Duologue research - Closer (cultural, costume)

   The play is set within the 1900's making the play quite modern. We were not in a recession at this point in time therefore disposable income was more readily available to spend on fancy houses and nice furniture.  Closer was released 1997 when Sarah Kane - Blasted (1994) and Anthony Neilson - Penetrator (1993) were in their hay-day making Closer seem far more tame than most plays yet it was the most drastic romance play to come out since the restoration sex comedies in the 20th century and the ruthless sexual comedies of 17th century.

'Closer fulfils the promise of a cultural critique that is given in the title of Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking (1996), a promise never really made good in that much inferior play.'
                                                                                                                        - Peter Paul Schnierer


For my costume I am going to be wearing a suit to begin with as this shows that he has just returned from a business trip, and shows that he is rich enough to afford a suit

When coming back on for my second scene I will be just wearing a shirt and trousers as this shows that I'm about to have a shower much like is said in the previous scene

For the final scene I will be wearing a shirt jeans and a jumper, this shows that he is always sort of at work and keeps up an appearance by wearing a shirt. 

Duologue research - Closer (first thoughts & set)

The first thing I did when researching Closer was watch the film so I understood Larry's character;

Larry is a character that looks for sex and finds love, he gets his heart broken and resolves never to be hurt again. He is strong, self-assured, blunt but gets straight to the point. Larry doesn't like playing games as apposed to Dan's character. He has a sexual encounter with Alice but his true love is for Anna as he tries to win her back later on in the play.

Marber wrote Closer with very naturalistic characters to make them believable, relatable to an audience. Marber didn't write the Closer as a love story it is more better described as an adult story about love. Sex and relationships are a huge theme throughout and take place in every conversation.

After closely studying scene 6, the thing that takes away from the naturalism is the split staging and chopping and changing between Dan and Alice and Larry and Anna, because we are cutting this from our performance this makes the scene far more naturalistic. Therefore together me and Gemma decided to have naturalistic set. and play the performance with a forth wall. 

Here is a draft of our set. As opposed to Patrick Marber's set we are using the whole stage as we are only performing Larry and Anna's section.

Chaise-longue and a throw.  This is taken from Marber's original director of using a chaise-longue, we decided to add a throw as this makes the room more expensive, as Larry and Anna are a well off couple with high paying jobs.

Table. This is used so that when Larry brings in the gifts he puts them on there to give Anna the postcard. This is also used to display candles as Anna is a very arty person I feel she would have candles in their home.

Chest of drawers. The chest of drawers we've chosen to use is quite ornate and quirky again much like Anna it's placed beside the chaise-longue so when Anna hides the photo of Alice she does not have to move far away from the chaise-longue as we decided that Anna would never leave the chaise-longue until she starts to argue back with Larry.

Stairs. This was an idea taken from the film of Closer as this has been a great influence on our acting. I affords somewhere for Larry to go to get changed in the blackouts so that he doesn't just walk into the next room. The again gives the idea of elegance and an artistic feel to Anna's influence on the house as these aren't ordinary stairs they hardly lift off the floor and have no banister suggesting that if the relationship falls apart there is nothing to stop it. The stairs are also used to represent power within the play that when Larry is at the top of the stairs is says a cheeky remark to remind Anna that she's in her place 'don't you ever forget it'.

Bar. This was suggested because Larry and Anna are quite sociable people they host openings for gallery's they go to expensive restaurants we felt that drinking would be a big part of their life and felt a bar was appropriate into their home.

Photos. Anna is a photographer and much like the film she displays her work on the walls, we have tried to show this by having photos along the back of the wall.

The rug was originally in our drafts yet was taken out as the rug cheapened the feel of the room where as it would be more open plan. The rug also made the room feel more homely and secure which it isn't in this scene is it open and brutal.

All of the set is something Anna would have chosen for their home as Larry lets Anna walk all over him and this is reinforced by the set although we wouldn't think this of them when throughout the duologue Larry has the power over Anna.

Each piece of set is used throughout the duologue there is nothing there without reason.

