Overall I believe that me and my group achieved our goals in the final assessment. The performance was a suitable time frame, the overall message was clearly presented and character intentions were applied. For example I planned and practised my character (Ajax) to be more stubborn and angry at Achilles. However when practising with my group and listening to advice from my teachers and my peers, I realised that angry/stubborn role wasn’t suitable at times as Ajax is Achilles’s friend, so he is trying to help Achilles make the correct decision. Instead of being a angry character towards Achilles, I decided to be more sympathising to Achilles, however I still have small moments of anger towards Achilles as Achilles doesn’t listen to Ajax straight away.
Another area of the performance that was changed was the entering into the scene. In our rehearsals, I (Ajax) carried the dead body of Patroclus into the scene. This seemed like a good idea at first, however the sense of realism was non-existent when I carried the body. Discussing the problem with my group and drama teachers, we came to a conclusion that having Patroclus already on the scene was the best way to present all the characters first emotions.
As stated before, there were certain areas of our performance that lacked quality. This could be seen when the scene started and Achilles started to walk in slow motion before Phoenix and Ajax, poor synchronization . Also our intentions were to have Achilles and Ajax stare each other down once they reached Patroclus’s dead body. Ajax was meant to look angrily at Achilles and Achilles was meant to look mystifyingly and shockingly at Ajax. We did achieve some the staring down of Ajax and Achilles, however we did not hold the stare down for a long enough period of time. Therefore the power and tension that could have been achieved was not fully tapped in to.
I and my group thoroughly discussed how lighting could be used at the end of the scene. Brian Woolland has a stage direction at the end of the scene, which states that there is meant to be darkness after Achilles’s last words. In the final performance, the lights did turn off but it didn’t fade the way we intended it to do. This was due to human error. Even though the lighting aspect of the scene wasn’t to standard, I believed that we interpreted parts from the scene in the playwright’s intention. This can be seen when Ajax is seen to get progressively upset when Phoenix and Achilles are talking. Then suddenly Ajax loses control, takes off his shirt, and shouts at Achilles. Brian Woolland intended this particular aspect of the scene to present Ajax as getting progressively annoyed at Achilles.
React!