VERBATIM PRESENTATION PROJECT

 

“Deep Heat”, by Robin Soans

 

-December 18th 2014-

 

On 18th of December we had to present our Individual Project Proposal based on a book with the title “Deep Heat”, by Robin Soans. A 10 minutes presentation which had to be designed professionally, including important elements such as TIME, BUDGET, SPACE, RESOURCES.

 

 

It is a book of monologues which are either based on conversations that the writer had or overheard or are edited versions of interviews he had conducted in the course of his research for his plays.

The beauty of verbatim theatre lies upon true stories, which are able to expose how much more complex and fragile the human spirit is. They are the ‘truth’ of a testimony.

 

 

From this range of famous, infamous and unknown stories I chose two of them that I found more interesting to me. The story of Phyllis (unknown) a lady who is 68 years old, and the one with Margaret Cook (known) 50 years old. Those two ladies have differences and similarities. They come from different backgrounds. Phyllis lives in the street, she is old and drunk enough to find difficult to walk and stand straight. The only safe place for her is her memories from her childhood and how the ‘water look’ of the river calms her fears. Margaret on the other hand had everything. A comfortable house with a garden, a great job (consultant haematologist ),  a family, a famous husband (MP) known as a brilliant parliamentary debater…Her safe place is her garden that she can enjoy most of the day, her drawing hobby with water-colors and the memories of her cats.

 

 

When I was reading their stories I realized that both of them had the same fear. The fear of humiliation. Phyllis couldn’t tell Robin, Rob or Robbie, a young man who offers to walk her to her home, that she didn’t live anywhere really. She wanted to keep a good memory from this acquaintance. For him and for her. She didn’t want this man to feel sorry for her. She preferred to ‘tucked herself into a nook of the bridge, to hold her breath…waited there a minute and came back. She could just see him…Robin, Rob or Robbie…She didn’t want to disappoint him…could just see him’ . Margaret, also, had to deal with the fear of public humiliation due to his famous husband affair/s…She had to deal with a great disappointment in her personal life. She knew that her life had changed rapidly and now she had to deal with her loneliness ‘to which there didn’t seem to be an end…like pain from a limb she didn’t have.’

 

 

The Plot:

 

In Verbatim Theatre the main value is the truth. The truth around the story, the characters, the emotions and the thoughts that characters have. According to this value this physical theatre performance is focused on the emotions and the thoughts of an old lady. She is the main and the only character of the play. She is 70 years old alone in place that looks like a chamber, sitting on her favorite red velvet armchair. On her left there is a dark wooden old coffee table, on the table there is a diary and a tea porcelain cup with a silver spoon in it. Behind her chair there is a large mirror with an old frame. She is looking out of her window a reality that she knows that she can not be a part of it any more.

 

 

Under her feet there is water. Water surrounds her.

 

 

She is reading words in a random order only words and phrases from her past. She stops.She is trying to remember her young self and she is searching for the moment that she felt more alive than ever. She begins with the story of Margaret. When she was 50 years old and she had to deal with a fake reality, a fake husband, a fake marriage. Everything she thinks and says we can see them on the mirror, where videos and abstract lines and shapes are being projected. She stops and then again words in random order are coming out of her mouth. While she is doing that there are no projections on the mirror only her reflection. Her body is in shock and the movements are sharp and quick which creates waves and sounds to the water surface. She trows the chair in the water as a gesture of freedom from her fake reality. She stops again and she transforms as the 70 years old lady. At this crucial point she is trying to find the meaning of her life now. She remembers.

The Phyllis story is her present. It’s the moment that she felt so old and ugly in front of the eyes of a young man that could probably be the Robin that she loved and lost, but after she finishes the story she realizes that there is no point any more to feel this way…and finally she accepts herself as it is and she’s taking her clothes off and she disappears in the water. The water is the only element that in both stories is being used to describe how safe and calm and liberated they feel around it.

 

 

The following images are the Power Point Presentation, demonstrating the structure of the performance: