DV8 Physical Theatre

The film, over all, was quite strange; this perhaps because the characters in the movie are portrayed as weird, and not normal. The way the characters are built and the way the whole story is told is extremely effective and powerful. The use of movement in reaction to the movement of some one, the way a character moves, gestures and their facial expressions, build up the relationship of the people, and also, in the case of the party scene, you could see that it was party by the way people were standing close to each other, leaning slightly towards each other, the way that people stand in groups at parties. The whole idea, as this example demonstrates is to imitate or create movements, gestures, expressions, and relationships that people attach a specific significance to. This is done in hundreds of different body movements, touch, foot movement, movement of head, position of head, body, arms, eyes, expressions, hand gestures, movement of mouth`, position of limbs. These movements then signify a reaction to something, a relationship, and position compared to the other characters. Another tool that is used is timing; the time and location of the movement develop the meaning of the movement. If someone does something while someone else is doing it next to them, or after they have done it far away from them affects the way that the audience feels and thinks about the movement. Also, if a character runs away at a time another character is approaching, and then it shows that the first character is running away from the one coming towards them. Of course, the tempo and flow of the movement help give it more meaning; They also used props and costumes quite cleverly to indicate the character’s personality (in the case of cloths, Nigel is not dressed the same as the others) or the setting (in the case of props). Props were also used to help out the physical movements. Often there weren’t a lot of props, may be to allow for movement, but maybe to create an atmosphere or to recreate a place that people can relate to.