Audiences: spectators, witnesses, voyeurs.
A still taken from a live-cast performance.
For the purpose of this session, we were tasked with trying to describe or recall a memory of a live performative event that we had witnessed. In many ways, we were ghosting our own theatrical experience with that of those around us as several people appeared to have been present at the same live performative event and, therefore each individual had a different perspective and emotional cognitive response to the event at hand. For the purpose of this discussion, I decided to talk about seeing National Theatre’s Frankenstein, which was directed by respected film-maker Danny Boyle.
An image depicting the hundreds of bulbs that hung above the spectators.
My observations follow below.
Describing a live-event.
Firstly, let me say to describe a live and mediated event that I witnessed on a live-screening is no easy task.
Before you lies a dark and desolate cavernous space. No light can be seen and at present, there is no noise but the slow deep breathing of those around you as they wait with anticipation for the events they are about to witness on stage. Silence, nothing… No movement nothing. Slowly, ever so slowly there is a flickering of a single light-bulb that is suspended above the stage reaching far out into the seated spectators. One flash, silence, two flashes, silence, then nothing. People move around you excitedly, and sometimes nervously cautious for the anticipation of seeing Mary Shelly’s creature brought to life before their very eyes. There is a flash of a hanging bulb then, the entire stage comes to life from above as hundreds of hanging lightbulbs suspended overhead move in a rhythmic fashion echoing sound and emotes similar to that of a human heartbeat. Or is it human? Wave after wave of light pulses across the stage and the spectators are left with a sense of awe and bewilderment that what they are viewing is something truly unique to them. At the back of the stage large double heavy doors creak slowly open and the stage is filled with a thick smoke that seems to almost choke and clog the lungs of those around it, a makeshift object hurtles forward and the stage is covered in a ghostly and threatening red mask that leaves tension and fear in the air. Silence. Nothing. No movement, just waiting… Lights dim and we can see that inside this almost synthetic-womb a creature stirs, slowly at first but moves heavily and almost like something that has never stepped a foot on the ground below it… Something new has entered this realm.
The birth of a possible monster.
National Theatre’s Frankenstein- Trailer.
Works Cited.
CINEPLEX EVENTS (2012) National Theatre’s Frankenstein- Trailer. . Available from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsu-gbgqPoE [Accsessed 26 November 2016].