A Midsummer Nights Dream - William Shakespeare

This is my contrasting monologue to Harry's Christmas

Puck's soliloquy
Puck - Dominic Rose

Harry's Christmas - Steven Berkoff

This is the choice for my first monologue

End scene
Harry - Dominic Rose

Choosing appropriate material; Monolgues

For my monologues I wanted my examiner to feel that the examiner can see the full extend of my dramatic ability by selecting different contrasting monologues that used abilities from my existing repertoire.

Mark Ravenhill - Handbag (phil's speech)
Jim Cartwright - Road (skin lad's speech)
Paul Rudnick - I Hate Hamlet (andrew's speech)
Steven Berkoff - Decadence (restaurant scene)
Steven Berkoff - Harry's Christmas (ending scene)
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Nights Dream (puck's soliloquy)

Mark Ravenhill - Handbag
              Mark Ravenhill's Handbag is famous as being a different spin on Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Ernest' using similar characters such as Prism. The monologue I was looking at was Phils speech from when he is living with the victorians and how be crys out for attention.

This scene shows In-yer-face theatre but almost shouting at the audience. It uses my strengths of emotive characters and also gives me the option to use my strength of accents because Handbag isn't set in a specific area.

I decided against choosing this piece for my monologue because after reading the examiners report I felt that this involved material which was not easily accessible to me as I could not relate to the emotion of loosing a child or being a drug addict.


Jim Cartwright - Road
           Road is a play that I have previously done for my AS module yet the speech from Skin Lad was cut out. Road shows social realism through the 1980s and Skin Lads monologue shows an boy that is obsessed with fighting.

My teacher suggested that if I wanted to perform this monologue that I should research into Bronson starting Tom Hardy. This is based on a real story so I can look into the research Tom Hardy did to get into character for the role

    This much like Handbag, this showcases my talent for In-yer-face theatre and expresses my strengths for acccents and emotive character, this monologue also lets me explore another strength of exaggerated gestures.

I decided against choosing this piece for my monologue because I don't feel that I would be able to do as much intense preparation for the role in the amount of time. Also I would need to shave off my hair which would result in me not being in character for my other two performances.


Paul Rudnick - I Hate Hamlet
             I Hate Hamlet is comedic play that is set in america. The scene I was looking at was Andrew's speech from the end of the play after he has played Hamlet he is reflecting upon this.

              This monologue lets me show all my strengths as in the script it says that 'Andrew is walking home in his costume' therefore he could have a sword letting me use props


I decided against choosing this piece for my monologue because I did not feel it would showcase the best of my ability as I feel I could have a monologue that would involve the audience far more wether this is a sense of catharsis or talking directly to them.


Steven Berkoff - Decadence
             Having decided not to perform Decadence for my duologue I felt I should look further into this play for a monologue as I like berkoff's style and I felt I could portray the character of Steve well. I was looking particularly at the restaurant scene as I felt this encompassed Berkoff's style into one monologue.

             This monologue showcases my strengths of facial expression, accent and exaggerated characters. I loved how this monologue was so far apart from any other.


I decided against choosing this piece for my monologue because this dose not relate so well to an audience as I would like. I also feel that the performance in the video is done almost to perfection and I don't feel that I could beat it. If I did attempt this monologue then I would simply be trying to reciprocate the style shown above and it would not be my own personal monologue.


Steven Berkoff - Harry's Christmas
             My teacher suggested that I look at Harry's Christmas as I liked Berkoff's style yet this had a far more emotional side to his style and creates a great sense of Catharisis with the audience. I chose to look at the ending scene.


'It's Christmas day and Harry has still not seen anybody over christmas. He becomes more deprressed to the point at where he takes an over dose and dies'


This monologue showcases my strengths of;
Facial expressions
Exagerated gestures
Emotive characters
Working with props


Harry's disorder is what makes his character become far more Nitty Gritty much like Larry's character. Harry's disorder is something that can be relatable as everyone has mood swings.


I decided to choose this piece for my monologue because it showcases my strengths within a style as which I have experience from when working on Road (where we chose to take influence from Stephen Berkoff). This is also a monologue that creates a great sense of catharsis with an audience as this is something I was lacking with the other monologues.


