☆☆☆☆☆
Things I know
to be true is a fragile piece of art created by Andrew Bovell, an artist. He
carefully manipulates a story line which moves each and everyone in the room to
tears by drawing on their internal conflicts and pinning them into a scenario,
which you can almost touch, right in front of your eyes. It seethes into your
brain and makes you realise that your love has gone to waste. It nurtures both
the young and the old on the maze in which the future has waiting for you;
finally it takes you from that lonely place inside yourself where you question
how the mechanics of your family work and whether you're ‘doing it right’ as a
parent- or even as a son or daughter. It gives comfort to the bereaved as you
watch a play reveal your deepest, darkest secrets and all the losses which you
can no longer replace in your life. It teaches you the acceptance needed to let
things go, to move on and evolve. It’s almost as if you're watching yourself
through somebody else's eyes which, in response,widens your perspective and
assures you of your existence.
⧫"Now I am a Mother. And I'm losing something that I don't want to lose. That boy. The one we raised.Your Father and me. That man. What happens to him? Do we even get to say goodbye?"⧫
Frantic Assembly's beautiful physicality,which has been co-directed by Frantic Assembly's Tony and Olivier Award nominated Artistic
Director Scott Graham and State Theatre Company's Artistic Director Geordie
Brookman,have created this genuinely stunning production that grapples at the mundane, internal conflicts of the average family relationship.
During the performance the lighting was effective to engage
the audience further with the performance. The appearance of light bulbs
hanging over the stage continuously, I feel, represented great deal. I felt
they worked well for many reasons. They dimmed at night and grew brighter in
the morning to firstly represent the change in time to make the play seem more
realistic; thus connecting the events of the play with the audience further.
Furthermore, during negative situations such as the fight between the parents
and siblings, in the second half, some of the light bulbs flickered off and the
others gradually dimmed. This suggests this negativity and loss of love between
them; thus linking to the loss of light. In addition, the spot light, or the
parkan’s light, which was both strong and white, isolated Bob on his own in the
opening and closing scene. It occurred twice in the performance at both the
beginning and end and resembled the fact that Bob was now alone and exposed on
his own without his wife, Fran. The foreshadowing used by using the same scene
at the beginning and end gave the audience a thread to follow throughout the
performance. We were all on the edge of our seats waiting to discover the
question which we were hooked on from the beginning: which one of his children
were in trouble? The fact the answer was, none; and that, in fact, it was his
wife is symbolic of the twists and turns which life entails. It connotes how we cannot expect anything or
prepare for anything. It also conveys
the shock as if his brain is being washed of all thought as he is struck by the
event of his wife’s death. It comes alongside a freeze-frame where Bob is elevated
forwards in the air- which in cohesion resembles how shocked he is by this
event. It made me feel breathlessly hooked and utterly perplexed.
The audience configuration impacted the performance by emphasising
the moral message further. The audience was end- on which distanced us, as the
audience, from the actors and made us realise that this was a play. It was 80%
naturalistic which conveys the relevance of the play’s message to the relevance
of our lives. It was however a play which contained non-naturalistic elements
i.e. the physical theatre that frantic assembly bring in the transitions and symbolic
movement which awe- struck the audience, engaging them and making the play more
memorable which helps them take home the message of the play; thus achieving
the same aim that the 80% of naturalism gives. This makes the play a success
all around due to the different ways in which the same aim is brought forth. They
spoke forward, out to us, and broke the fourth wall during the monologues to
make us feel involved in their stories; thus, making us feel more emotion when
their stories came to an end or there was a particular negative affect that
happens in their lives that happened to us. E.G, Rosie and Pips monologues
where they open up on Rosie’s loss of love and Pip’s negative; almost abusive
relationship with her mother. However, they then switch back to talking inwardly;
away from the audience. This makes us aware that although they are connecting
us with their inner thoughts, that it is a play, that is teaching us a morale
message to input into our lives rather than this play being real life
currently.
