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