130,000 is a performance in which cast members play more than one part, this way of performing shows the diversity of the performers and also allows the audience to see different sides to each story. In the performance of 130,000 i am playing the roles of Clinton and Sarah, i am also delivering the Verbatim of Doreen Lawrence and Neville Lawrence.
Clinton
Within the performance of 130,000 i play the character Clinton. Clinton is a member of the gang, he is an outcast, he is the younger, ‘dim’ member of the gang of adolescents from London. Playing this character holds challenges within itself. Clinton and Perry are like a double act within 130,000. The dynamics of the gang members are shown through the double act between Clinton and Perry in comparison to the seriousness of Dwayne and Emile. Emile and Dwayne often put Clinton in his place, Dwayne belittles Clinton with sarcasm and anger, “no Clinton, really?” (WAKEUP theatre,2013, p.11). Clinton knows his insignificance to Dwayne and Emile but tries to fit in with them by trying to be funny.
The role of Clinton is played in a light hearted manner with comic elements and an excited attitude towards jokes made. This however changes once put in his place, he becomes awkward and scared when told what to do. Clinton knows he is not a massive member of the gang however this does not stop him trying to live up to Dwayne and Emile’s character.
In order to get inspiration for performing Clinton I first of all watched Fallout by Roy Williams in which 130,000 was based upon. Clinton’s character within Fallout is similar to how I portrayed Clinton. Within Fallout you see the relationship build with Perry and Clinton, you also see how much he fancies Shanice, for my performance of Clinton i tried to show this in a very obvious slapstick type of way. I stared at her in a stereotypical manner with my mouth open whilst slumped on a chair. I added the comical relationship with Perry similarly to how Jerome Holder played Clinton in Fallout. I also watched Kidulthood, this was a useful film to watch as they represent gangs and youths in London which helped with the characterisation of being in the gangs.
Another influence that i used to perform Clinton as realistically as possible was The fried Chicken shop which aired on Channel four on February, this programme helped me to see how youths in London acted in the chicken shop which was where as Clinton i spent my time. I took inspiration from how they sat and how loudly they would talk to each other in order to get attention.
In order to play the character of Clinton i found a partnership with Perry to be extremely significant, battling with the dark elements within the play to bring a lighter and comedic element within the performance.
Playing Clinton is extremely diverse to delivering the Verbatim theatre.
Verbatim
Delivering Verbatim holds many challenges, firstly performing it as real as possible is a significant challenge. As verbatim is real words performing it with meaning and integrity is very important. Within 130,000 I read Verbatim of both Doreen and Neville, mother and father to Stephen Lawrence.
Trying to perform and deliver a believable piece of Verbatim is extremely challenging, the emotion behind the words is difficult to deliver. With reading for both Stephen’s mother and father trying to establish the emotions that they would both feel is challenging.
The first piece of Verbatim I am delivering is Doreen Lawrence, this is delivered in court and she is telling them about the moment she saw Stephen in hospital, within the verbatim she states, “as for being stabbed, thats the last thing I expected, I never expected that” (130,000, p20, 2013). I find this challenging to read as trying to portray how she feels, trying to deliver how Doreen would have been feeling is upsetting and uncomfortable to think about, I wanted to portray her character with dignity and show how passionate she was about getting justice.
The second piece of Verbatim is from Stephen’s father Neville Lawrence, this is about when they were releasing his body. “they said they didn’t want to release his body until his killers had been caught” (WAKEUP theatre, 2013, p.65). This frustration and upset that Neville went through is something that I want to put across to the audience, I want to portray what he is saying in a real manner.
Going from playing Clinton’s upbeat and clown like character to reading Verbatim is very up and down emotionally.
Sarah and George
During scene four i play the character of Sarah, a middle classed mother and wife, in this scene you see the oblivious attitude towards knife crime from people, this is scene through the language within the scene, “people don’t get stabbed here” (!30,000, p.9, 2013). This statement that Sarah makes is bold and reflects the attitude that can be seen within society, a certain attitude is seen within the delivery of the scene within Sarah and Georges relationship, he is interested in what is happening within the country yet Sarah just see’s it as if it is not happening near her it is not important. Playing this character was difficult for me to grasp, i could not relate to her in the slightest. One of the largest struggles that i found was delivering lines with a true lack of interest into what was happening as at the beginning of the scene it is a piece of Verbatim that is delivered over a recording representing being played on a television. I struggled to disconnect myself from the words that i had heard. “They didn’t stop laughing-” (130,000, p.8, 2013), this is the point in the scene where i ‘change the channel over’ I found it difficult to act as though this was not something that upset me, knowing that the recording was the real words of Duwayne Brooks who was best friends with Stephen Lawrence was not a simple task.
However in order to overcome the obstacles that i felt as a person hearing the Verbatim i took myself away from that and removed my feelings from this. Too form a character i watched Gogglebox on Channel Four which was a programme in which it showed peoples reactions to the television that was shown. I centered my character on a upper middle class couple by mimicking their mannerisms, this allowed me to detach myself from the piece by focusing on the attributes that the couple had.
The relationship between Sarah and George also proved to have difficulties, in order to do this i set my self up with a scenario, were George and Sarah happy? how long had they been married?. Asking myself these questions allowed me to put myself in the situation and make it believable. Something that i found to make performing the scene difficult was the character that i played straight after the scene was a member of the gang and George played by Joshua Rivett was also my cousin in the gang, so to go from playing something so disheartening and uncaring to then playing the joker and youth with Joshua made the relationship between Sarah and George difficult to show.
Audience
To get in to character for 130,000 i see the audience as a large factor in this. Audience reaction towards the characters and Verbatim is extremely important and this allows them to cast their own opinion on who they feel for and who they do not, the play has dark and funny elements within it. This allowing the characters to thrive on this, when playing the role of Clinton this is seen as quite funny and immature in comparison to the serious element of delivering Verbatim.
Work Cited
WAKEUP theatre (2013) 130,000 an adaptation of Fallout by Roy Williams. Lincoln school of Performing parts. Lincoln