Under The Sea Play Essay

Introduction

Our documentary drama piece is on how migrants are unable to simply seek refuge here in Australia. Bertolt Brecht a German play writer has helped us achieve this goal as we have brought upon a range of techniques which teaches the audience to think and to remind themselves that what they have watched is theatre not real life. Important techniques which he uses include narration, song, use of placards and projection, simple staging, utilising sets, props and costumes and changing character. These help to break up the action the audience have witnesses and not become emotionally attached. Our group have incorporated these techniques into our play to create a powerful performance which raises the issue of migrants coming to Australia.

Narration
Narration is one of Brecht’s techniques which is used in the beginning of our play to describe the scene beforehand rather than having the audience connect with a certain character. Brecht uses narration to remind the audience that what they’re watching is a presentation of a story. The first scene starts with screaming and gunshots firing while people race around the stage in distress. Once the gunshots stop Liana comes forward as the narrator and explains the situation the audience have seen and how often it occurs with statistics, like “Each day over 30,000 Syrians are forced to leave their homes to find a safer place to live”. This role moves around to everyone to describe their life story since narration is a technique whereby one or more performers speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information or comment on the action of the scene. We decided to include narration into our play since it is an easy and effective way to break the emotionally connection between the actors and the audience.

Utilising sets, props and costumes
Set, costume and props are all kept simple and representable. For our costume we are wearing all black so the audience focuses on the issue the actors are presenting rather than the costume. Stage setting was minimal in Brecht’s plays, there was a sense of truthfulness to production components apart from the sound and lighting. Brecht emphasises that props can be changed easily, like a suitcase might become a desk, car door or a bomb. I am a refugee, navy officer and a dad in our piece and I wear one piece of clothing to represent each character so there are quick changes between each scene. For example in I will be wearing a scarf on my head to show I am a refugee from Syria in the opening scene and then I might change to a beanie when going onto the boat to escape Syria the next scene. You only need small changes to a costume, prop or set to determine character or scene change to achieve the use of sets, props and costumes
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Changing character
Changing character or multi rolling is when a character will play more than one character on stage. This can be changed by a voice, movement, gesture, body language or change of costume. Though the audience needs to be able to recognise that the actor has changed character for this to be achieved. We our group we have decided to change character with the use of a prop and by changing our body language and voice. In one scene we may be a guy and then the next a women to show different experiences what refugees have accounted which are actually based on a true story. We also change characters so that the audience does not become attached to one character, rather than just be able to take in what they are watching and think about the issue.

Use of Projection and placards
A projection screen, or placard can be used to provide the audience with some extra factual information. For example it might have a sign of written information card or banner saying how many people died from a country in a particular war or a news report projected about the conditions the soldiers had to go through in a war. Placards can also be used to introduce characters, like brother, or when a scene has started or ended. Our group have decided to use placards with factual information about refugees coming to Australia from Syria when we each narrate telling the audience about our life story. We are also using projection when we go into the last scene to show an Australian family eating dinner watching a news report on Migrants coming to Australia and showing how selfish the Australian family is showing no emotion or support towards the migrants and only caring about their safety. The use of these two techniques are very important to emphasise our issue and to raise awareness on migration to Australia.

Song Paragraph
In our documentary drama piece our group wanted to raise a significant issue in today’s society on how migrants are not easily able to seek safe refuge here in Australia.

We felt we needed to bring awareness to the audience about this issue and to inform them what is happening. In the beginning of our drama performance the group and I have incorporated the playing of a song parody ‘Under the Sea’ written by Hans Christian Anderson as a technique to emphasis the dangerous boat journey and fright of arrival to a new foreign country. Changed phrases of the song include that from ‘the seaweed is always greener, in someone else’s lake’ to ‘the freedom is always greener, in someone else’s land’, referring the lyrics directly from a migrant’s perspective if they were travelling down to Australia. The Lyrics heighten the intensity of the journey as the song continues suggested by the lines ‘charging straight to us, but we hope they won’t stop us, we just want a place to sleep’, highlighting the startled emotions felt when coming into contact with Australian boarder protection services. The fear brought by knowledge of the fact that after such a long and

life
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threatening journey, peace through acceptance on new land may not even be granted.

We staged ourselves centre front stage so that we could look powerful whilst singing directly out into the audience. The technique, song is important, as it is used to detach the audience from the documentary drama piece. It can also be used to break up the action, which allows the audience to reflect on the issue being presented. Our song ‘Over the Sea’ conveys a strong message to the audience through its impacting lyrics and iconic tune taken from the children’s Disney movie ‘Little

Mermaid’.

Simple Staging
Simple staging is used in documentary drama to reinforce the alienation felt by the audience. This alienation means the audience can remain focused on the dramatic meaning of the piece and not the emotional story. Brecht uses simple staging so it is easier for the characters to move around the stage and so the audience only focuses on the topic that is being presented. There was many things to consider when we were creating our drama piece. We had to think about the aim of our piece and what type of staging we were going to use. Our group uses only a few pieces of furniture including blocks and a table because these were two easy objects we could use our imagination to change to suit the location of the scene. For example the blocks are used in the song ‘Over the Sea’ as part of the boat and in the dinner table scene as a chair and the table is used in the beginning scene as something for Maryanna to hide behind. This is applied in order to set an illusion of reality on stage. Simple staging is able to reveal the location in which the act is set with only a few pieces of furniture. It also means that you don’t need to bring things off and on stage which would attract the audience’s eye in a bad way. Simple staging is can be very effective if done well and is an easy was to create a great performance on stage.

Conclusion
Throughout our documentry drama piece we have incorporated all of the techniques above by Bertolt Brecht to break up the action. We hope that the audience will remain objective and unemotional during our play so they can make rational judgements about political aspects of our performance.