For our commission, myself and the rest of the collaborative decided that crime/investigation would act as an appropriate dramaturgy. A way of interrogating interrogation as a way of making material and in turn would interrogate our way of making theatre. Throughout these blogs I will delve into the ‘meta’ elements of this dramaturgy and how self-aware the process and in turn, the performance became. With crime as a dramaturgy a suitable crime would be needed as the meat for the performance. As a company, we researched the darkest recesses of crime which Man, Woman and even Child could ever commit. ‘The sum and potential of human behaviour presses on the imagination with a new kind of darkness’ (Goulish: 138)
As these conversations festered we found ourselves drifting towards British crime. A crime which we could be able to re-create respectfully, but also a crime which we could re-contextualize for today’s world – for today’s audiences. Due to the current fractured political landscape in which we find ourselves In. Therefore, we ventured for a political crime or a crime involving a politician. The assassination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval intrigued us instantly. A man shooting the prime minister, dropping his gun and then apologising? Instantly? Felt too British to be real. Almost as if this event had been scripted for an ITV 3 drama series. The crime itself took place in 1812. With just over two hundred years apart from the crime and the time of devising, this allowed us to feel comfortable with the morality of exploring the murder. It afforded us a separation between the evet and immediate repercussion and consequence. There are many events throughout history where we find ourselves living in their consequential ripples. This is an event which isn’t at the periphery of many people’s minds and therefore gave us licence to explore. It is worth pointing out at this point that the performance aimed to re-create and tell this narrative in a contemporary manner. There isn’t a great deal of written discourse surrounding Spencer. He has seemingly been forgotten by the public and by political scholars. If we were aiming for to narrate his story in such a factual manner a book or a naturalistic piece of theatre would be a more appropriate format. Responding, not re-telling allows us to create a contemporary piece of work.
Practice is not only contained within the four walls of a black box studio. Practice can occur anywhere and in any form. As an avid football fan, I was watching a game and realised that football, like theatre, is both a finite game and an infinite game. A theatre production, like a game of football, has an end and an outcome. Whereas the game of football and the form of theatre is infinite – never-ending and constantly evolving. This realisation allowed me to contextualise my practice as something which will never end. But can be measured and defined at set intervals. This notion will inform my reflective practice in the blog. Throughout he blog, the infinite and finite nature of theatre will be used to discuss moments of the process.