Drama Evaluation †Curious Incident Essay

By using the hot seating and role play work to the best of my advantage, I discovered that Siobhan, my character, feels very strongly about Chris and she cares deeply about him because at the beginning, when being asked if she knew him well, Siobhan continuously repeated ‘oh yes, he’s a lovely boy’. The constant repetition also suggested to me that she feels quite protective over him. Her motivation of sticking up for Chris hitting a police officer seems self-explanatory after realising how deeply she cares for him, as I have explained above. She seemed adamant on getting the fact that Chris wouldn’t have done it with bad intentions because she just doesn’t like to be touched. I expect the reason why she feels so close to Chris is because in some ways, she is the closest Chris has to a mum. She also told the police officer about Chris’ family situations because I interpreted her as a worrier. It was brought to my attention how much Siobhan fears about Chris’ future because when answering the police officer’s question of ‘Do you worry what will happen to Chris? , she said ‘yes because whilst he’s at an already mature age, he still doesn’t understand many things that are so simple yet are so confusing to him due to his Asperger’s syndrome’. I found that Siobhan has an optimistic personality because she kept on stating clearly with confidence ‘Chris will be fine’. This obviously suggests that she hopes for the best for Chris. She also cam e across as the complete opposite of Chris as she is bubbly, likes a joke and is very chatty whereas I am aware that Chris does not simply like to chat. The hot seating and role play work proved to me that Siobhan faces the dilemma of knowing that she should let Chris figure out things for himself but she feels so strongly with care for him that she feels bad for even thinking about leaving him to it and only guiding him when absolutely necessary. Using explorative strategies helped me by giving me an insight into how Siobhan won’t get on with someone if they are negative towards Chris. This happened in my role-play when the police officer said ‘He’s obviously a very stupid boy for doing what he did’. Siobhan replied with a nasty tone, called the police officer ‘stupid’ as well and became less responsive to what she was like at the beginning. Maybe her defensiveness is too strong sometimes†¦ Both strategies put together definitely changed my view on the theme of disability because now, I feel prejudice can be a key factor in how disabled people are treated. The strategies made it clear that because of Chris’ problem, people act differently. It’s why Siobhan cares so much and a reason for why Ed feels so stressed. Loyalty seems important too because Siobhan stood up for Chris even though he did do something bad and Ed was betrayed by his wife. I know the betrayal took its toll on Ed because my partner’s role play included him talking about it and revealed how crushed he was by it. From the still image work, I have learnt that Ed, Katy’s character, feels immense pressure on him due to the hardship of caring for a boy with special needs without having the reliance of a wife. I know this because of one non-naturalistic still image we created. It portrayed the rest of the group and I standing on chairs so we were taller than Ed and pushing down on him with our hands. By doing this, it helped me understand how Ed feels under massive amounts of pressure and stress to care for Chris, to cope without a wife and to have to live with the fact that he killed Wellington. In another still image, Ed was seen scrunched up into a corner and this infers to the audience that he feels alone and may feel that he doesn’t have anyone to go to talk about his struggles with, especially now that he and Mrs. Shears are not on talking terms. The still image containing the police officer pointing at Chris with a stern expression was effective in explaining how frustrated he was with Chris. Whilst the police officer was pointing at Chris, Chris showed an expression of confusion which is visually powerful because it proves that Chris didn’t mean any harm and that, in certain terms, he is innocent. My group and I chose to create multiple pieces of thought tracking for particular powerful moments to express how characters really felt at that stage in the story. I noticed that at some points, a character’s facial expression didn’t match their real thoughts. For example, Siobhan before the thought tracking showed pity for Chris yet when she spoke, she expressed anger towards Ed. I feel that the strategy gave me an insight into how Siobhan really disagreed with the choices Ed made regarding Chris. During our section, when Ed tells Chris a lie about his mum being in hospital, I am now aware of how that lie may badly affect Chris later on and how it may not have been the best decision. The thought tracking definitely change my feelings about Ed because beforehand, I didn’t think he was that unsure of himself. I had always got the impression that he knew he was in control, due to the numerous times he shouted at Chris and told him what to do. It also provided me with new-found sympathy for Siobhan because even though she seems to know what is best for Chris, she hasn’t got the confidence to tell Ed. As a result of our exploration, I feel that I can empathize with Chris more because when he did his thought tracking, he focused on how he didn’t understand what his dad was saying. Sometimes I don’t get what adults say and as much as I try to tell them what I don’t understand, sometimes they don’t get it because what may be so simple to them isn’t so simple to someone younger. When we staged our section, although our transitions were slightly limited, I feel we made up for it in the use of physical theatre because there was never one time that any of my group didn’t have a part. For instance, when performing the scene where Chris comes home from school, Katy took the part of a flower pot which actually helped and made sense to our section; Chris had to retrieve the secret key, and using Katy as the flower pot added to the feeling that even when Chris was alone he felt like he was being watched. When I was speaking about how Chris had to figure out who ‘had done it’ by doing detecting, as a group, we mimed the actions to what I was saying in unison to make it look more visually interesting and to show how seriously Chris was taking it. I feel that we used levels particularly well when acting out the police station scene because Peggy, the police officer, stood tall, confident and intimidating, towering over Chris to increase her superiority. This made her come across as a confident authority figure that was in her most comfortable environment whereas Chris was not. I portrayed my role as Siobhan by becoming more facially anxious with frowns and tension etched on my forehead yet bubbly when speaking. When Chris came home from school, I spoke faster and moved around quicker, too, to suggest she is a lively, but rather agitated person. However, I made sure that I was always fiddling with my thumbs to tell the audience that beneath her excitement, there was a subtext of uncertainty. I feel that out of all the characters in my section, I empathised most with Chris most due to the reason that I have mentioned above. Also, mainly because he is the closest to my age so even though I do not have his problem, I can relate to how he thinks a little bit. The play as a whole made me appreciate the hardship of parenting regardless of whether you have a child with a disability or not. I have also learnt that in the play, trust is what people want yet very rarely get. For instance, Ed didn’t tell Chris the truth about his mum when he does have a right to know. Out of all the people, I feel Ed should have been there for Chris to show trust and loyalty during the hardest times.