Dramatic Tension In Troll's Dramatic Performance

Troll is a modern style dramatic performance set within an Australian city in 2017. The company that produced this performance is Shake and Stir this company produces a number of different acts to notify teenagers around Australia about real life scenarios. Troll is about the arising issue of cyber safety as the audience follows Nicole through her journey of being personally victimised by this issue. During the performance the three main characters are Tyson, Yanni and Nicole these three characters play a major part in setting the storyline as they are playing the role of young teenagers this helps the audience identify which era the performance is set in. A number of dramatic languages are used throughout the play to build on the character’s personalities and emphasis the issue of cyber safety some dramatic languages used are tension, status and movement. The company used these dramatic languages to effectively create a contemporary, live performance that informs and educates young audiences on cyber safety as it affects many individuals around the world.
Throughout the entire performance the dramatic language tension was used to create a more engaging plot line. For example, there was a large amount of tension between the two characters Tyson and Yanni. Tyson was threatening and

forcing Yanni to do things he did not want to be involved in. Tyson was both verbally and physically bullying Yanni within the act creating a sense of power that Tyson had over Yanni. The tension between these characters forms the reoccurring theme of bullying and harassment reinforcing the cyber safety issue and is how the company was able to easily pass the message of bullying and cyber safety across to the audience.
All characters during the performance had a symbolic use of the dramatic language movement.

It would be used to inform the audience of the character’s current emotion or reaction. For example, Yanni’s body language was completely different to Tyson’s. Yanni would always stand in a closed off position to portray his character as weak or helpless whereas Tyson would hold himself to show that he has dominance over Yanni. Overall, the movement used was symbolic as it was the key point to show how each character felt towards other characters. This dramatic language helped the company to create a performance that portrays bullying and harassment in order to inform audiences of the

issue.
The dramatic language status was used to make it easy for the audience to identify which characters had more dominance and power than others. This was achieved by the use of blocking, language, voice and staging. For example, Tyson was regularly blocking Yanni as blocking is a sign of power and dominance. Yanni’s voice was always higher pitched and quieter than Tyson’s as it displayed that Yanni was afraid of Tyson. This is all evidence that Tyson had a significantly higher status than the character of Yanni. The choice of blocking and tone of voice helped solidify the status of each character. Shake and stir was then capable to execute the overall message of cyber safety from the use of each character’s status.
Thus, after analysing shake and stirs production of troll it was very effective in informing the audience of the world wide issue of cyber safety. This was achieved by the use of the dramatic languages of tension, status and movement. When all three dramatic languages are combined shake and stir was able to create a contemporary, live performance that informs and educates young audiences about cyber safety. Overall shake and stir did an exceptional presentation of showing the importance of cyber safety to young audiences.