION EOUn provide r, basis. Beware of working only on voice-and-text;
in 'total theatre"all the elements of the human being are brought into
motion'.35Z You need to p;et inside the words physically. Working somatic-
ally on text reveals the sr:mantic: feeling the movement of the language is
a route to understandir.l;. As Cicely Berry puts it, you have to 'feel the
language \nqcking around inside you'.3s3
Joan Liitiewood's act,rrs recount that they never seemed to learn the
lines, they'rrvere fed in rl,rring rehearsals for the most part. She also em-
ployed the French prac',:ise of using a sffieu;e, another company member
whispering the lines ir the actor's ear as the rehearsal progressed.
Although many find it a c istraction, it is worthwhile pursuing this strategy
as it helps actors realisi that they do actually know the lines, and are
hanging on to their bo<itr: as a 'security blanket'. It is also a co-operative
 THROUGFI TI-I]1 BODY
2c,6
way of w-orking and enables actors to become more familiar with the whole
text.
Some companies use the technique of recording the lines as neutrally
as possible on tape. As actors work on the rehearsal floor, the prerecorded
tape is played and eventually the actors take over - the lines have become
embedded.
you cannot act with a book in your hand. However, learning lines before
rehearsals creates its own problems. Actors have a tendency to learn lines
in a manner which is already inflected; they work out what they think the
character is sirying, and why, and inflect the words accordingly. Rehearsals
then become a battleground as the actor has a set meaning which s/he
finds difficult to relinquish in order to explore new ideas which suggest
ditTerent inflections.
To explor-e the possibilities inherent in a rext requires learning lines in
as non-infl€cted a manner as possible. Cicely Berry offers some excellent
advice for both solo and group work in Chapter 8 of The Actor d,nd the Text
(zooo). As she points out, being involved in an activity whilst speaking
lines takes the actor's attention away from trying to remember them. Dis-
arming actors through games and activity prevents them from becoming
too head-based.
Sometimes great physical effort can release the voice, partly because it
takes attention away from speaking, as in the following exercise. Use this
for working on prepared speeches.
Squash the speaker35a
A volunteer lies foce down on the floor.Two or three other octors lie on top,
crisscrossing the prone body,and others stond oround ond wotch the fun.As
the volunteer storts to speck s/he tries to lift the others offherlhis bock ond
get uP.
Lying on the floor re,eoses your voice to some extent, but since energy
is directed to the effort of pushing off the bodies sguoshing you,the
voice finds olternotive pothwoys ond the words toke on o fresh energy and
urgency.
Few octors succeed in getting up;cheer them ifthey do-
THE PHYSICAL TEXT '207
Seeking a primitive, uncluttered response to language is not dissimilar to
seeking neutrality in the'body. You have to allow language to work on you,
rather than you controlling the language. Exploring the sonic and rhyth-
mic properties of language is a way of discovering the impulse behind the
word(s).
A somatic route is essentially holistic and is based on the premise that
exercises in physical consciousness affect the actors' psychological aware-
ness. The temptation with text is to seek intelligible meaning, to make
sense of what is being said. In somatic training the actor has to suppress
this desire in favour of attending to the sonic value and rhythm of
language which leads tc a deeper understanding at sub-lingual level. The
true connotations of the word are the end-product of the process rather
than the starting point.,.
Finding the sonic vdlue as a celebration of words releases textures,
feelings and moods suggested by their sound. It enables the colour of the
word to lead you rather than you colouring the word. Words have a
physical root. See them ru a potent force. Language can restrain or choke
hidden depths of meanirg when looked at semantically. This is why Brook
approaches text like muslc - the last thing he looks for is feeling - for that
will come through exploring the way the voice 'moves through a word'
finding connections bedween consonants and vowels iust as a musician
searches for relationships between notes.3s5
The exercise called swE,ln-spEAK towards the end of sncrrou FouR is
a good preface for the next exercises.
Lingo-physic ,
Find o seleaion of olternlitive spellings or unusuol words from any good
diaionory, either phonetic or deriving from onother longuoge. For exomple,
the word guifieo could be written gini, the word orcode could be written oh-
koied,the *gfu tuoto, is simply very unusuallThe ideo is thot the words look
unfomilior,id;we con crc,i'te their sound without knowing their meoning.
Scrowl severol ofthese uD,on o boord so everyone con see them.
Toking eoch word ot its lrtronetic level,leorn them ond then ploy with the
sound of them, tosting them on the tongue, exploring what hoppens to your
mouth when you say thar - and whot hoppens when you try to express
208 THROUGH TFIE BODY .
Jt
THE PHYSICAL TEXT zo9

them physicolly.You ore tapping the energy of the word rather thon trying to
impose ony meoning.
The trick here is to find pleasure in exploring the extremes of the sounds,
feeling the vibrations of each syllable and letting the body move in
response.
Yoshi Oida explains that in Kyogen training, actors learn how to
communicate laughter by making the sound 'ha-ha-ha'; in a similar
manner the sounds 'shaay, shaay, shaay' are used for sadness.ss6 Apart from
the purely technical (descriptive) aspects of words we use in ordinary lif'e,
many words 'carry an emotional resonance in their sound'.357 Good writers
choose words for their sonic value and it is important to respect this when
working on text: the principle here is that exploring the sound of the
words can lead you towards the feeling.
With these Shokespeorb phroses, let the sound leod your movement,so thot
you orc echoing the soi;nd with your own physicolity, forming motifs, moking
tonyersotions' within the body.
Negotiating text in tldis way allows you to discover nuances of meaning
contained within sorlfids of words and the relationships berween them,
their assonance and dtssonance. Sound imagery lends weight to the text's
concealed emotions. '{
Action precedes analysis in working on text. And seeing words as an
active force feeding the imaginative process rather than a preordained
template for presentation opens up more possibilities for interpretation.
The imaginative encijunter between the actor and the text is more than
illustration; it should be an illumination. Language has its own muscul-
arity, musicality, and magic. Once again we come back to rhythm, for every
word, phrase, sentenci has its own internal rhythm.

Text-physic
Stick-lines
You con extend the lingo-physic exercise to clusters of words, or even
phroses from unfomilior longuoges short enough to leorn quickly. I come Eoch group hos o stich to poss between them oround o circle.Toke o line
ocross the following exomple in o workshop run by Kenneth Rec: from Shal<espeore, such os Mirondo's'O brove new world thot hoth such
People in it'or Gertrucl€t 'Her clothes spreod wide,And mermoid-like owhile
Tone muhoto
they bore her up'. As the stlck posses round the circle,the group speok the
Te mutote
Iine one word eoch otih time. Ihe oim is to try ond ftnd o rhythmic flow to
nghere3s8
the line" Proctise ollows them to keep the speech moving in on uninterrupted
t.
Once ogoin, write this up on o boord so thot everyone can leorn it And os in monner
the previous exercise, explore the sound of the phrose through the body, I

How eoch eorlier wortis infleded will, of course, diaote how you inflea
ollowing the rnuscles to respond physicolly.You ore moking o relotionship with
yours. So this becomes'ern exercise in listening os much os speoking. See
the text on o sonic level, connecting with it ot o viscerol level.
whot difference it
molgs if you con morry the rhythm of the line to the
Follow this with o few lines from ony Shokespeore ploy, such os the rhythm of,qfre stick going oround.Then try possing the stick the other woy, so
beginning of Colibon's speech obout his homelond:'This is/e is full of noises, the line es bock in,o new direaion.And then see if the stick con hsve its
Sounds ond sweet oirs thot delight the eor ond hurt not', or o line or two o*, iou ,.,,
r,vhilst the,,rne trovels ot o dffirent speed.
from Gertrudet speech on the drowning of Ophelia'When down her weedy
trophies ond herself / Fell in the weeping brook'.These two provide o cleor Actors love this exercise. The level of concentration deepens within the
controst in terms of their emotionol resononce.Agoin,putthem up on o group as they realise :the range of possibilities in delivery. One group in-
boord so thot octots con leorn and refer to then'l and follow exoctly the vented a version where urembers stand with their backs to each other:,
sorne process os before. They said this emphasrsed the listening and made thern rnore aware.
2IO THROUGH THE tsODY THE PHYSICAL TEXT 2rt

Focusing on sornething else whilst speaking releases surprising rhythms CHARACTER

and inflections. When concentrating on something else words adopt nerv
As if they were craftsmer; giaen a piece of clay to mould. . . [they] show their
patterns-
m,ind, in their body a,t el,erJt stage of the eaents.360

