Today we crossed an invisible research barrier. We went from exploring vague concept to actually attempting performance making. I did push the process a bit, but I really needed the group to start getting into the performance making mind set and just be brave and try something and do something. We can talk about this vorticism stuff forever, but in the end I will never find what I am looking for through talk. I need to see it in action and see where the pitfalls are, and what the right questions are.
To break through this barrier I asked the group to pick a nursery rhyme. We ended up agreeing on Humpty Dumpty. We then discussed what the core line in the rhyme was. We decided it was the line 'couldn't put Humpty together again'. We then started asking questions like how did Humpty fall? Was he pushed? Did he slip? Did he grow too big for the wall? Then we asked who the king's horses and men were. This led to us discussing who Humpty was. Is he the king himself, or just someone important in the realm? This led us to looking into the history of the rhyme and discovered it's connection to King Richard III. This led us to the idea that Humpty was the king. Then we started to discuss what would need to be put back together. This got us thinking about public relations and politics, which then led us to the idea that Humpty is Tony Abbott and the fall is the budget, and Australia becomes the thing that can't be put back together.
With those decisions made, we created a playing space trying to keep in mind the vorticist genre. We struggled a bit with avoiding symbolism (i.e a candle to denote kingliness), and we also had to rethink things like how to you have a throne but it not be the dominant thing in the space - especially if you give it height. We had already decided that all the energy had to focus on the attempt to put Humpty back together, so the ground had to be the focal point. We did this by attaching a rope between the king and his men who were on the ground, we also used pebbles and candles to point to the spot he would fall, and we dimmed the lighting near the throne so that the ground was lit.
In performance we wanted to keep the nursery rhyme, but switched in some new words so it became:
Tony Abbott sat on the wall
Tony Abbott had a great fall
All the spin doctors
And all the rich men
Couldn't put Tony together again.
This song was chanted twice in a row with servants bowing in honorific. Then one of them moves away and the rope connecting Humpty pulls him off the throne and he tumbles to the floor. The servants rush in and bandage him and give him CPR all the time shouting 'medicare copayments', 'no youth allowance', and 'petrol taxes'. Eventually they realise he cannot be revived, so they get up, detatch the ropes and walk away.
It was a great start with some important discoveries. The next step I think is to find a way to see the different angles. Next week we will try something different. I want us to come up with a concept first, and then try and find the classic items to fit into it, rather than starting from the classic item (the nursery rhyme).
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