In scene one Antigone meets Ismene to tell her the plan to bury her brothers body despite the decree given by Creon. Antigone is being forceful where as Ismene is expressing her doubts. The scene is full of emotion between the sisters.
At the start of the process Ella and I began devising and blocking together, reading lines and finding out the shape of the scene. We showed this to Lauren who then gave us pointers. Initially she said she liked what we had been working on. At this stage we weren’t too worried about getting the smaller details in the scene, we were just sketching in the general shape of things.
Lauren particularly liked the way we delivered our lines to each other. She felt the emotional intent was right. As it was the first time we were working in the round she helped us to make better use of this such as creating more space between ourselves and moving around a bit more.
As the rehearsal period moved on we started to look at more detail in this scene. This also was the time that we were getting more off script and so we could take more direction when it came to details such as more physical connections with each other and more details in the stage directions.
Instead of Antigone just coming on and starting talking Lauren suggested that Antigone came on, acknowledged Ismene, went to the back of the stage and paid the soldier to leave. As the rehearsal process moved on this stage direction developed again. We changed it to having 2 soldiers and paid them both to leave, however, one stayed and hid to listen and evesdrop on the conversation. The audience can see this and so it creates more tension. The audience know something that the lead characters don’t.
We added in the stage direction on the line, ” but there’s more to come”, Antigone sits me down which creates more interesting physical levels. When I then stand up on the line, ” both our brothers are dead” it then adds emphasis and power to what I say.
On the line, “What is it then” we create a better dynamic with me moving towards Antigone for me to try and get the information out of her. I act quite worried and confused.
This scetion has a long spoken part for Antigone so a lot of what I need to do during this scene is react. I have a lot of momenets where she is speaking and I am clearly taking it all in a processing it and reacting. My movements are smaller for this, lots of facial expression without large gestures.
There is one line ” What a great King our Creon is”. She then grabs me and forces me to look up at Creon on the video screens. This is a dramatic moment and very physical. This is also the first time the audience learn that this head is Creon the King.
As this section developed over time we added some more layers. Towards the end of the section from the line “So that’s the news” Lauren suggested that I start to try and speak or interrupt Antigone because I am getting angered by what Antigone is saying. Antigone has also physically taken me in here by grabbing my hands and pulling me to herself. This then builds tension so that when she stops speaking and I say the ” wait a minute Antigone” it bursts out with energy and I physically break away from her at this stage. This movement direction from Lauren shows a deeper side to my character. It shows that although Ismene is gentle and quite quiet that she has inner power and stands up for what she believes.
I don’t know at this stage that Antigone is planning to bury the body of her brother. It dawns on me now and gives me a reaction of disgust towards my sister. At first in the rehearsals I tried this mostly with voice and then as the piece developed I added a larger physical action of stepping away backwards involving more space across the stage.
This physical stepping backwards led to a good development spacially. As our rehearsals developed and we got nearer to the piece being finished we added, on the line,”in spite of the decree” that my moving backwards meant that I then could notice the hiding soldier fleeing to tell Creon of the plan. I go after the soldier shouting for them to stop and wait. This all works very fluidly now. Again, this adds dramatic tension because Antigone and Ismene now know that their plan is no longer a secret.
I really enjoy delivering this speech because this is the point that I think I can really get into the quiet power of Ismene. I am trying to convince Antigone that her plan is not a good idea. It’s quite a complex speech to deliver because I am trying to show two opposing things at the same time; my anger and opposition to her plan but also my sisterly love for her at the same time. For example; on the line, “We are the last ones left sister” I plead with her in my voice but I also move towards her, grasp her hands and try to emotionally get through to her.
I see that the climax/ high point of this scene is the end of this speech when Antigone starts to cut in and over my speech and we are crossing over in a dynamic fashion. This is showing the height of our disagreement and conflict. Me and Ella worked hard on finding a way for this layering of our speeches to not just feel mechanical and preplanned in a dry way but instead still feel ‘real’, such as genuinly responding to what the other person was saying whilst delivering another line. Ella and I feel that we have achieved this quite well. Also, what is inetersting is that we discovered, as we developed this scene, that the power of the vopices means that we can physically stand at quite a distance from each other which is working well for the ‘in the round’ setting.
I have had feedback from Lauren about my use of voice in this emotional scene which is to keep in the lower register. I can see how easily I can slip into a high voice which takes away power from the words. I know this is all to do with experience and I am definately improving and remembering to stay low. It’s a challenge that I am keeping going with. Ella has achieved this really well and hearing her reminds me to do the same.
In this final scene Ella and I really try to add in physical connections, for example, when Antigone says,” I’ll go shovel the earth on my brother’s body”, she shoves past me and then I grab her arm to stop her as I say, “I’m frightened Antigone. I’m frightened for you.” In response to me physically stopping her she gets really angry and starts to shout her next line,” Don’t be frightened for me. Fear for yourself”. She tries to break away and I grab her even more. I take physical control of her and put my hand over her mouth. I really like this physicality in this scene and I think we work well together. I realise that my performance needs to be strong enough to allow Ella to really explode emotionally. I am being her anchor ion this way. I know that if I were not strong enough physically and emotionally then her strong reaction would look over the top and not be believed.
After the ‘violence’ of that scene between us then the emotion drops with a huge moment of change. There is a pause where everyone, including the audience, is in a moment of suspense and absorbing what has just happened. In the long pause I pick up my coat and Ismene looks across to Antigone, knowing there is nothing more she can say or do to change her mind. My emotion at this point is to be resigned to the situation. I say my last strong lines not with high emotion but with disappointment,” If you’ve made your mind up…Antigone it’s madness…just remember I love you…whatever happens.” I turn and leave without looking back. I see this moment as the emotional heart of my character of Ismene. She is in total disagreement with Antigone’s plan, she is afraid and angry but still she is loving towards her sister and shows loyalty.
The feedback particularly talks about spacing between me and Ella and how we move around the stage in dynamic lines..
Rosa Copley 