Ball-speeches Mask work is a wonderful foundation for character work, because it

teaches you to perform something other than yourself whilst at the same
Four people toke it in turns to speok o speech they hove leornt whilst
time investing yourselL deeply in the performing.36l Actors who have
throwing o boll to each other.At first whot hoppens is they odopt the rhythnt
undertaken mask work are less dependent on their own personalities in
of the boll. If you breok up the pottern of the boll, by ploying piggy-in-the-
acting, more sensitive to the text as a 'form' which acts as a catalyst on
middle, or by trying to stop the person speoking from getting the boll, new
them, allowing a character to emerge rather than be imposed. Working on
potterns emerge in the speech.
counter-mask is a fnutful pathway to realising the multi-dimensional
nature of characters, how (as in life) characters are full of contradictions.
Similarly, using the exercise cANE-DANCEs with two players who have
learnt a section of dialogue generates physical insights into the relation-
If you start with an idea of what a character 'is like' you are likely to
end up in a conventiorial and clich6d portrayal. The audience are the ones
ship between characters. Gertrude and Harnlet in Act III Scene IV is great
who must decide whai a chalacter 'is like'. The art of creating believabie
fol this. Remember to use only a short exchange of dialogue - a 'unit'
characters lies in nevei quite knowing who they are. As soon as you think
along the lines of the lirst exercise in this section. And be sure that actors
you've Bot them, they disappear. You can only remain responsive to the
are familiar with playing the game first before using it with text, otherwise
possibilities of what tiiey might be. This doesn't mean indecisive acting.
you will cause confusion.
On the contrary, you .lnve to make decisions about them, how and where
This helps prevent actors from presenting the result of thought rather
they move, how they rpeak, what they do. But those decisions should
than the process of thought, a common tendency which means there is no
emerge organically thilugh somatic investigation. The effect is arrived at
surplise either for the actor or for the listener. Words need to be seen as
cumulatively.
thought in action. Naturally believable, truthful utterance in life is ura-
The idea of the 'fiiily rounded' character can be misleading, inviting
clouded. It is married indivisibly to actions. And actions are physical res-
the idea that they are a fixed entity. Characters change during the course
ponses to situations. You have to discover the character's responses through
of a play, and a sense bf surprise at their actions has to be constant. You
exploring what they do and say.
cannot play descriptions" Too often, actors come up with a generalised
Peter Flall suggests viewing words in the same way as you would a
overview of a character, such as 'she's a perfectionist' or 'he's a pessimist'.
mask, so that a role, like a mask, becomes like another skin.3s9 In good
Playing generalisations is a recipe for tedium. In real life people are full of
playwriting the movement and intonation patterns of language are reflec-
contradictions. They act and speak according to the situation they find
tions of chalacter. Paying attention to the internal dynamic of words, their
themselvgs in at the noment. The art of conveying character lies in find-
inherent musicality, how consonants and vowels are balanced, and the
ing the rifht action fcil each moment - starting with details and allowing
pauses, stops and breaths, will give you a rhythmic pattern on which to
these to accumulate. Stanislavsky understood this; it is the basis of his
develop the inner life of a character'. Blank verse, for example, will
concept of 'physical a.:tions'.
discipline the delivery (via the breathing) in the same way as a mask
Stanislavsky also t'rnphasised that the physical and verbal life of a
disciplines the body, once you observe its demands.
character are outward :nanifestations of their inner life. Whether you find
itmore conducive to cegin work from 'outside' or 'inside' a character,
what you must enabli: the spectator to do is 'read' them like a weather
2t2 TFIROUGI-I TFI[, I}ODY
vane. And for this to happen, the psychic and physical life of characrer
have to connect. This is where you exploit your development of inner
awareness with the capacity to work externally, and the control you have
acquired over your body.
The suggestions for exploring text-based characters here are ideas for
provoking the actors' imaginations through physical means, since that
is ultimately how they will proiect the fictional constructs of the pnay-
wright(s): 'The theatre is the meeting place between imitation and a trans-
forming power called imagination, which has no action if it stays in the
mind. It must pervade the body.'362
Playing around with the idea of characters as animals is highly
productive. Preface this next exercise with the game ANIMAL pArRs in
SEcTIoN rwo. Actors will need to have learned a speech for a particular
character for this.
Anirnalistics
lnyite octors to think of on onimol thot o chorocter reminds them of. For
example, Gertrude could be o leopord, Ophelio o swallow. (NB: Dont osk
octors to justify their choices -
the point is to give them free rein on the
ideo sporked in them, not come up w'rth on onalyticolly-bosed interpretotion.)
Firsg let them explore the extrerne limits of the physicol chorocteristics of
these onimols, so the room resembles o zoo.
As they ore doing this, osk them to speok the speech (or ony extrocts thot
pop into their mind), using the physicol moyernents they ore engoged in to
colour the words, repeoting words and phroses ot rondom, relishing those
thot seem to work in tondem with the onimol's movemenL (The idea is not
to speok the speech word-perfealy.)
Nex!, rnvite the actors to think of onother animol for the choracter - pref'er-
obly in complete controst to the first, for exomple Gertrude os o crow ond
Ophelio os o robbit Repeot the physicol explorotions,creating another wild-
life pork, ond then osk them to speok the speech ogoin os in the previous step.
This is a great way of releasing the actors physically and fostering the idea
of the 'otherness' of characters. It often gives actors starting points for the
gestural language of a character and can reveal quite surprising discoveries
about them too.
THE PHYSICAL TEXT 2t3
The exercise cHAnACTER KATAS can also be adapted for working with
text. In sEcrIoN FIV)j this was used in relation to biographical information
and engaged you in feeling and thinking about characters to render them
as creative ideographs. You can use information gleaned from the text
about a character, frorn what they do, say, and what others do to them and
say about them, in exactly the same way as you used the biographical
information, to develop physical characterisation. The important thing is
to ensure you incorporate your response to the information.
This exercise helps you avoid working with clich6d mannerisms, those
thousands of converL{ional gestures which wp use in day-to-day commu-
nication. These are;. rn Dario Fo's words, 'banal, well-worn stereotypes
which do not indicate the presence of an intelligent imagination', for in
theatre 'it is as essenaal to re-invent gestures as it is to re-invent words'.363
The gestural language of theatre is not simply an exaggerated stylisation
of the everyday.
You fi'equently cr;me across young directors cajoling actors to tmake it
bigger' in the mistaiien view that enlarging the gesture is the route to a
more intense theatricality. Firstly you have to establish the right corres-
pondence between tl,ie inner dimension of character and its exterior ex-
pression. Then you can begin to play with scale. Sometimes a simple
movement of the haiil will say as much as a movement of the whole body -
but only when the ra'hole body is involved in that small movement of the
hand. Clarity is as crtrcial as exaggeration.
Connecting theiilrer dimension with the outer expression is a clumsy
way of talking abou: the alchemy of acting and polarises 'inner' and
'outer', when in fact,rhe two should work together, one feeding the other,
to create the final incarnation of character. Actors work in very different
ways to achieve thisi' rnd one actor's preference may well be poisonous to
another. You will firlf your own way through a process of trial and error,
and through whatevr:i' training you undertake.
Berkoff draws a rlistinction between the idea of playing characters
rooted i4 'personaliiy traits so beloved of the naturalistic school' and
playing the essence trl 'characters as archetypes.364 For him, television and
film acting'celebratr".he burying of personality into stereotypes', whereas
theatre revels in thr:r archetypal.365 Training in neutral and archetypal
masks enables actors to envisage character in more than behavioural terms,
to work on finding tiie essence of a particular type. Exploring characters
through a range of a."chetypes, for example tackling Gertrude (in Hamlet)
I
zr+ THROUGFI THE BODY
through both 'wicked stepmother' and 'wise crone', is one route to finding
their inherenl contradictions.
Wolking on colours is related to work on archetypes. Colour conjures
particular responses in us. Yet beyond the conventional relationships
between red and anger,/danger, blue and melancholy, green and jealour;y,
lie a spectrttm of physical attributes.
Colounkatas366
Coll out individuol co,ours with the simple instruction to move blue, or yellow
or purple,for exomple. Eoch octor responds individuolly-And go on to odd o
sound to thot colour, o sound thot is prompted by the movemenL Compore
the results.
In physical terrrrs, theessence of each colour produces similar dynamics in
movernent terms. Red is short and contained - on the spot if you like.
Yellow has a short but vivid span, whereas blue seems to Bo on forever. In-
tellectual attempts at trying to reason this out generally fail. You just feel it.
Applying this is not simply a question of identifying what colour relates
to a character, but using the dynamic properties of colour as an explor-
atory device for characters at a particular point in a play where their mood
seems identifiable with a colour, or shifts through a colour palette.
Finding Bestures and movement of characters is analogous to finding
the dynamic of elements- You are searching for gestures which reverberate
through the anatomy so tl-re whole personality is imbued with them. Artaud
noticed that the stylised gestures of Balinese dance-drama are always
aimed at 'the clarification of a state of rnind or a rnental problem'367 and
he found the horde of ritual gestures deployed by performers penetrated
the mind in a similar fashion to music. He called for a'physical knowledge
of in'rages' maintaining that it is necessary to find 'correspondences
between a Besture in painting or on stage, and a gesture made by lava in a
volcanic eruption'.368
The next exercise demonstrates how to explores this notion in relation
to character, using the Ghost in Hamlet.
THE PHYSICAL TEXT 2t\
36e
Fire/mountain
Wolk around the room in the some way os'Stop ond Go'in section one.
Keep your own poce ond, cnss-cross the spoce.As you wolk explore the
element of fire in your bady, frst in the orms ond /egs, then the honds ond
eyes until you ore moving os fire.
Now wolk with thot sorric sensotion of fire within but show it only in your
eyes.When you pass so/neone ollow your eyes to meet ond momentorily
'frzz'with them.
Then stond, ond in the scme woy, find the quolity of mountoin in your body.
First of oll remoin in one ploce. Once you hove found the mountoin explore
how the mountoin might.move. How would it trovel ocross spoce? Develop
this into wolking os the i?lountoin, commonding the sPoce.Think obout the
fire within the mountoin;,so thot you might hove moments when lovo oozes
slowly, or erupts, or o rock-slide occurs.
Acting is a process of imaginative and physical transfolmation. The inner
conviction of the actors is what creates and sustains the imaginary world
- and peoples it. That inner conviction is a marriage of technique and
imagination, the one supporting the other to create convincing incar-
natrons.
When working with text-borne characters it is important to work in a
playful way. Playing games in character is great fun. Get the court of
Elsinore playing GRANI)MorHER's FoorsrEps, or BALL rN ruE AIn, and
you will have an instani]interactive, character-development session! Simi-
larly, the constraints of' performing improvised situations in character
provide enjoyable waystof finding out how to play the characters. Never
forget that 'theatre nrtrst always retain its playful dimension',37D and
working through the bo ly is fundamentally about enjoyment.
Appendix '

