Stockholm Resource Pack - Frantic Assembly

Scenes:
Samuel James and Georgina Lamb
Photo Manuel Harlan
1 Knives and forks
We wanted to show the immediate and surprising sexual
chemistry that exists between Todd and Kali. Their meeting
does not start well but once they drop their guards they
soon ignite each other.
We gave the performers a knife and fork each and got them
to consider carving up their partners body, finding all the
fleshy juicy parts. This was choreographed and placed on
the cooker island (doubling as a table in a restaurant) to
emphasis the carnal indulgence of the movement, the carnality
of the meal they consume in the reality of the moment and
the suggestion of the sexual carnality that will follow.
Our intention being to show this sexual frisson we were
careful not to be sexually obvious. We felt it was more
interesting to suggest how much they might have wanted to
consume each other as that language often surfaces when
depicting passionate love, ie. 'I love you so much I could
eat you'. It was important to us to suggest something that
was just beginning but would develop into this kind of
passionate love.
The music was identified early on and the material created
was then shaped to fit the music best. As the performers
became more confident with the material the matching to
the idiosyncrasies of the music became more detailed.
Some only appeared by accident as we watched runs. It is
always, we feel, important to allow time for the inspiration
that only comes from taking a step back from your work
and seeing if it works and if it can work better.
2 Tea towels
This came from exploring devising techniques early in
rehearsal. It actually first surfaced during the development
workshops (see The Development Work). We were looking
at creating a string of material where one person would
push or move their partner and almost immediately stop
them and send them off some where else. This relationship
would change and swap over continuously. It looked like a
semi willing game. It has a complex sexiness to it as one
partner would submit to the physical commands of the
other and then instantly switch to dominance.
Once our performers had created a good string of material
we looked at changing the quality of it. First we made it
slower and more tender. This allowed for eye contact which
made the moment of the switch from domination to
submission really alive.
We placed this on the set (the kitchen).
We re-choreographed it so that it took in the whole kitchen.
We then looked at changing the dynamic of certain
moments. What if some moments retained their original
snappy feel What if others were genuinely quite rough
What emerged was a possible transition from the remaining
anger of their first minor bust up to the resurrection of their
big birthday evening ('Best meal ever').
We still had to chart a naturalistic journey through that
transition. What we found was an attempt by Kali to charm
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