Language | Solo Performance

I have been looking into language over the last week, reading books and watching plays in the hope of finding inspiration for my shows dialogue.

I watched Nicholas Hytner’s film The Lady in the Van (2015) and I was enthralled by the use of language. The words within this film were so satisfyingly beautiful, yet witty and piercing at the same time. The use of language from the character of Alan Bennett, a Northern writer, displayed much of the descriptive language I want to include in my own piece. His creative use of adjectives, juxtaposed with harsh swear words, brought something quite beautiful to the not-so-beautiful meaning of the sentence. I really liked the way that Haytner wrote the dialogue for this movie, however much of it was based on the actual writer Alan Bennett’s book titled the same The Lady in the Van (1989). I looked further into his writings and have taken a lot from the way he powerfully yet poetically describes situations.

This descriptive use of language reminded me of Chris Goode’s play The Adventures of Woundman and Shirley (2011) that we read in class. Although I don’t particularly enjoy the play, I did acknowledge Goode’s fantastic ability to bring situations to life through language. He uses descriptive detailed metaphors with a sprinkling of nonsense, for example, ‘All over his body: Weapons, sticking out at crazy angles like the cocktail sticks in a cheese and pineapple hedgehog at a little kids birthday party. His whole body a torture chamber’ (Goode, 2001, 7).

An example of the language in The Adventures of Woundman and Shirley (2011)

(Hull Truck Theatre, 2012)

An example of the language in The Lady in the Van (2015)

(Movieclips Coming Soon, 2015)

Listening to the poetic nature of the language from this play and film lead me to look into poetry. I stumbled black upon a poem that I read during GCSE English in school, The Road Not Taken (1991) by Robert Frost and Louis Untermeyer. Whilst studying at school the poem had not relevance to me, it was simply another run-of-the-mill stock poem that all 17 year olds had to study. However after reading it again at an older age, and with the current emotional crossroads lingering in my mind, this poem suddenly makes so much sense and I would really like to incorporate this poem in the opening section of my performance:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

(Frost and Untermeyer, 1991)

Work cited

Frost, R., Untermeyer, L. (1991) The road not taken: a selection of Robert Frost’s poems. New York: H. Holt and Co.

Goode, C. (2001) The Adventures of Woundman and Shirley. London: Oberon Books.

Hull Truck Theatre (2012) The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud5jsvC1x4g [Accessed 17 March 2016].

Movieclips Coming Soon (2015) The Lady in the Van movie clip – Move in day (2015) – Maggie Smith, Alex Jennings Movie HD. [online video] Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnFs3DN1eNU [Accessed 17 March 2016].

Laurie Anderson is proving to be a very influential practitioner. Her use of short stories, music and technology has landed her right in the center of my research. After changing my mind numerous times, I have decided to perform an autobiographical piece based on the impact my family and relationship have on my career aspirations. Whilst researching her performance techniques I stumbled across an interview where Laurie herself summed up my performance in one simply sentence:

When asked, what does love feel like? Laurie replied ‘freedom and stillness. Lack of striving. Contentment’ (Greenstreet, 2015)

This phrase captures exactly the struggle that I want to portray. How the things you love most can sometimes be the things that can, physically and mentally, hold you back.

Anderson’s performances are often packed full of out of this world technological spectacles, dancers in eye-catching costumes and striking sets. Although I can appreciate how successful this theatrical construction was, I feel that it could sometimes overpower her social commentary and underlying stories. John O’Mahony commented that in more recent productions, Anderson’s work has become more reserved and focuses on the social commentaries and the music itself as opposed to the spectacle. Dirtday! (2012) ‘has little of her trademark back-projected hi-tec wizardry. [Suggesting that] those things get in the way of the music’ (O’Mahony, 2009). Although I shall take influence from Anderson’s earlier musical performances, I wish to stage my performance more simply like her later work so there are little distractions to the story.

^ Original eccentric staging ^ More recent relaxed staging.

It is easy to get swept up in the musical spectacle, and overlook her extraordinary storytelling ability. ‘What people really love about Laurie Anderson are the stories she tells, and the way she tells them’ (McDaid, 2008). Many of her performances are social commentaries on current social situations, however the way she tells them, with her soft lullaby-like vocals, captures the audience and draws them into the story more. The way she speaks is beautifully poetic. The language she uses paints a picture that captures the audience through its abstract metaphors, using ironicaly beautiful words to describe a not-so-beautiful topic. This is something that I want to incorporate into the spoken part of my piece. Providing the audience with not only a physical picture of my situation, but a chance to create their own picture in their imaginations through the use of language.

Storytelling ability aside, it is undeniable that Laurie Anderson is most famous for her music. What makes her work stand out from other musical performance art is her avant-garde approach to music and sound. For example, The Afternoon of Automotive Transmission (1972), which was a symphony of car horns held in a park. The making of music from everyday objects is something I really like of Anderson’s work. In my performance I want to be tied down by three materials (chains, rope, wire, etc.) from which I will create sounds. These sounds will then be layered on top of one another to create a musical track. One idea is to be restrained by wire, which I would then play with a violin bow.

Like Anderson, I really enjoy minimalism in terms of music and I want to focus on avant-garde music as opposed to the standard structured song. Walt Whitman once rightly stated that ‘simplicity is the glory of expression’ (Whitman and Reynolds, 2005, 12). I want to use the loop system to create minimalistic sounds that then can be placed onto of one another to create a complex score of metaphorical music.

Work cited

Greenstreet, R. (2015) Q&A: Laurie Anderson. [online] London: The Guardian. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/16/laurie-anderson-interview [Accessed 20 February 2016].

McDaid, C. (2008) Storytime with knobs on. [online] London: The Guardian. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/may/04/popandrock3 [Accessed 19 February 2016].

O’Mahony, J. (2008) Adults are idiots. [online] London: The Guardian. Available from http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/07/electronicmusic.art [Accessed 20 February 2016].

Whitman, W., Reynolds, D, S. (2005) Leaves of Grass. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Solo Performance – RobertsC

Tag Archives: Language

Language & poetry

Laurie Anderson