MASK MAKERS TRAINING COURSES

''?
IN PHYSICAL THEATRE
Ninian Kinier-Wilson
3z Moscow Drive t, Circomedia
Liverpool Lr3 7DH,tr Centre for Contemporary Circus
tel: or5t 2Sg 5422., and Physical Performance
,

tel: otrT 947 7288

Michael Chase
ernail:
The Mask Studio ,
info@circomedia. demon. co. uk
The Glasshouse
int ernet : www.circomedia.com
Wolleston Road
Amblecote Dell'Arte International School of
Stourbridge Physical Theatre
West Midlands ovB 4Hr P.O. Box 816
e-rnail : mask. studio@virgin.net Blue Lake
int erne t : www.mask-studio. co.uk CAg55z5
Trading Faces USA
z Bridge View tel: *t 7o7 668 5663
Bridge Street e m ai I : d,ellar te@aol.
com
Abingdon int ernet : www. dellarte.com

Oxon oxr4 3HN I

Desmond Jones School of Mime

tel: orz35 55o829
-)
and Physical Theatre
Trestle Theatre Cg:npany zo Thornton Avenue
Birch Centre London w4 rec
Hill . I
tel: ozo 8Z+l ZSSI
StA email:
Hertfdilshire AL4 oRA enquiries@desmondjones.co. uk
tel: oryz7 85og8g internet : www. desmondj ones.co. uk
2rB THROUGH THE BODY

llcole de Mime Corporel Dramatique International Workshop Festival

Unit zo7 (annual)
Belgravia Workshop 66 Theatre Street
r 57 -r 63 Marlborough Road LavenderHill
London Nrg 4NF London swrr 5TF Endnotes I
te l: ozo 7263 %3g tel: ozo 7zz3 zzz3
ema.il : infoschool@angefou.co.uk email : i-w -f@i-w-f. demon. co.uk Where books are cited b.y author and. dute of publicatiln only, fuller deta,ik nill be
int, erne t : www. angefou. co. uk int erne t : wwwi-w-f demon. co.uk .founrl in the Bibliography.
Ecole Internationale de Th6atre The School of Physical Theatre Introduction
Jacques Lecoq 3 Mills Media Centre 1 Hayley Carmichael, 'My Theatre' , in Total Th.eatre,rz (r) Spring zooo.
57, rue du Faubourg St. Denis 3 Mills Lane
2 L..oq, 2oootg.
75oro Paris Bromley-by-Bow
3 In 1984 an organisation called Mime Action Group (MAG) was formed
F'rance London E3 3DU in Britain, associi,ted with the European Mime Federation, and over the
next decade this grew into an umbrella organisation for mime, physical
licole Philippe Gaulier tel: ozo 8zr5 335o
theatre and visual performance, renaming itself 'Total Theatre' and
St. Michael's Church Hall email: producing a periodical of the same name.
St. Michael's Road school@physicaltheatre. com
a H. Iater complains about the way it has been overused to describe
London Nwz 6xc internet : www.physicaltheatre.corn 'anything that ion't traditional dance or theatre', (from the Bound to
Please programr.,re I Q!J).
tcl: ozo 8438 oo4o 5 Gradually the c,,rnpany have moved towards multi-media performance,
Short courses are advertised
emai I : kba3r@dial. pipex. com (incorporating video and holography in The Happiest Days o.f Your Life
regularly in Total Theatre magazine.
(rqgq), for example, alongside an onstage swimming pool), with dance as
Hope Street International Arts Information available from:
6. Brook, ry68'.72.
the primary mode.
Tlaining and Development Total Theatre , The Power Station,
Hope Street Coronet Street, London Nr 6so
t F.otn The Actor nnd, The (Jbermarionette (tgo7) in Walton, rg83:85.
(tuL: oza
8 From Thoroughtcss in Theatre (Igrr) in Walton, 1983:97.
Liverpool 77zg 7944, email:
tel: or51 7oB 8oo7 magtotaltheatre@easynet. co. uk)
' H. was influenced by Adolphe Appia, the Swiss designer who, realising
that painted ,",-n".y was two-dimensional and the actor three-dirnen-
sional, proposed an unframed stage which used levels, stairs and, above
all, light to creatc a flexible space providing a range of suggestive possi-
bilities.
10 Roose-Evans, rcsti4:53.
l1 Richard Eyre pl+,:es physical theatre in the popular tradition of theatre as
opposed to the rerbal tradition, and asserts that as such, it has 'both
flEillrished and l:-nguished' at various points in history. (Foreword to
'lVJbving into Pr'rformance, a report on the European and Physical
Theatre Workshop Symposium', MAG r9g4). Drawing a distinction bet-
ween a physical and verbal tradition perpetuates the idea that one does
not feed the other. Great periods of theatrical endeavour are born out of
the marriage of ithe two. The Ancient Greek playwrights were actors and
choreographers; ,Shakespeare was an actor, and so was Molidre. George
Devine, foundel: of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court in
London, ran mark workshops for playwrights (including Edward Bond)
 THROUGH THE BODY NOTES TO PAGES ro-29 'z2 t

believing they needed some experiential understanding of acting if they Section One
were writing for the stage. Peter Brook and Jacques Lecoq both believe 25 Brook, rgg3.z. :

that when the verbal tradition is lack-lustre theatre seeks to renew itself 26 Copeau quoted in Rudlin and Paul, rygoi4g.
by l'eturning to the language of image and gesture. 27 Jacques Pr6net's rccount of a visit to Copeau's School in Burgundy,
Artaud, tg77:72. quoted in Rudlin and Paul, tggo'.+g.
Decroux codified the techniques necessary to the successful execution of 28 Lecoq, zooo:67.
the mime's trompe I'oeil. In particular, he and Barrault formulated the 2e Ibid.:69.
contrepoitls technique: 'the basis for the modern mime's ability to conjure 30 Calery, D.: 'Skills Exchange' in Total Theatre, Vol.rr No.z July 1999.
the existence of the intangible'. (Felner, 1985:67). Essentially this works 31 Christoffersofi,tgg37g.
on the principle that an imaginary object will appear real providing the 32 Richards,r995:rz,i.
body expresses the muscular tension imposed by the object. Think of 34 Feldenkrais, rg77';so.
Iifting a suitcase, and how the neight of the suitcase creates tension, 34 oida, r997:r8.
causing one shoulder to list to the side and that arm to lengthen, whilst rs Ibid.
the free arm lifts slightly. Without an actual suitcase, the mime replicates 36 It is Etienne Decr'lux, the mime artist, who first codified the concept of
and accentuates this tension: spectators respond by'seeing'the suitcase.
l+ articulation, through which the body becomes not only pliable but the
It was the actor Jean-Louis Barrault who first coined the phrase 'total instrument of exl,ression: physical movements are not merely broken
theatre'. His work was influenced by the mime artist Etienne Decroux
down into constituent parts, but rather the mime has to think about the
with whom he worked in the nineteen-thirties to codify the techniques of
inclination and roiation of an isolated unit of action. It requires under-
mime which enable hirn,/her to create viable illusions on stage. Both
standing of, and an ability to separate) the head from the neck, the neck
zealot and high priest of mime, Decroux also championed the ideal of
from the chest etd. - isolation of individual segments which' when prac-
performers creating their own work, (and Barrault initially became famous
tised, gives greatcr expressive control and range of movement possi-
for his one-man shows). In this sense, Decroux can be seen as the pre-
bilities. The restnlt is an angularity and stylisation of movement that
cursor of modern devising.
reflects the influcoce of Cubism on Decroux.
Total Theatre Network is the title of the UK umbrella organisation for 37 Lecoq, 2ooo:7g.
physical-based, visual theatre and mime, and the iournal which covers 38 Christofferson,rgq3:r50.
l5
this field. 3e Steven Berkoff talks of this effect with actors playing the Samsa family in
During more than forty years his Ecole Internationale d,e Mime et d,e
Metamorphosli: 'lly breaking down the movement to the ticks of the
Theatre in Paris admitted over 3,ooo students from all over the world.
metronome I makg the family appear not only to be ruled by the clock but
Ecole Philippe Caulier offers courses in at least six European countries as
to become more f,licinating as the elements of the body are separated and
well as New York and Australia. Gaulier studied with Lecoq from 1968-
laid bare. The watth casing is taken off and we see the springs and ratchets
7o, and taught there for the next nine years. Following an invitation from within. Far more interesting to watch than a slavish production of what
the Arts Council in r99o to come and work in England for a year, he
those very actors have done that morning at home . . . The units of their
established his London school. Much of his work is centred on 'cham-
movemerit, theirlsignature, are broken down and we are able to see the
pioning the clown's humanity in the face of an aggressive and self-
family moving as a triq cutting their food, raising a fork, munching until
seeking society'. Source: Ecole Philippe Gaulier Brochure r996.
t7 in a way they are'like living paintings caught by a strobe, or a clock made
This was fbllowed by a series of adaptations and original plays, all
of human flesh.' 3erkoff, 1995:37-38.
perforn-red in the high-octane physical style for which Berkoff has 40 An,e.{aptation of Boal's much-loved game where the loser wins. Boal,
beconre renowned: The Trinl (tglZ), Ag'amemnort. (IgZ:), The Fall of the
House o.f [Jsher (t975), East gg75), West (t977) artd Greeh (I98o). 4t
ryl['r28.
l8 Baiba, r99r:55. r.
Rea,rg87:5. +2
l9 Grotowski, 1969:rrr8.
Berkof{, ry92:9. 43
2t:) Watson, ry95:62.t',
Hodge, zooo:8. +4
'21 Christofferson, r gQ 3 : r oB
Banl, rggt 272. 45
The notion of tr.1,ping a creative realm through physical discipline is
27
Balba, rggr:8.
23 endemic in Orierral performance traditions. Tadashi Suzuki has devel-
Grotowski, r968:rzr.
2+ oped his modern'performance training method which involves stomping
Blook quoted in Flunt and Reeves, tggs:.7z. (stamping the gro:-rnd) in a position similar to the fixed-hip positions of
1aa THROUGH THE BODY " NOTES TO PAGES 29-57 223
I

classical Japanese theatre on the premise that through this training the
6s The Feldenkrals Method is a registered trademark of the l.-eltlenkrais
actor can tap the 'animal energy' which he regards as essential for Guild. For a list of qualified practitioners in your area, or country, contact
performance. The strenuousness of Suzuki's method also fosters physical The Feldenkrais Guild UK, P.O.Box 37o, London Nro 3XA. The best
stamlna. way of learning about Feldenkrais is to do it with a qualified practitioner.
+6 Recent scientific evidence is emerging that a bundle of nerves in this area Once experienced, never forgotten, is the response of most people. You
of the small intestine, (corresponding with the point identified as the can invite a quNlified practitioner to lead an ATM session with a group.
'chi', zcm below the belly button and zcm in) is a key centre for nerve An accessible introduction to ATM is available in paperback: Awareness
activity, so much so that it is being referred to as 'the second brain'. BBC Through Moueinent, Heahh Exercises .for Personal Growth by Moshe
Radio z. r r November zooo. Feldenkrais, Arkana/Penguin r g9o.
66
Feldenkrais, rj84: 38.
67
Ibid.: 39.
68
Schechner, rg06:ry.
69
Ibid.:r r4.
70
Feldenkrais, r984: r r r.
71
Schechner, tg66'.t2r.
7Z
Feldenkrais, rqS4:rg and 25.
73
Roberts, J. Unpublished interview with John Wright, op. cit.rgg7.

Section Two
74
George Bernairl Shaw, quoted in Fq rggr:37
75
Cairns, ry89:266.
60 Interview with Andy Paget in Coombs, C. An Expl,oration into FeLlenkrais
't6
Felner, 1985:6a.
77
an rl A c t o r- Tr uinin g Te c hni q u e . U nptblished dissertation, Liverpool John Copeau in Rurllin and Paul, rggo:5o.
78
Moor-es IJniversity, zooo. Ibid.
6l Since Pagneux's first visit to Britain, there are now several qualifiecl
79
Ibid.
80
Feldenkrais practitioners working in theatre, and both 'pure' Feldenkrais Saint-Denis, r,)60: ro4.
8t
and Feldenkrais-inspired movement work is increasingly incorporatecl Jean Dorcy qr.rrrted in Rudlin and Paul, rygoi23g.
into actor-training workshops. If you find yourself learning new ancl Rudlin, ryg+li3.
83
efficient ways of coming from sitting to standing, or lying on the floor Oida, ry97:26.
84
moving only your eyeballs, or being instructed to work out 'how your Levy, rg78: 5r-
body organises itself' to do something, it is likely that the workshop
85
Ibid.:5o. !,:
86
leader is using Fcldenkrais. Berkoff, rggstt+7.
62 87
'The only w:1/ to keep a straight face', by Georgina Brown.
John Wright founded Trestle Theatre and went on to create the company T'he
Told By An idiot with Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter, whom he Indnpend.ent, -{ May 1993.
88
met when working at Middlesex University. Fo, tggr:26.
63 Interview with John Wright in Roberts, J. The Influence of Feldenhruis on
89
Lecgg, 2ooo:38.
90
Physical Th,catre . Unpublished dissertation, LiverpoolJohn Moores Uni- Houben, f i,e Neutral Mask, Arts Archive Video, Arts Docurnentation
Jid6
verslty, r997. {Jlit Exeter Ltriversity r996.
6+ !{.fter a session with Laban you began to look at the world with different
et See the ApperiCix fbr a list of Mask Workshop outlets
eyes, as if it had changed its colours or its shapes, or you could see neut-
92 A chair inhibiU; movement, thereby encouraging the necessary stillness.
rons and protons instead of mass. You watched for the slightest gesture Also, in the in:tial learning stages, people feel less exposed sitting in flont
which would give away a secret. After a while, with some degree of of a group that standing.
accuracy) you could tell what people did for a living, or analyse their state
e3 Lecoq quoted t'y Huston, ry96:52.
of mind as they passed you on the street.' Litdewood, ryg4:772/773.
9+ Lecoq,2ooo:4t.
9s Huston, ryg6;:12.
22+ THROUGH THE BODY NdrEs ro PAGEs S8-q8 225
96
Jean Dast6 writing of his debt to Copeau in Rudlin and Paul, tggoi237. 129
Lecoq, zooo:89.
o?
Rudlin, ry94:+o. 130
See Lecoq's The Moaipg Body, zooo'.89-9o for a full explanation of his
98
Fo, rggr:13. theory of the 'laws of ,motion'.
99
Cairns, ry89'.246. 131
I learnt this brilliant v'ersion from Paul Hunrer of Told By an Idiot.
t00 t32
Anderson, 1998:r68. Adapted from a workshop run by Paul Hunter from Told By An ldiot,
l0t
Fisher, rggz;rr. Liverpool r998.
t0z
Green and Swan, 1993:r3o. 133
Barba quoted by Watson, ryg5:32.
103
Lecoq,2ooo:r08. 134
Adapted from a workshop run by Annabel Arden from Theatre de
104
Ibid.: ro8-9. Complicit6 at IWF 1999. Annabel was using this exercise in a workshop
105
Ibid. related to Hamlet to give actors some idea of the 'magnificence' necessary
106
Ibid.: rrr. to convey the character of the Ghost. I have found it equally effective in
r07
Grantham, 2ooo'.13. expanding student actotrs' understanding of presence.
108
Fo, rggr:zz. 135
Banu, rggr:273.
t09
Lecoq,2ooo:r13. 136
Brook,
ll0 ryg3:.76.
Grantham, 2ooo:rr5. 137
Oida, ry97'.4o.
ul Adapted from a workshop given by Mike Chase, London 1997. 138
Ibid.
l2 See Barry Grantham's Playing Comrned.ia (zooo) for a range of games and 139
Ratcliffe is describinglthe stage presence of members of Theatre de
drills which equip actors with the skills to execute similar commedia gags. Complicit6, which he qgites they acquired through studying with Lecoq.
ll3 Lecoq, zooo:rr6. Programme note to T'hree Lioes of Lucie Cabrol ry94.
ll4 Grantham, zooo:r6. 140
Joan Littlewood,'A Goodbye Note fromJoan', Encore :196r, reprinted in
Marowitz, rg65t3z.
l4l
Section Three The founder members of Theatre de Complicit6 met at Lecoq's school
ll5 and initially intended go base themselves in France and Europe, which
Meyerhold quoted in Gladhov, r9g7:r05. was why they chose their French name.
ll6 GIadhoS r997:ro3. t+2
ll7 See the sub-section'AUDIENcE'
Richards,rgg5:84. 143
I learned this game from Sally Cook (one of the co-founders of Trestle
ll8
Gladhov, tggT:162. Theatre). She played ir with a new group over two days and presented an
l19
Oida, rggT:25. improvised performance based on the game and structured around the
120
Most backache in Britain arises from poor posture caused quite simply by Seven Ages of Man on the evening of the second day.
sitting; children have perfectly good posture until they are required to sit t44
Hayley Carmichael in an unpublished interview with the aurhor.
all day in school. In cultures where squatting, kneeling and perching are 145
Chambers Dictionary rJefi nition.
preferred to sitting, the incidence of back problems is significantly less. t+6
'Copeau's training strf,ssed the importance of improvisation. Although
tzl Oida, r997:9.
tzz
now taken for granted in actor training like so many of Copeau's
Barker, tg77:94. innovations, improvisa&on was an unheard of technique of which there
t23
Adapted from one of Guy Dartnell's workshops. was no living traditio:r in the French theatre of the early rgoos.'
t2+
Grotowski quoted in Kumiega, rg87: r r g Leabhart,r989:25. i
125
Orda, rggT''42. t+'1
From Co4rcau's Resgritrrs in Rudlin and Paul, rggo:39.
t26
These exercises are derived from a workshop in Biomechanics led by 148
Rudlin and Paul, tggo:237,
Gennadi Bogdanov, who was taught by one of Meyerhold's pupils, at the l+9
Rudlin,rgo4.
International Workshop Festival (IWF), London, 1998. 150
Pinetti quoted by Ardirri,r994: r 9.
t27
Ludwig Flaszen explains: 'Meyerhold was important not as a fbnnulator l5l
iVlcBurney, r994:r8.
of concrete exercises or techniques, but as the inspiration of the theme i52
Smith, ry7246. ,1
that 'Biomechanics exists in the fact that behind each gesture of the actor, 153
Adaptcd from Annabel r-\rden's workshop, IWf rg99. 'fheatre de Com-
the whole of his trodS' stands'. This formula was a malor discovery.' plicit6 use barnboo stic'ks a Breat deal in rheir training anci rehearsal pro-
in Kumiega,r g87szr.
l?8 Qrotcd
Meyerhold in Gladkov, rg97:ro8
cess, as does Peter Brook. Photographs and exercises with bamboo sticks
carr bc forrnd in Complicit6's'Background Pack' {or Caucasian Chatk Circle.
I
 ; : , l::-..i

226 THROUGII THE BODY N()fES TO PAGES g8-r3r a2-

):

t8a Dario Fo.

