With reference to one of the first three periods of The Performer in Context (Modern, Melodramatic, Shakespearean), choose one text/performance piece other than a lecture set-text and discuss the challenges with which the contemporary performer was faced
...r would have found little problem in the portrayal of character and plot despite the language being more complex than perhaps the audience was used to. In ‘The Colleen Bawn’ , unlike some of the plays written in the nineteenth century, there is a lot of clever verbal humour, Boucicault’s main interest lay in comic characters and verse and this was an aid to his actors as there were few trite phrases and the use of language is extremely clever. For example, Eily O’Conner has a thick Irish accent, where as Hardress Cregan has an Anglo-Irish feel to his character (this was a particular favourite device of Boucicault’s as in many English dramas it was the Irish who were ridiculed- such as Sir Lucius O’Trigger in ‘The Rivals’), however even Anne Chute, who is supposedly an equal of Hardress’s says ‘When I am angry the brogue comes out, and my Irish heart will burst through manners, and graces, and twenty stay laces.’. As there was no formal actor training at this time, and the actors learnt on the job the most difficult part of their job would have been the formalised gestures which accompanied each character and emotion. However towards the end of the melodramatic period actor’s handbooks started being written mostly by the actors themselves. They were not for professional actors but lessons for amateurs and ordinary people in how to carry themselves and how to express emotion. In Hugh Campbell’s ‘Voice, Speech and Gesture,’ for example, he describes and illustrates: the everyday gestures (through the use of the ‘Colloquial Radius’ ) for which the arms would not reach above the shoulder, which contrasts with the ‘Epic Radius’ (larger than life gestures) for which the arms would reach above the head, often implying madness. ‘Colloquial Radius’ may have been used for a character such as Anne Chute, where as ‘Epic Radius’ could apply to a character such as Danny Mann when in Act III, scene one, he is hallucinating Hardress after he wakes having been shot by Myles. It would have been a challenge to the performers to learn these gestures although ultimately it would aid them in their communication of emotions to the audience. Another aspect of the melodramatic genre that would have aided the performers in their communication with the audience was the existence of stock-type characters. This was present in Victorian drama even more so that in the Restoration period where stock-types had mainly been used for comic purposes. The use of costumes and suitable music would have portrayed for example a villain such as Corrigan from the outset and the audience would have known that he was the character that had been, or would be, causing trouble. Another stock type was the ‘moral’ character who would engage yet another plain of gesture: the ‘Rhetorical Radius’ or ‘moral plain’. These gestures would be expressed of a horizontal radius level with the shoulder. An example of one of these gestures is shown in Gustav Garcia’s ‘The Actor’s Art’ where fig. 47 shows the moral character (Father Tom in ‘The Colleen Bawn’) pointing with the quote “Take heed, my boy; I warn you, take good heed.” The audience would recognise and appreciate characters like this and this, combined with the music and costume would aid the performer in his representation of the character and to a certain extent, the plot, to the audience. In melodrama the distinction between the forces of good and evil are black and white, there is no grey area and almost always good wins in the end. This is illustrated in ‘The Colleen Bawn’ as Corrigan does not get to marry Mrs Cregan Anne Chute gets to marry Kyrle Daly whilst Eily O’Conner and Hardress Cregan stay married. The virtuous Eily O’Conner is not killed by Danny Mann and both Danny and Myles confess to their sins. As one of the distinguishing features of melodramatic theatre is the music that supported the action it is important to acknowledge the musician(s) who were as important as the actors. In the Victorian period theatres had facilities for live music. Some of the richer theatres had in-house composers and musical directors whilst others had a piano and a pianist. Quite often the pianist was asked to improvise around a few bars of scribed melody. For example in ‘The Colleen Bawn’ there are several melodies jotted at the back of the script which were probably taken down from those played in the first performance although they may have been existing Irish Folk songs, or at least been based on them. When Eily sings ‘Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow’ the mood that would come across should be that of longing, as if she’s trying to be cheerful about her relationship with Hardress but can’t quite muster the joy because of the seemingly hopeless situation that they are. The key has a hint of the minor but like all the songs that are printed in the script has a distinctly Irish feel to it, through the use of the pentatonic scale. The second half of each verse incorporates dotted rhythms in contrast to the first half which is in straight crochets. A dotted rhythm would inspire a lighter more carefree mood. This combined with the words shows Eily’s struggle with her own emotions in trying to stay positive. Eily is the girl in the song as the words mention her lack of ‘manner’ and ‘graces’, and how she has devoted herself to him although she feels she is not worthy. This mirrors her relationship with Hard...