The Other Place
The other place, written and directed by Alexander Zeldin, is a tragedy inspired by Sophocles' Antigone. The main themes of the play consist of grief, and how different characters deal with it, and relationships. further, the play depicts themes such as secrecy and fear.
The play explores a troubled girl named Annie ( Antigone ) who has returned to her family home where her father Adam ( Oedipeus ) committed suicide, to prevent her uncle Chris ( Creon ) from scattering the ashes of her father. the play includes other characters such as Issy (Ismene) who is often found having to defend her older sister, Annie. During the play less major characters such as Leni (Haemon) and Terry ( Tiresias ) provide a much needed comic relief to the dark play.
At the climax of the play We discover Chris and Annie's disgusting incestual relationship which arises from the suicide of Adam. From this point the play begins to speed downhill as Annie and Issy's tight relationship crumbles as the younger sister discovers the relationship, which is the final straw for Annie leading the Leni discovering Annie's dead body in the tent outside
During a talk with the director we learn the Zeldin likes to write his plays based off a visceral feeling, which in this case was grief. He believes that to make these ancient plays relevant to our modern day society we have to link this visceral feeling to the modern period and modern social issues. in the play Zeldin focused on out casting Annie from the rest of the family as he is interested in the question "How do the misfits have something to tell us?" by doing this Zeldin creates a focus on Annie and uses this to convey the visceral sense of guilt through the character
Within the other place there can be a large similarity drawn between the ancient Greek theatre and the performance of the play:
for example the intricate design of the staging for the other place resembles that of a Greek open air theatre, for example the tent outdoors in the staging resembles the skene and the barren kitchen that of the orchestra, further there are lots of features such as the trees and dirt which imply the idea of outdoors, like the open air theatres.
Three moments that show the intended dramatic intention:
Moment one: When Chris returns from the drive he went on he walks through the glass doors and sees Annie and Issy inside the house. After telling Issy to go upside the two remaining characters stare at one another in silence, which creates a large amount of tension unaware what Chris will do. following this Annie moves towards Chris and clutches the earn in his hands. following this there is a long pause where both actors have their hands on the earn, during this pause Annie stares at Chris and Chris looks aimlessly out into the audience. This shows the pairs conflicting feelings about Adams death. Chris wants to move on, Annie doesn't, this indicates the dramatic intention of grief as it indicates how the pair deal differently with the emotion.
Moment two: at the start of the play we see the relationship (lack of) between Issy and Erica, Chris' wife. in the start of the play we see Erica confront Issy about eating the last of the cereal, Erica comes across as very passive aggressive in this scene as she says " Next time you finish the cereal, can you let me know? that way I can buy some more for the rest of us" this indicates that there is and awkward relationship between the pair as it is one of the few times the pair actually look at each other and talk. this indicates the second main theme of relationships and how they develop throughout the play.
Moment three: at the height of tensions in the play when Chris and Annie are down stairs alone, we see the true nature of the pairs Incestoral relationship where they join in an extended kissing scene. this shows the development of the pairs true relationship. the intense feeling of disgust created during this scene gives a indicator of grief, as the pair have developed this strange relationship from the suicide of Adam.
Developing relationships:
The main relationship we see develop over the course of the play is between Annie and Chris, at the start of the play there is a lot of awkwardness and tension between the two, Chris is very aggressive to Annie and appears to truly dislike her, this is contrasting to what we see later in the play when Chris and Annie's true relationship is uncovered. During the kissing scene, the actor of Chris (Tobias Menzies) stands downstage right with a red towel over his head, which indicates his childish mindset and how he feels embarrassed pf his relationship with Annie. Emma D'arcy stands downstage centre staring directly at the actor of Chris intently.
Two Performers Key moments:
Issy's breakdown - towards the end of the play as Issy discovers the relationship between Annie and Chris she stares toward the actor of Annie with her fists clenched and her body tightened to indicate the tension from the anger, she stares at the other actor with her mouth gaped open and eyes open wide to represent her shock following this she screams at the actor of Annie "He's my daddy too" she uses a high pitched voice and puts an emphasis on the "too" to indicate how she really feels about Annie.
Annie's entrance - near the start of the play we first see Annie arrive, the actor enters with her back slightly hunched with a very neutral expression other than her eyes which are opened wide. throughout the initial moments of the scene we see Annie say very little and when she just talks she either says very blunt one word answers such as "yes" or "no" or she mentions very random things such as "does anybody want an apple" in an attempt to change the subject of conversation. whenever we heard Annie speak it was very monotone and blunt for her to appear different, like and outcast, in comparison to the rest of the family.
need to talk about skills.
what meaning did i get from the characters.
what is the total dramatic effectiveness.
