Punchdrunk

Punchdrunk is a large immersive theatre company that is famous worldwide.

We took inspiration from Punchdrunk in our immersive theatre performance of 2050; one way we took inspiration is that we made the audience members wear surgical masks throughout the whole time like they do in their performances like in The Drowned Man.

Current shows:

The Drowned Man - A Hollywood Fable

Sleep No More - New York

Past Shows: (List taken from Wikipedia)

• The Cherry Orchard (2000), based on the play by Anton Chekhov^[6]

• The House of Oedipus (2000), an adaptation of Oedipus Rex and Antigone bySophocles, staged in the garden of Poltimore House, Devon.^[7]

• The Moonslave (2000)^{[citation needed]}

• Johnny Formidable: Mystery at the Pink Flamingo (2001)^{[citation needed]}

• Midsummer Night's Dream (2002)^[8]

• Chair (2002), an adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs, performed in the Old Seager Distillery in Deptford.^[9]

• The Tempest (2003), an adaptation of the play by Shakespeare, again performed at the Old Seagar Distillery, using its five floors to create a dark vision of Prospero's island.^[10]

• Sleep No More (2003); see below for the 2009 and 2011 reinventions. An adaptation ofShakespeare's Macbeth in the style of aHitchcock thriller, using reworked music from the soundtrack of classic Hitchcock films. Staged at the Beaufoy Building in London, an old Victorian school.^[11]

• Woyzeck (2004), an adaptation of the play by Georg Buchner. Performed at the Big Chill Music Festival.^[12]

• The Firebird Ball (2005), inspired byShakespeare's Romeo and Juliet andStravinsky's ballet The Firebird. Staged atOffley Works, a disused factory in South London.^[13]

• Marat/Sade (2005), an adaptation of the play by Peter Weiss. Performed at the 2005Big Chill Music Festival.^[14]

• Faust (10 October 2006 until 31 March 2007), an adaptation of Goethe's Faust Part One, relocated to a small town in the 1950sMidwest. Staged across 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m²) of a derelict 5-storey archive building at 21 Wapping Lane in the London neighbourhood of Wapping.^[15] The production won the 2006 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Designer.^[16]

• The Masque Of The Red Death (2007 play)(2007–8), a co-production with Battersea Arts Centre. An adaptation of stories by Edgar Allan Poe including "The Masque of the Red Death". Performed at the BAC from 5 October 2007 until 12 April 2008.^[17] While each performance culminated in a ball scene, Friday and Saturday night performances were followed by Red Death Lates, an elaborate afterparty with interactive performance, celebrity guests, live bands and cabaret.^[18]

• Tunnel 228 (2009), a collaboration with theOld Vic theatre, in the abandoned tunnels beneath London's Waterloo Station.^[19]

• Sleep No More, a 2009 reinvention in Boston of the 2003 London production. An adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Produced in association with the American Repertory Theatre at the Old Lincoln Schoolin Brookline, Massachusetts.^[20] It won theElliot Norton Theatre Award for Best Theatrical Experience 2010.^{[citation needed]}

• It Felt Like A Kiss (2009). Commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and produced in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis and musician Damon Albarn at a deserted office block inSpinningfields, Manchester. It depicted "America's rise to power in the golden age of pop, and the nightmare that came back to haunt us all."^{[21][dead link]}

• The Duchess of Malfi (2010), an operatic adaptation of the play by John Webster with ascore by Torsten Rasch. Produced in collaboration with English National Opera and performed in a vast, decommissioned pharmaceutical headquarters at London'sGreat Eastern Quay.^{[21][dead link]}

• Sleep No More a 2011 reinvention in New York of the 2003 London production (also revived in Boston in 2009). Performed in disused warehouses at 530 W 27th Street inManhattan, which was transformed into a faded hotel.^{[22][23][24][25]}

• The Crash of the Elysium, a 2011 one-hour show for children aged between 6 and 12, made in collaboration with the television series Doctor Who.^[26]

• Black Diamond a 2011 a travelling production that took place across 7 venues inEast London between 3 July and 1 September to launch Stella Artois Black.^{[citation needed]}

• And Darkness Descended... a 2011 site-specific performance that took place in the tunnels beneath Waterloo Station to launch the PlayStation game Resistance 3.^{[citation needed]}

Notes: What do we mean by multimedia?

Sound/music Projections Lighting Props Posters/Leaflets Dance (one of the mediums used to create the performance) Different elements of costumes Constant repetition in canteen 'war is peace' Super bright sodium light Blood on whiteboard Music on loop in Stanley's Room Strip lights Theatrical lighting Costume in dressing room Prezi on screen Masks Justify: Costume: The fact every other group apart from anti sex legue (etc) were dressed reasonably similar and the other costumes drew people in - oppressive, damp, grey - yellow! - created different vibes Lighting: Lecture theatre had simple yet effective lighting.. Going from normality to the world of 2050 Music: Attracted the audience - Room 101 had baby crying Masks: Suffocating, alienate the audience, outsiders, got audience more involved, made them feel as if they were just a number, addressed by their number, punks drunk influence/inspired gave audience the freedom to perform Multimedia isn't just there to support the acting, it performs for itself The multimedia WAS the play The costume/lighting/eat PERFORMED Need a few more threading performances Getting audience more included Suspension of disbelief - want to believe in the world of the play Black walls, drab pipes, Victorian building

Evaluation

Last Thursday, the two year 10 classes joined together to create our final performance, 2050.