1s4
Adapted from Lucy O'Rorke of Bouge-de-la: Workshop during Real
Action, Liverpool r9gg. 1!i In Gladkov, tsgT:'24.
I
186 'He eventually began calling his rehearsal books 'scores' . I think
5_5
Davis Robinson uses a similar game he calls Ping-Pong as the foundation
for physical comedy work: see Robinson, r9g9:5off for a full explanation Meyerhold had the notion that he was creating a score you couldn't fuck
of how he uses it. with, and that the actors would have to perform the way musicians did.'
156
I learnt this game from Annabel Arden of Theatre de Complicit6. Schmidt in Bates, rg98:Bz.
ls7
McBurney,
187
Appia quoted by Lee Simonson 'The ldeas of Adolphe Lppia' in The
ry94l.2,3.
ls8
Ibid.: r 5. Theory of the Moden: Stage ed. by Bendey, rgToizT.
188
ls9
Gladhov, tgg7to6. Dalcroze was a Swiss composer who developed a system of studying
160
Oida, ry97:52. music through the body called Eurhythmics. This was used by Nijinsky
t6r
McBurney, rg94:r5. to train dancers before negotiating his fiendishly difficult choreography
162
Annabel Arden in Taylor, ryg+'.4o. for the first perfornrance of Stravinsky's Petrwhka.
189
163
McBurney r994:r5. Suzanne Bing quoted in Rudlin and Paul, 199o:56.
190
16+
Banu, rggr:275. 'Have you ever considered why there is always music during the acrobatic
165
Heilpern, rg77 : tz7 -133. numbers at the Cir;us? . . . Circus people need music as a r\ythmic
166
Brook, rg88:r32. support, as an aid to keeping time without it . . . catastrophe.'
167
Banu, r99r:275. Meyerhold quoted in Schmidt, r996:r55.
168
Adapted from a workshop run by Kenneth Rea at IWf;, 1999. It is also translatecl. as 'intention', which is misleading, as that implies a
I69
Berkoff, r995:75. preconceived and iutellectually-driven purpose leading the movement. In
110
Robinson, tgggt4r. Robinson offers some excellent ideas for generating practice, learning this'form' with Gennadi Bogdanov, there was never an
physical comedy in his handbook, including an exercise from the Swiss avowed intention trehind the otkas.
clown Garde Hufte. 'Hutte's Points' as he calls it, is a highly technical You can see how r-his works in the final video of Gennadi Bogdanov's
method of developing soundless comic material through alternating the r9g8 IWF workshep when he conducts a class in 'The Dagger Attack',
focus between your partner and the audience, pp.jo-72. Video fuchive, 2ooo.
r7r This is an adaptation of a demonstration used by r93 For fuller expositions of
Jos Houben in his Jo-Ha-Kyz see Heilpern, tg77'.r2g, and Oida,
'Laughter Workshop' Liverpool, r998. 1997:30-33 I
t9+
r'12 For information on the concept of the mask's
'gaze' see sECTroN Two Oida, r9g7:3o. ,

195
(uN)unsrrNc rFrE ACTOR. Oida, 199z:64. ,
1't1 s 'Laughter Workshop', Liverpool 1998.
196
Adapted from Luey O'Rorke from Bouge-de-la, who used this exercise in
t71 he Unity Theatre, Liverpool, bctober rg99. the Real Action v,':rrkshop, Liverpool r999. Lucy was not demonstrating
t?5 Meyerhold's prir.r:iple, but I found this exercise an extremely effective
t76 way of teaching it.
197
r7'1 Grotowski quoted in Richards,r ggslzo. Watson, rgg5:48.,
198
178 Innes, r98r:r6o. Marowitz, ry67: r74.
199
r7e Richard Eyre 'sharing the Space', in programme for The Caucasian Lecoq quoted in,rR.obinson, r9g9:r r r.
200
Chalk Circle, Royal National Theatre, r997. Lecoq quoted in .F-elner, r985: r48.
201
r80 Simon McBurney, 'Watching Your Back, notes on The Caucasian Chalk Legp,q,.Mime, A4euement, Theatre, trans. by Bari Rolfe, r98r:r5r.
702
Circle' in programme for The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Royal National See Section Two: Working with Neutral Mask.
203
Theatre, rgg7. Lecoq, zooo:84.
r8i For a full exposition of Lecoq's 'balanced stage' see his book The Moaing 20+
Laban, r98o:ro,
20s
Body, zooo:rjz-136. Ibid.:82.
206
This is a phrase rsed byJos Houben in his workshop on 'Laughter'. The
next two exercisr s are also adapted from that workshop.
207
Section Four From Jos Houben, 'Laughter' Workshop, Liverpool Hope Street Actor's
r82 Brook, Centre, r9gg.
ryg3:6g. 208
ral t -L:_^,, ,^r^./Ct Ibid.
228 THROUGH THE BODY NOT,6S TO PAGES r32-t6r 2"9

zoe Grotowski, rg75:r53. z+3

Ibid.:r57.
210 Leabhart,rg8g'.47. 244
Ibid. l

ztr Newlove, rgg3:99. 2+5

Ibid.:r59.
212 This is one of Philippe Gaulier's le jeu exercises taught to me by Nick
246
Ibid.:r6o
247
Kellington of Gooseberry Fools. Ibid. :zoz original emph:sis.
213 The term'vocal action' is used by Eugenio Barba, (Watson, 1995:66) but 2+8
Ibid.: r7o.
is a concept used by other practitioners.
2+9
I learned this exercise from David Llewellyn, Head of Drama at
2r4 Rodenburg,rg8T:4-8. LiverpoolJMU.
2ls Grotowski lecornmends 'total respiration' which uses both abdominal 250
Their essay 'Effector lJatterns of Basic Emotions, a psychophysiological
and thoracic chambers, and his exercises for respiration and vocal method for training actors,'in Zarilli;9g5:tg7-zr8 is an absorbinB account
training are recommended together with those for placing the voice and of the whole process of the training and experiment. Susana Bloch is a
using the resonators (see Tomard's a Poor Theate, rg75'.rt5-r4r). Barba's trained psychologist based at the University of Pierre et Marie Curie in
actors at Odin used these in their early training and once they'd mastered Paris, whose research into human emotion has fed this experiment.
251
them, moved on to individual voice training.Yoshi Oida also offers Bloch er alinZarrllli, r995:2o5.
252
excellent exercises (rggz:r48). Actors should not be trained to breathe Ibid:zr3-zr4
253
like opera singers, iust as their bodies are not meant to operate like Ibid.:zr 5.
dancers or gymnasts; their voices are primarily for speaking, although
25+
Ibid.:2r6. i
255
singing is a valuable route to freeing the voice. Artaud, Collected Wqrks vol.4, p.ro3 in Martin, rggr:6t.
216 Berkoff, r989:4. 256
Kumiega,r987:rz.
217 257
Laban,rg8o: r9.
Jenkins in Zarrllli, rgg5tz44.
218 Hayley Carmichael, unpublished interview with the author, 1999. 258
Kumiega, r987: r r9.
zte Grotowski, 1975:r8g. 259
Grotowski, rg75:192.,
220 Roose-Evans,rg84:r8r. 260
Ibid.:r96 i.
221 Ibid. 26t
Ibid.:r9z
222 Ibid.:r83. 262
Brook, ry87:233.
zz3 Martin,rggr:65. 263
Ibid.
22+ rbtd.:67. 26+
Susan Sontag interriewed by Sarah Dunant, BBC Radio 3, 8 June zooo.
27s Adapted from Guy Dartnell Workshop, Liverpool 265
Torgier Wethal in C.hristofferson,rgg3:44.
John Moores Univer-
sity, Spring zooo
266
Oida, rg97:59. r

26',1
226
Brook, ry87t23. Oida, r99z:r5o-
268
227
Ted Hughes quoted in Roose-Evans,rg84:r76. Artaud, ry77'.53. ,
269
228
Brook, r987:ro8-rro. Registres quoted in .3-udlin and Paul, rggot77.
229
rbid.
230
rbid. Section Five
231
Hughes in Smith, ry72:45.
232
Beale and Gayton, rgg3:r74-q6. Dario Fo believes actors should learn to make their own theatre as an
233
Fo, rggr:56. antidoie to the idel" of theatre as 'staged literature': 'What is the purpose
23+
Ibid.:64. of improvisation? -fo weave and shape a script with words, with gestures
235
Watson, r9g5:r3o. and''off-the-cuff situations, but above all to rid actors of the false and
236 theatre is no more than literature that happens to
Leabhart,rg89:47. dangerous notion i-.l'rat
231
Martin,rggr: r 57. be staged, acted ard adapted, rather than simply read.'Fo, rg87:r83.
238 271
Saint-Denis, r g8z't 16. Leabhart,rgSg:46:
239
Roose-Evans, I r
984: 78. Frost and Yarrow, 'g9o:33.
273
2+0
Goorney, ry8r:t67. The position is d:lferent in many university drama departments where
2+r
Toporkov, rg98:r57. students are frequently required to devise their own work. In A Level and
z+z TL:l .,f,. BTEC courses, der'151nt is part of the assessment process.
230 THROUGII 'I'[II, I}ODY NC',|ES TO PAGES T6T_T85 23r
z7+
Lecoq, zooo:r8 1966] by sculptor s''1t jazz pianist Jeff Nuttall to stage a 'happening'
215
Leabhart, rg8g: ror. involving motor bikes; fishing nets and very fat women in Notting Hill' .
276
Lawrence Wylie quoted in Leablr:rrt, r989:9-5. Their shows are sparked by the preoccupations of those involved, an
217
McBurney, r995:r7. itinerant medley of artists, musicians and performers. Sobrieski, in
218
O'Rorke, rgg2tt7. Shank, ry94:72
2't9
Ibid.:r8. 296
The two strands of the L.E.M. course are: 'Movement work which
280
Berkoff's East $g71,) which represents the birth of the physical theatre brings the miming boly into play and creative work [in] building sceno-
impetus in Britain is one of few Berkoff plays which is not an adaptation." graphic structures'. I,ecoq, 2ooo: r 55.
281
Picasso quoted in Fq rg87:52. 29't
Bouge-de-la, unpublished interview with the author, September r999.
282
Simon McBurney interviewed in Giannachi and Luckhurst, r999:68-7r. 298
Ibid.
283
Picasso quoted in Fo, rg87:52. 299
rbid.
John Wlight: course leaflet for A school.for d,eaisers, Summer zooo-
284 300
Jon Hough, After Show Discussion, The Unity Theatre, March rg9g.
2S-5
For a fuller exposition of writing for performance see my chapter 301
Tim Hibberd intervieiwed in Mackay, tgg7tz6.
'Writing for Stage' in Newman, Jenny (er al) The Writers Workbook 302
Ibid.: rz5.
Arnold, zooo. 303
Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter, unpublished interview with the
286
Mackey, rgg7i7g. author.
287
This tripartite process is not exclusive to physical-based theatre work; 304 David Benedict'Precision Playing', The Ind.eperulenf,
30 November r996,
Jornt Stock are a prime example of a company who developed a sophisticated p.5.
approach to devising in the rgTos and'8os, Particularly in their collabor- 305 Naomi Cooke of Foursight Theatre, unpublished interview with the
ations with Caryl Churchill, under the direction of Max Stafford-Clark. author, December rg9g.
However, they were working principally from political ideas or themes, 306
The Street of Crocodiles Information Pack 1999:r7.
and generated material thlough more traditional (psychological) impro- 30'1
Bim Mason, unpublished interview with the author, December rg98.
visatory routes father than from '.r somatic base. A detailed account of 308
Jos Houben, The Neutral Mask Lrts Archive Video.
some of their early productions is available in Rob Ritchie's entertaining 309 'Watson,
r995:78.
The Joint Stock Book,ry84. 310
Adapted from Herber-t Blau's concept of ideographs which
(not
only
288
Ideveloped this scenario from a newspaper article by Edward Bond in carry concentrated me'aning but also become icons of a sort, a theatrical
which he mentioned this game. Unfortunately I no longer have the source- sign language', from lllumenthal and Taymor, tggg:rz. The concept of
l8e McBurney, tggs:r7.
ideographs seem closely related to Barba's way of working with actors to
290 o'Rorke, rggz;34-3s.
access gestural images
zet Annabel Arden quoted by Jane Edwardes, 'Directors: The New Gener-
Adapted from a worhshop by Kate Hale of Foursight Theatre as part of
ation' in Shank,rgg4:zr4-5 Real Action, Liverpool Unity Theatre, rggg.
zez These are sometimes also called 'scales of escalation'. They are originally 3tz
It is important to get irr the habit of writing things down, to create an aid.e
a Lecoq exercise, but many companies use them who have not been Lecoq memoire for yourself in this way whether working alone or collaboratively.
trained.
293 Davis Robinson has a vety useful section on scales of escalation in his
It is easy to forget what happened in improvisation, and not only
frustrating but time-wasting trying to remember. Your work journal will
Physical Comedy Hand,book, P.r05-r ro. act as a useful trigger
'
Adapted from a a workshop run by Jos Houben (who has directed The 3r3
Richards. tgg;itz.
Right Size). 314
Wethal-in Christofferso n, r gg3. 4+.
Probably the earliest example of deign-led devising is with The People 315
Ibid.:45..
Show, founded in 1966, who develop performances from images, im- 316
Laukvik in Christofferson, 1993:86-87.
pulses, musical compositions, art works or ideas, usually unified by ideo- 317
Rasmussen in Christcrfferson, r gg3 :98.
logical theme. In rnany instances, the set is active and interactive with the 318
Christofferso n, I gg 3: i z 4.
performers. This is exemplified in The People Show roo, where perfor- 319
Attributed Meyerholrl, source unknown.
mers entered and exited through a dry-cleaning machine which also 320
Frank Zzppa, source unknown.
revolved to reveal alternative persPectives. Interestingly the original 321
The Russian formalists separated story (or fabula as they called it) frorn
members of The People Show were 'visual artists brought together [in narration (which they r:alled yuzhet) in the rgzos. This formed the basis of
 THROUGH THE BODY NorEs TO PAGES t86-zr4 233

the structuralist approach to literary criticism which has been developed
into post-sixties deconstruction. See Terence Hawkes Structuralism and
Semiotics rg77 for an account of Russian formalisrn and structuralism.
\tz You may be familiar with Tarantin o's Pulp Fiction (1994) which also plays
with time-structure in a fascinating and quite theatrical way.
Berkoff, rg8gizo2. Berloff's I am Hamlet is an extremely detailed account
of the process of rehearsal and virtually a moment-by-moment account
of the play in production. It is full of ideas for solving problems thlough
physical means, in adtlition to containing some of Berkoff's forthright
views on theatre. I

t2l If you are trying to develop a plot with yo,.tr own characters it is worth 349
Berkoff, r989:2or.
350
remembering that there are a limited number of plot structures. Analys- Grotowski, 1969:r93.
351
ing fairy tales and myths to reveal the functions of characters enables you Brook, 1968:rz.
to see how plots work.
352
Berkoff, rggz:9. i
l2+
Esslin, r978:44.
353
Berry, zooo:52. .l

3s+
325
Simon McBurney, programme note to Mnemonic rggg. This was used by Nigel Charnock during his workshop entitled 'Four
326
Ibid. Days in a Hot Room', Nottingham, September 1998.
355 Smith, rgTz .s1.
327
Stein, Plays in Look at Me Noo and Here I Am, Writings and. Lecture r 9t y 3s6 Oid", 1997:ror.
r945, r97t:75
128 357 Ibid.
Ibid.:78
329 3s8 On a recent trip to New Zealarrd I realised that this is Maori, but I do not
Bouge-de-la, unpublished interview with the author, September 1999.
330
Ibid. have a translation.
331 35e See Peter Hall's illqminating book Exposed, b.y the Mask, Form and
rbid.
332
Albert Hunt in Williams, r988:8r. Language in Drama, Oberon Press, zooo.
333 360 Berkoff, rgg;tz3.
The Russian film-maker Eisenstein coined the word 'montage' to indicate
how any two pieces of film stuck together inevitably combine to
361 |

362
create a new concept born of iuxtaposition, cutting and rearranging of
snippets of sensation and experience in order to create dramatic effects.
163 r
334 M"rk Wheatley, in The
Srreit of Crocod.iles information Pack, rggg:r7.
364 _
t'
33s Meyerhold quoted in 36s Berkofl
Gladhov, rgg7tz8. ryg5:26. r

