S P E A K
A rule based piece that used idioms to ask the following questions:
Who gets to speak?
What is the power of the speaker and how is it seized ?
By random forces or orchestrated ones?
What are the interpersonal and political dynamics of relationships that determine who takes the platform and who remains silent?
When we speak, how can we be sure that the meaning we intend is faithfully transmitted?
What if it is controlled or distorted by others?
WHY DOES IT MATTER WHO SPEAKS OR WHAT IS SAID IF NO ONE CHOOSES TO LISTEN?
Gift of the gab.
Butt into conversation.
Talking to a brick wall.
Chewing my ear off.
It’s all Greek to me.
Can’t get a word in edgeways.
Don’t put words in my mouth.
Using these widely familiar phrases, Madeline Oslejsek and the other members of Pendulum Theatre Company, formed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, created a piece that aimed to interrogate the codes of conversation that can be found in everyday interactions using an amalgam of devised text and movement.
Drawing from elements of Augusto Boal’s ‘forum theatre’, the group encouraged audience participation by giving them cards at the top of the performance which enabled each person to interrupt the performance at any point.