⧫"What makes a woman cry like that? A mother. My mother. I didn't understand and I didn't have the courage to ask her. Now, that I am a woman, married with children of my own I don't need to, I know exactly why a woman bashes her head against the trunk of a tree."⧫
At the beginning the actor’s voices echo through the
theatre through a pre-recorded recording. This element of sound heightens the
high level of this performance. This recording is spoken as the Dad, Bob, is
elevated after the phone ring. They announce the thought he had which was that
his child was dead. This resembles the fact that his children are now distant
from him. They’re not present any longer; they are just there in memory; in his
thoughts. This foreshadows the fact that they grow apart from their parents.
Or, the idea that one of them has been hurt or in trouble; thus one of them is
far away in danger and not close to the fathers embrace and therefore safety.
However, at the end they say the same things but they are present which
connotes how they will come back when he needs it and after the phone call
connoting the news of his wives death, although his children are far away, they
will be there in body when he needs them to be. The loud noise of the telephone
ring, at the beginning also, echoes to represent a negative thing happening. It
occurs at the beginning and the end as the phone rings with news of his wife’s
death. It is loud and poignant which is symbolic of the panic echoing in Bob’s
ears as he goes to answer it. It is also symbolic of the characters internal
conflict with children to parents and the fact that it stops when he answers
and the news is told, connotes how all the children forget about the conflicts
they have with their parents once this news is out due to them realising that
they need to support their Dad and mourn their Mother regardless of their past
issues with each other.
The song ‘ambré’ by Heils Frahm, is also another element of
sound which adds to the atmosphere of the play. It is used when the parents, Fran
and Bob, dance on their anniversary night. The colour of ‘ambré’ is homely and
warm which connotes how they will always provide a home for their children to
come back to no matter what arguments have endued previously. It connotes love,
happiness and warmth which infer security. This conveys Fran’s internal
conflicts of staying with Bob for his security rather that his love for her. It
also has no voice, it is coupled by silence which makes it more poignant and
connotes their true intimacy and the deep down love that they do share
somewhere. It could however, connote the sadness that this intimacy is short
lived and that it is not shared by Fran as much and by Bob. It makes the
audience feel emotional through the slow pace of the song which makes us
reflect ourselves.
⧫"I know that summer turns into autumn and that autumn becomes winter and that winter turns into spring and spring back to summer. And it goes on. Life. It goes on."⧫
The next character named, Pip, is visibly calm yet her
voice is panicked which is conveyed through the high pitch of it and how
quickly she talks. This conveys how she cares a lot about how she presents
herself. This links to the fact that she felt judgement from her mother since
she was little and the pressures of being beautiful, smart, and clever and
well- presented that she gained from her ‘oppressive’ mother. Her positioning
is constantly of a stiff nature which exaggerates her orderly fashion and her
constant acknowledgement of herself and how she is conveyed on the outside to
others. This is also suggestive of her affair, or relationship with the man at
her work, as she is caring about her outward self to entice him rather than her
inward self which is her personality and who she is as a human being. Pip is
always at a distance to Fran, when they talk the6y are often far apart, one at
stage left and the other at stage right. This conveys their emotional distance
from each other and foreshadows the physical difference of Pip leaving her
children, husband, mother and family as well as her mother’s distance from her
physically at the end due to her unfortunate death. Except, during Fran’s reading of the letter
Pip sent; in this instance Pip sits beside her mother- across the table and
speaks the letter as her mother reads it. This connotes how she is closer to
her mother when far away than when they are close. Pip also passes a full glass
of wine across the table which her mother then takes and the mother pushes an
empty one to her daughter which conveys the circles of drinking that they are
both doing and the idea that they actually have more in common than they
thought due to the drinking habits being a habit for both of them, as it
originated from the mother and is being passed on to the daughter.