366 In Lecoq's LEM course, which relates movement to architecture, colour

Section Six is explored in this v4ay. Students work with colours in a similar way to
3J6 Batry, 2ooo:22- working with masks, seeking the 'blue of all blues' in much the same way
33'1 as the mask might seek the 'fear of all fears'.
Berkofl rg89:ror. 367 Artaud, rg77i43.
J38 Non-verbal sound, in the
Artaudian sense, is predominantly used for 368 lbid.:6o.
decorative or atmospheric purposes (the Georgian songs of Theatre de 36e Adapted from Annab<,I Arden's Workshop at IWB September rg99.
Complcit6's production of The Caucasian Chalh Circle, and the operatic 370 L..oq, zooo.65.
chants of the Kaos Renaissance).
33e Berkoff, rg8g:3.
340 Clive Mendus in The Caucasian Chalk Circle education pack,
Theatre de
Complcit6, rgg7t3t.
l+l Grotowski, r969:58.
3+Z
Ibid.:57.
343
Simon McBurney in Gannachi and Luckhurst, r999:70.
344
Berry, zooo:ro.
3+5
Simon McBurney in Gannachi and Luckhurst, tggg:74.
3+6
This exercise is based on a workshop run by Annable Arden of Theatre
de Complicit6 at the IWS 1999.
3+7
Reading and re-reading a play is a far better way to familiarise yourself
with it than simply reading the sections you may be cast in. Every actor in
every part, however small, needs a knowledge of the whole play.
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lell'Arte and the Modern Imagination, revised edition, Pennsylvania:
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Grotowski, Jerzy (1975) Toward,s a Poor Theatre, London: Methuen.
Hall, Peter (zooo) Exposed hy the Mask, Form and Language in Drama, London:
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Heilpern, John (1977) The Conference of Birds, The Story of Peter Brook in
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Hodgg Alison (ed.) (zooo)Twentieth Century Actor Training, London: Roudedge.
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Kumiega, Jennifer (tg87) The Theatre of Crotooshi, London: Methuen.
Kustow, Michael (zooo) Theatre @ Rhk, London: Methuen.
Laban, Rudolf Qg8o) The Mastery of Moaement, fourth edition, revised by
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Leabhart, Tom (rg97) 'The Man Who Preferred to Stand: Etienne Decroux
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McBurney, Simon (1994) 'The Celebration of Lying, an interview with
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I
Srnith, A.C.H (rg7z) Orghast at Persepolis, An Account of the Experiment nt
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rMethuen.
.r38 THROUGH THE BODY
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trans. Christine Edwards. New York & London: Routledge. lndex
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Watson, Ian (r995) Torpards a Third. Thentre, London: Routledge. 62,64
Williams, David (ed.)(r988) Peter Brook, a Theatrical Casebook, London: actor-as-creator 5, r r,
Methuen. r3, r6o-16r
Wright, John (r9g4) 'Monika Pagneux, some thouBhts on her teaching and Alfreds, Mike rz
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Zarrilli, Phillip B.(ed.) Qgg1.) Acting (Re)Consitlered, Theory and, Practice, r6r
London: Routledge. agit-prop r6r
Appia, Adolphe rr8,
2r9,227
Videography archetypes 5r, r78,
r88, zr3-zr4
Bionuch.anicsmith GennaLli Bogtlunoa. Arts Archive, Arts Documentation Artaud, Antonin ro-rr,
Unit, r999. 13, 15, rrr, t35,137,
Lts Deux Vo1,ags5 ie Jacques Lecotl with English subtitles produced by Jean 14r, r45, t47,r52,
Noel Ro1' and Jenn-Gabriel Carosso Le Sept Arte - On Line Productions r55, r59, rg3,2r+,
ANRAT 1999. On Line Productions, 33 av- MacMahon 75or7 Paris, 22O) 2291 2331 235
France.
articulation4,24 24-
,1 Lesson in the Feldenkrais Metlrorl mith Garet Newell. Arts Archive, Arts 27,30,4r,56, rr7,
Documentation Unit, Exeter University, r996. t63,zzt
T'hc |r'leut'ru,l Mask nith Jos Hou,ben. Arts Archive, Arts Documentation Unit,
Asian theatre r r, r5, 87
Exeter University r996. audience 4-6, ro, rz,
23, 32,36, 45, 5r,
55, 58-6r, 66-68, 7r,
8r,84-85,88,93,
97,99,rr7-rr8,
r3o, t4t, r50-r5r,
t64, 166, t7r, r7g,
r8r-r83, r85-r89,
79r-19+, 2OO, 2o2-
zo5, ztt, 726
awareness +, II-12, 15,
20, zz-28, 30, 34-
4r,46,53, 55, 59,
66, 72, 7g-8ot 82,
85,87-89,93, r05-
to6, ttz-tt3, tz3,
r33-r34, r37, r9g-
2OOr 2O2) 2I2r 223
Barba, Eugenio vii, 7- t32t t3+, 136-r39,
8, rr-r5, rg-zzrz8, r+r) r47, r50-152,
86-87, ro4, tzz, t54, r77,2ro
r45, r5+-155, r73, Brecht, Bertolt t4, rrz)
ry7-r78, tg31 zzol 179, r99,237
zz5, zz8r 23rr 23S Brook, Peter ix, x, 8,
Barker, Clive ix, 74,94, tr-13, r5) rgr 2r,
2241 235 32-33,3516, 47, 50,
Barrault, Jean-Louis 86,94,97, ro4, ro6,
Ir,77, r37, t4O,22o tog, rr7, t4o, t+3-
Bausch, Pina 7 r44, l^46, r6o, rgo,
Beckett, Samuel 57, 2O3-2O5t 2O7r 22O-
6z-63, r7z, r87 zzz, zz5-226, zz8-
Berkofl Steven 7, rr- 229,233,235,238
t3r 49, to4, to6,
r38, r6z-t63, r97- caricature 52, r83
rg8,2o+, zt3,2zo- Carmichael, Hayley
2zr) 223, zz6, zz8, vlll, xr, r39, 17I,
23Or 232) 2331 235 ztgr 222, ZZ5, ZZ8,
Berry, Cicely 46-t47, 23r
zoo, zo5-2o6, z3z- Chaplin, Charlie, g, zg,
233,235 6z-63, rcg
Bing, Suzanne 46, gS, character g, 16,20,33-
ttg, 134,227 35,40, 47-48,5o-52,
Biomechanics ro, r4, 56, 58,6r-64,66,
2tr 23r 32) 72, Itg, 68,78-79,87, rog,
lzz, zz4,238 t23, r3O-I3r,137,
body in space 4,79-84 t4o) r+3, r55, r6rtr-
body work 4,zo,jz t66, r68-fi9, qr
Bogdanov, Gennadi t72, 174, ry6-ry8,
viii, xi,72,224,2271 r8o-r84, r86, r88,
48 rg2-r93, r98-zoo,
Bouge-de-la viii, xi, 7, zoz, zo5-2o6, ztt-
97-98, r7o-t7r, 2r7 ) 225
r88-r89, zz6-227, choric work 93, rrz
23r-232 chorus 321 rr3) r33,
breath zo, 35, 57,73, tg8-rgg,2o2
75-76rj8, r03, rro) circus 8, 27,62, rrg,
IITt lzt, tZ7-t28, I92-r93,2t7r 227
210 THROUGH THE BODY
clown 49, 57,62-64, Dawson, Andrew xi,4r
ro8-rog, t6z, rgz, Decroux, Etienne 7-8,
zzo, zz6 rr, 14) 45, 48,77,
conredy 50, 63, 66,79, r34, r37, t5g, 16rz,
g7, ro3, r08, rro, 165, zzo-zzz,236
t3o, r68-t6g, r7z, design 5, ro,47-48,52,
zz6, z3o, 237 58, ro6, r64-t65,
commedia/ commedia r7o-t7r, tg8, zo4
d,ell'arte 8-9, r r, 45, devising 3-4,61,97,
48-49,52,6o,6r- r57-r95, r97-r98,
69,87, r03, r44) 2OO,22O,229,23O
r59, 16z, 165-167, dialogue 23, roo, r05,
r7g, r8o, rgtr?,24, r3r, 144, r73, r79-
235,236, 237 r8z, r86, r9r, r93,
complicit6 4, 7r, 88-94, 2O3,zto
96, ro4-ro5, ro8, Dorcy, Jean 8, zz3
r+7,2OO DV8 6-7
composition ro, 53, 8o,
82, r18, tz6, t34, 6lan 7r
r59, r65, ry6-ry7, emotion x, 41 6, ro, 34,
r78, r84, rgr, rg3, 40, 48, 5r, 6r, 66,
202 78, 84, 86, r 19, r4r-
compositional tech- r5r, 16z, ry6-ry8,
niques 165, ry3, r84, tg2, r98, 2o8-
2o9,229
ryq-t76, ry8
contemporary dance energy 4, r9-2or 2zr 2+l
6-7, rgo z7-32, 3819, 4g-5o,
Copeau, Jacques 8-rr, 52-53, 55,64-65,67,
r3-t+r 2or 32-331 7v79,82, 85-87,
+S-48, 52,662-63, 95-97, tot-[o4, r13,
94-95, rr8-rr9, r27, rr7,122,127, t29)
r34, r45, r56, r59, r38, r4o, t4z, t4S-6,
t6t, zzr, z23, 22+, r48, r68, zoo,2o3,
225,237 205-206, zo8, zzz
Craig, Edward Gordon ensemble, see also
g-ro, 45t 62 complicit6 5,7, 12,
t4, tg, 23,62-63,
dance 6-8, rr, t+,2+, 68,77,88,94,96,
37-38,4r,82, ror, ro4, 164, ry2, rg7-8
r22, 134-135, r52, escalations ror, r68-
r7o, 176, r78, r9o, 169, ry5
zt+r 2r9r 237 Eulhythmics zo, rrg,
Dartnell, Guy xi, r4r,
zz4, zz8 eye contact 67, 83, 88-
rt,
Dast6, Jean 47-48, 90, ror, ro4, ro7-8,
95, 16r, zz+ IIO, rI2-13, r3O
Feldenkrais Method
Hall, Peter 50) 2ro)
2r,36-4r, 53, r52, 237t 236
zzz-223,238 Hart, Roy viii, r4o-r4r
Feldenkrais, Moshe
IIouben, Jos viii, xi, 34,
vlrl, 37, 39-+Or 22t,
4r,53, 57,85, ro8,
zz3,236,237 tgz, zzz-3, zz6-7,
fixed points 8r-83, rz6 z3o-23t,238
Fo, Dario 50, r38) r44,
Hunter, Paul xi, r7r,
164, zr3, zz3-2.24,
222,,22,5, 23r
22,7-229, 23o, 233, I
45-46 I
image vii, g-ro, t2, rS,
Foursight Theatre xi, 23-24,72,8r, gz,
7, r'12, 231 to6, tt7,127, r4g,
Frantic Assembly 7, r56, r7o, r84, r87-
27, 163
L
tgr,2o4r 2O9,2t4,
220
Gaulier, Philippe r r,
image network r88,
4r,63,7r,88, 167,
r90
zt9, zzo, zz8 imagination 3-5,9, rz,
Geese Theatre xi, 5r
24,40,56, 84,95,
Besture 4, 8, ro, r5, 2r,
97, r37, r55, t6Z-
23,34,36,40,4G 163, ry8, r98, 20r-
47' 53-55' 57,77, 2O5, 2t2-2r3, 2t5,
84, Bz, re2, rc,6,
rt3, tt7, ttg, I2o- 46
Improbable Theatre 5,
r22, t35, t44, 146,
t5z, 165, 173, 175,
rmprovrsatlon ro, 13,
I77, I8r-r84, rgo, r4r 20) 32-33, 52,
2t3-2t+, 22O, 222) 6o-63,65,67-68,
zz4,238 83-84,93i4,97,
grotesque 62, ro3, 168,
ror, ro5, tz6-t27,
r8o, r97
r3o, r59, r6u66,
Grotowski, Jerzy x,6- r6g-ry4, ry7-ry8,
7, rt-t4, 2t, 26-27, r8o-r8r, r83, r9r,
7rr77, rO4, rrO- r93r zotr 2O+) 2251
r r r) r 17, r37, r+o,
2291 23rr 236
t52, t54, t6z, t77- impulse 14, r5,
r78, r93, tgg,zzo-
4,8,
24,32,34, 47,60,
z2r, z2+,226, zz8,
75,77',96, roo, ro'r
zzg, z3z-233,236, rt?, t2t, r35, I43.
r4S, r54, r63, r65,
Bymnastrcs t4t 2o-zt)
65, r19
173, t76, ry}-ryg,
2OIr 2O5t 2O7
half-mask 48-+9, Sz,
Jo-Ha-Kyu rS) r2o, r2r,
56, 6r, 64, t7g tz6, r48, t82,22-1
INDEX 24r
Kaos Theatre xir 7, 27, r79-r8o, tg7)2ro-
97 , 163, rg7, 232 2rr) 2t3) 2I7, 2Ig,
Koch, Aurelian xi, r7o 222-zz3) 226-227>
23r,233,236,238
Laban, Rudolph rz, r4, mxsque neutre 33, 46,
37, +r, t29, r35l 48, 5z-58
222,227, ZZg,236- Meyerhold, Vsevelod
237 7 r 9-rr, t4-r5, 23,
Laboratoire du Etude- 32, 62, 7t-72, 7'7,
Mouvement 87, ro3-ro4, rr8-
(L.E.M.) t7o,23t t2o, I22) rz+, t49-
language vii, x, 7-8, ro, r50, r59, rg3, r98,
tz, t4, zz, 34r 65, 224, 22,7, 231-232)
67-68, ro5-ro7, r3o,
46-47
r35, r4r, r43t46, mime 6-8, rr-r2, 13,
r5r, r6r, t63, t66,
45-46,79,87, ro6,
r79, r8r-r83, r89- r27 , 134-135, r37 )
r9o, tg7-r98, zoo, r59, 16r-162, 169,
2O2, 2O5) 2O7-zto, 2O4,2r'7-22r> 227,
2t2-2r3, 22O, 23r ) 46
233,235,236 Moliire zrg
Lecoq, Jacques 4, 7, montage 82, 16o, t78,
rI-I5, 2I, 25,31, rgot r93,232
n1646,48-49, Sr, Moving Picture Mime
Show 7
56-57,63-64,66, 68,
7r, 8o,88,95, ro6, music vii, G7, g, 14,
ro8, Irz, r27r28, 19,94-95,97-99,
r37-r38, r5o, r6r- rr8-rr9, rz4,r33,
t6z, t7o, zt8-227, 135-136, 48, 144-6,
230-231,233, 236, t6S, r7g, r8g-r90,
48 tg8, zo4, zo7, 2og,
le ieu 63, 88, zz8 2r4, 227, 230-231
Littlewood, Joan r r-r4, rnyths 5r, to5, 146,
2r, 37 , 94, 96, to3- r78, r83, t93, r99,
ro4, ro6, r98rzo5, 232
2221 225' 235' 236
narrative 32,6r, tzo,
McBurney, Simon 97, 16o, t7z, r85, r87-
r03-r04, ttz, t6z- r88, rgr-r93, r98,
163, t67, r87, zz5, 202
zz6,23or 2321 237 naturalism 5,8-g, rr,
mask work 4, rr, 14,
45,5r, r83, rgt,z35
3316,4r,43-69, neutral mask 34-35, 4r,
95, ro8, rz8, r34, 48-5o, 5z-58, 6o,
t4o-t4t, r50, r53, 64, rz8, r4o) 222,
r65-166, 168, 174, 223) 227 ) Z3t, 238
 THROUGI-I THE BODY INDEX