The evening begun with the audience entering the Lecture Theatre; they were strictly told, by the formally addressing characters, to be silent, leave a gap between each other and many other things like that. They were taken through a presentation to explain the rules of the world we created of 2050; I think that the Prezi was an effective way to display information because it made it clear for the audience to understand. To improve the room, I would've made the experience more intense by removing a few members of the audience who kept disobeying the rules, and put them in a small, dark room where an individual performance would take place, to give the audience a more tense environment. I think the audience walked away with idea of control and fear as they were then 'set free' to roam around this mystical place to create their own stories.

In Room 415, we transformed it to be O'Brians office; there was a staging block with a podium-like stand where O'Brian (Danny) tell the audience members that power is everything and making sure that they had to be sure not to join the rebels. There were computers where there were 2 workers typing up information about the 'visitors' (audience members) and Thought Criminals while creating 'Digital Doubles'. I believe these were effective uses of multimedia since they all gave the audience a restrained and frightening experience since the computers made it seem formal and as if it was actually happening. To improve this room, I would have used projections of the Digital Doubles being created since when they were being created were on small computer screens that some of the audience members may not have been able to see them being created, which may have limited the fear and uncomfortable-ness that was meant to affect them.

In Room 411, there was Room 101 - the room in which Thought Criminals and suspected threats were taken to be tortured and have their thoughts transformed to agree with the ideologies and rules of Big Brother. Throughout the performance, performers were dragged into the room to improvise them being tortured. There was a track playing in the background throughout the show of a baby crying and screaming; this added to the thrill because it showed that even people as young as a toddler would be taken there which drilled the thought into the audience member's mind's that even them could be taken into the room to be tortured. There was also a projection on a white block of eye surgery being performed, which made the audience uncomfortable, and pictures of audience member's were stuck around the room saying 'WANTED' and 'THOUGHT CRIMINAL'. I think this was one of the most effective rooms because it showed physically people being tortured instead of seeing people being tortured mentally. I think the dim lighting worked really well because it made the room seem like it was a dark, hidden location that nobody really knew about so it made it seem more intimate. To improve this room, I would limit the number of people in the room so that it appeared to be more frightening and to make the audience feel as if they were 'specially chosen'. The audience walked away with the tense feeling that made them feel distressed .

In Room 413, there was the canteen where vegetable soup, bread and water was being served to members of the audience. There was a wall filled with propaganda and wanted/missing posters. There was a video playing on a loop of specific characters delivering messages to the public although the sound was drowned out by an audio track of 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength' playing throughout the whole performance. I think the fact that real food was handed out to the audience was very effective as it included the audience to make them feel like they were actually in the world. Multimediawise, I think that the black and white muted video with the 'War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength' being repeated over was extremely effective as it showed how everything had an order and it was very controlled.

In the Rose Garden, Rose was captured and forced into Room 101 where she watched Phillip get tortured. At the end of the play, Rose and Stanley have a moment where they recite love poem-sounding paragraphs to each other.

In The Space, it was split for The Anti-Sex League and The Group Hate. The Anti-Sex League was made up of 5 women running recruitment drive at 2 times throughout the performance. They had a projection of an advert/video they created to advertise their opinions. They also blacked out lighting which then went back on to leave an eerie feeling in the room. Leaflets were handed out to advertise their views, and there were posters on walls to act as propaganda. Their costume was made to look like an air hostess and they carried round clipboards. In the Group Hate, there were projections while everyone was screaming and ranting about their hate for Big Brother. There was dim lighting to make it seem like it was secretive.

In the hallways, it was very important because it connected all the rooms together which was crucial because without the hallways, the audience members could be sucked back into the normal world, which means they would leave the world of 2050. I swept the floors, hung up posters and took certain audience members into the dark nook between 411 and 415 where I delivered a speech to them about how my character was a rebel and how I wanted them to join the  rebels.

Finally, outside, there were hard exercises carried out by Trevor Shepherd (Sam Johnson) while he called out loud speeches to get them to join in and deliver important messages. They begun to sing a song loudly and passionately about devoting yourself to the government. They screamed to get the audience to join in, hurry up and quicken the pace. The TeddyBear Training resulted in them throwing teddybears and punching them about while the audience watched it from the windows. After a while, the audience were not allowed to go outside anymore so it made it more effective that they alienated their performance so that there were no audience members to be seen so it was more realistic and formal. Finally, the whole cast joined together outside to begin marching while the rebels begun to start twitching which ended with the non-rebels in the bike shed while some non-rebels took themself to become rebels when we all then bowed and it was the end of our performance.

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) aka George Orwell 

Commonly known as one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century 

Born in Bihar in British India

In April 1932, he became a teacher at The Hawthorns High School (a prep school for boys in Hayes)

Animal Farm was a very successful novel

Shortly after his wife died in March 29th 1945, he published Nighteen-Eighty-Four (1984) which proved to be a very successful novel

He was a member of Church Of England - Attended communion regularly

George Orwell Quotes

"To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others."

"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

"Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."

"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

"Happiness can only exist in acceptance."

For the last 2 hours of yesterday's theatre lessons, the two theatre classes combined to watch the movie adaptation of 1984.

In the movie adaptation, Winston is seen as a weak man who falls in love with a girl called Julia; they later have a sexual relationship, which is something that is seen as wrong in the society's eyes. They continue with this relationship in secret but in the end they are caught by Big Brother and sent to Room 101 where they torture him to destroy his emotions and thoughts by transforming them completely; for example, they transform one of Winston's thoughts to agree with 2+2=5.

Since we have now seen the movie adaptation, we can collect ideas for our set for 2050. We can adapt some of their ideas and change them by using our ideas and imagination. For example, we have now seen what the government-helicopter things look like in the movie so we can change certain parts of it and adapt it to be more futuristic since our play will be set in 2050.