Costume is important in the performance due to it conveying
important characteristics, themes and moods. Pip wears professional clothing at
all times to convey her work commitments which are ironic as we later realise
that those work commitments were actually a love affair. This conveys how she
hides a lot; as she hides through her professional exterior. It gives her a
stern look which makes her seem as if she has a hard shell which we see later
is not the case as she breaks down in argument with her mother and her
childhood and later at her mother’s death. Fran wears her nurse uniform the
whole way through to connote that she is motherly, constantly busy doing her
work and caring for the family. Her hair is usually tied to also connote this
but she has her bangs out to connote the slight mess and fluster that she is
always in. It also foreshadows her death being of the cause of work, as she
dies in a car incident on her way back from a night shift, due to thinking
about her morosely negative shift. Rosie
wears a dress with flowers to convey her innocence. Bob wears lounge wear,
casual and relaxed to convey the opinion of Fran that he is lazy and good for
nothing. Yet, this is ironic as he is very intellectual and helps out with his
children more passionately than Fran in most cases such as Pip and Mark/Mia. Mark
wears smart/casual and changes to women’s clothing when he turns into Mia due
to being transgender. This change of clothes blatantly informs the audience of
his sex change. He switches his shirt after he got wet in the rain, before
telling his parents that he is a transgender woman. This could connote the
change in his life which I about to occur in both his sex change and his now
disastrous relationship with his mother as she does not accept him. Ben wears
work clothes to connote his dedication to his job which is ironic as he is in
the process of illegal skimming which conveys how he is not professional at
all, or dedicated, and yet instead is just a criminal. In addition, it links to
how he wants to be presented as rich and wealthy in front of his friends as
that attire connotes wealth due to it inferring a businessman-type job.
The props in this performance are minimal, yet also
effective. The set is determined by props and lighting, not heavy set. Rose’s in
the family garden resembles the love of the family which is shielded with
arguments, hate, negativity and loss; this runs throughout the play. There is a
point where Fran, the Mother is clasping onto a bundle made from a blanket
which Pip previously wrapped herself within. The blanket Fran’s clasping like a
baby that’s being tugged away to convey how her children are growing up and
that she is losing them. The leaf blower, which in some scenes occupies Bob, connotes
his power and drive to make things neater and tidier; i.e. his family as he
tries to talk to and be there for Pip and Mark/Mia when Fran is not. Lastly, the
box Mia packs Marks things which meat much when he was in a man’s body but will
not any longer once he has transitioned conveys the disposable nature of love as
his Mother didn’t accept him as Mia. In addition, the shedding of his old life
to accommodate his new one, the distance he wants from his old life in a man’s
body. Finally, it conveys the fragility of life as he is about to embark on a
new life in which he will feel more happiness.
⧫ "I am standing on the highway. I don't know whether to turn back or to keep on going. I'm somewhere between who I was and who I'm going to be."⧫
Unfortunately, there were a few negative which I picked up
upon. The characters of Mark and Ben were not explored as thoroughly as the
female characters of Pip and Rosie, and the parents Fran and Bob. This made us
feel distant from them; thus, more connected to the other two characters. I was
left feeling hungry for more information on their loves and the outcomes of the
events which unfold for them. In addition, although the expressionism of hands
wrapping around Rosie’s body, and at other moments in the play, were effective
and enticing giving the scene a darker and more metaphorical mood, it also
distracted from other elements of the acting such as her facial expressions,
body, voice and movement. Furthermore, the play came to an abrupt end. I was
fully submerged in their lives when suddenly it ended with Fran’s fatality. I
felt as if someone had paused the performance and fast-forwarded to the end as
if they were an impatient page- flicker, turning to the final pages of a novel
to have a sneak peek at the ending. However, you could say this was symbolism
of the idea that your life can come crashing down right in front of your eyes
when you don’t expect it.
Conclusively, this moving masterpiece, full of magnificent
colour, councils even the most omnipotent of beings as it uncovers their
undisclosed desires and fragments of their selves that they would ordinarily
prefer to keep behind closed doors. Everyone should go to see ‘Things I know to
be true’ for its strategically placed sorrow and harrowing honesty.
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