neutrality 4, zz,3z-+1, plot-driven drama r85- somatrc memory r54 text vii, 4, 8, ro, r3, 57, total theatre rr, 13, vocal action 136,228
52, s7,86, rog, tz7, 186 somatic work 4-5, 8, 95-7, r3o, r47, r4gt zo5, zr8-zzo voice ro, 4gr Szr6tr67)
2O7 presence t5, zo,22,28, 32,4r,53, 7I,88, r52, t59, r6o-r, r63, training viii, 4, 7, ro-rr, 75, rr7-rr8, r33)
new mime 6-8 32,335,56,78, 88o, It4, tt7, t tg, rz8, r79-r9+, rg7-2r5 t3-t4, tg-2tt 23-5, 135-136, r37r r39-
Newson, Lloyd 6-8,47 84-88, ro5, rog-r ro, r34, r35, r44, r5o, text work 4) 93, torl 3r-2t 34t 38, 4r, 45-8, r43, r45, r4g, r77,
Noh 8, t\j 20,45, 47- tz2, r4z, t;s, rgz, r54, r59, 16z-163, t2,1, tSt) t65, t7r, 57,6F3,72, 8-5, 88, r79-r8o, 2oS, 2o7-
48,75, 87, rzo zzs 2OO) 2O5) 2O7,2II, r79t rg4, rg7-2t5 94-5, r05-6) rr8-zo, zro,2281 45r 237
psycho-physical actions 230 The Right Size 7, ro9, 135-7, t3g-4o, r45, Volcano Thcatre xi, 7
observation 2t,3819, r49 sound 4, 8, ro, t t7- r63 r48, r5o-r, r55,
5g, r2.7, r37, 16z tt8, rz7-r28, 165, Theatre de Complicit6 r59-6+, 167, r74, Wethal, Torgier r55,
Odin Teatret t2, zS, Reiects Revenge xi, r7o, r77, r7g,2or- xi, 6-7, r r, 36, 88, t76, t78,2oo,2o7, ry7-r78,22gr 23t
122, r45, r54-r55, 17r, 17t, t73 2O2, 2O4-2O5, 2O7, 94, to6, tt2, r2g, zo8, zt3, zt7-t8, Wolfson, Alfred r4o,
r74, r78, rg3, zz8 rhythm viii,4, r5, 3r, 2o9r 232 16z-167, 165, 167, z2I-2,225, ZZ8, r46
Oida, Yoshi xii, z3-24, 38, 57, 76-7 , 87-8, space 4, ro, tsr 23,25,
t7z, , rg7, z2S-
t87 zzg,236-7 Wright, John xi,7, 36.,
86, rzt, r55, zo8, g4-5,98, rt3r rr7-32, 32,34,36, 38, 65- zz6, z3z,238 transformation 50) 52, 4rj 5r, r65, 17r,
22r-229,233,237 r34, r38-r39, 144-5, 67,79-gt, 95,98- Toporkov, Vasily r49, ro6, r5r, zr5 222-223, Z3O,238
oriental zo,z8,87,zzt r47-5o, r52-4, r.J+, Ioo, I08, rrr-I13, zz8,238 Trestle Theatre xi, 7,
O'Rorke, Lucy xi, r7o, 176, t7g, tlz, rgz-3, t2t, t27 , t2g-t30, Told By An Idiot 5r, r45, rg7t2t7l yoga 27
r9g, zz6-zz7 20t-2 r3z, 136-138, r4z, viii, xi, 7, 165, t7t,t 2221 225
Richards, Thomas 26, 16o, t7r, r73-r7+, 222t 225 visualisation 23, r77 Zezmi 15,75, r2o, rg2
Pagneux, Monika 36, 177) 22I, ZZ4, ZZ6, r79, r89, tg3,zo3,
4t, t6zr zzz, z38 23t,237 zr5, ztg, zz6
People Show z3o Ridiculusmus xi, t7r spectators, see
percussion rz5-t26, Rodenberg, Patsy 136, audience
t33r 2OI-2O2,2O4 147, 237 speech tr, 52,68, ro7,
physical actions 26, 47, Rudlin, John 59, 62, tI7, t2r, t27) t3o)
7r, 136, r48-r49, 64, zzt,223-225, 136, r44, r47, r7g-
r77 | 2rr, 237 227, 229, 237 r83,206, zo8-zro,
physical language 7, 212
ro, 14,34, ro6, r63, Saint-Denis, Michel spontaneity r4j rg,62,
r8g, r9o, tgT,zrz-r3) rr, 46,95, r45, r6r, 82, 88, 95, g9-roo,
22Or 23I) 235, 238 zz3, zz8,237 ro4-ro6, r4z-143,
physical text + tg;-zt7 scenario 46,6v62,68, 175, r7g, rg8, zot
physical theatre 3-r3, r3o, t65-t67, r7o- stage-spectator
27,36, tr4, r73, r7r, r8o, r84, 186, relationship 5, ro4,
t7g, 2oo, 2t7 | 222) 2O2r 23O IO7, tI4
z3o,235-236 self-discovery r9,4r, Stanislavsky,
physical-based theatre rr8 Constantine ro, 13-
zt, ro4, t6z-t63, Shakespeare, William r.4, r48-t4g, zrr,
230 49, rgg-zoo, zo8- z3l
physicalising text r95- 2O9,2rg Strehler, Giorgio 48
217 Shared Experience rz structuralism 235
play 4-5, 8, rz,25, 47, silence 33, 35, 86, 89, subtext 52, r83
50, 57, 6o, 63, 66, gr, 98-99, roj, rl8,
69-rr4, 16z-t63, t32-t34, r37, r47 , T'ai Chi zr, zg
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Physical theatre is emerging as a vibrant and increasingly
popular form. Theatre practitioners such as Frantic
Assembly, DV8, Ridiculusmus and Theatre de Complicit6
have been evolving new approaches to theatre-making
which are rooted in working through the body. This new
approach is beginning to impact on mainstream theatre
and on the way Performing Arts are taught and studied at
Sixth Form, Drama School and University.

ln Through the Bodt, based on twelve years ol teaching

physical theatre, Dymphna Callery introduces the reader to
the principles behind the work of certain key 2Oth-century
theatre practitioners (Artaud, Grotowski, Meyerhold, Brook
and Lecoq, among others) and oflers exercises by which
their theories can be turned into practice and their
principles explored in action.

The book takes the form of a series of workshops eatre

starting with the preparation of the body through
Awareness, Articulation, Energy and Neutrality. A section
on Mask-work is followed by further work on the body,
ation
investigating Presence, Complicit€, Play Audience, Rhythm,
Sound and E-motion. The book - and the work - exerctses
culminates in sections on Devising and on the Physical
Text. There is also a thorough bibliography and a contact
list ol training courses in the UK and abroad.
devising
Dymphna Callery is Head of the Drama Department at Flau,
Wolverhampton University, having worked previously at
Liverpool John Moores University. A published playwright
and poet, she has perlormed and taught throughout the and
United Kingdom.
theatre
ISBN 1-85459-630-6

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