William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Nights Dream
                A Midsummer Nights Dream is one of Shakespeare's most famous comedic plays. I was looking at the character puck and his last soliloquy.


'If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends'

This monologue showcases my strengths of;

Exagerated gestures

Bringing historical to a contemporary audience

Working with props

Puck speaks directly too the audience which neither my duologue or my Berkoff monologue do. Shakespeare is something that I have done in the very first part of the course yet not to a completely high standard doing shakespeare again lets me reflect back on my previous work and improve upon it.

I decided to choose this piece for my monologue because it showcases my strengths it also has a connection to the audience which is what I wanted from my previous monologues. I am doing doing a monologue that is a challenge as I have performed shakespeare before this is simply improving on my abilities and showing the examiner what I can do.

Closer - Patrick Marber

Larry and Anna break up scene is our final choice for a duologue.

Dominic Rose - Larry
Gemma Kaye - Anna

Choosing appropriate material; Duologue

For my duologue I am working with Gemma Kaye, an actress whom I have worked well with in my most recent performances.
Rivals - Acres and Sir Lucius O Trigger
Saved - Harry and Mary

We decided that we wanted to look into a performance of a couple as we felt we were both better actors in our performance in Saved.
Using both of our strengths and personal interests we finally came down to three options;


 John Osborne – Look Back in Anger 
Stephen Berkoff – Decadence
Patrick Marber – Closer


We felt that these looked at my styles of interest - Naturalistic and Berkoff and my strengths facial expressions, exaggerated gestures, emotive characters and accents.

John Osborne – Look Back in Anger

            Look Back in Anger, is a play that is well known for being ‘kitchen sink realism’ which is a form of social realism of the 1950s to early 1960s. We were looking at Act 1 of the play;

‘As Act 1 progresses, Jimmy becomes more and more vituperative, transferring his contempt for Alison's family onto her personally, calling her "pusillanimous" and generally belittling her to Cliff. It's possible to play this scene as though Jimmy thinks it's all a joke, but most actors opt for playing it as though he really is excoriating her. The tirade ends with some physical horseplay, resulting in the ironing board overturning and Alison's arm getting a burn. Jimmy exits to play his trumpet off stage’

            We think that this scene has similar intentions to that of Edward Bond in Saved (the play me and Gemma have worked on together before), therefore we will be able to understand the concept better as we have the knowledge of from Saved. The difference between Saved and Look Back in Anger is that the characters are more upper class creating a different feel of how to build tension within the piece.

We decided against choosing this piece for our duologue because we felt it was too similar to Saved. Even though we should play to our strengths we felt that this would be almost repeating the same scene with different characters would lead us to have no motivation and not perform the piece to the best of our abilities.

Stephen Berkoff - Decadance

           Decadance as much of all of Berkoff's work expresses the style of 'total theatre' where the actor-audience relationship is immediate, this also showcases his expressionist techniques.

We were looking at the first scene between Steve and Helen.

'This scene shows Helen on a white leather sofa talking firs to the audience and then with Steve, Steve remains frozen in this first monologue apart from to light Helen's cigarette these are mimed as to extract the greatest amount of absurdity to the physical response. Acting should be sensual, erotic and flamboyant'

         We liked the characters with in this piece as they are characters that had a lot of depth to them and this would allow us to be able to play them with more understanding.

We decided against choosing this piece for our duologue because we felt that because Gemma had not previously performed Berkoff she would feel out of her comfort zone and this would be seen as a challenge and as something new to try.

Patrick Marber - Closer

           Closer is a play thats Characters are heavily influenced by Konstantin Stanislavski by having very naturalistic characters. We looked at Larry and Anna's break up scene.

         

             These characters are again in the same situation as that of Saved and Look Back in Anger yet the context is totally different. These characters are much what we liked from the Decadence that they are nitty gritty.

We decided on choosing this duologue because it shows a style that I have interest in (naturalism) it also showcases my strengths which are emotive characters and accents. This is also a similar set up to previous performances therefore we will be able to build upon our those performances.