The Jungle Evaluation

On Wednesday 14th October, we performed the final production of The Jungle, which when evaluating now, I will argue was a successful performance and this was as a result of the criticism I received and the alternative interpretations we explored in the rehearsal stage. 

Firstly, a strength of mine in The Jungle was my characterisation, staying in the role and alarming the audience. I will argue that I played the role of human trafficker convincingly, and when I instructed the audience into the back of a hypothetical truck convinced they were refugees, I played this convincingly. Therefore, the immersion style of theatre we used in The Jungle with the audience participation I believe worked effectively as a theatre technique, the effect of having audience participation was it demolished the ideology audience members would have that the tragedy of these peoples lives was unrelated to their own lives and not worth thinking about that would have occurred if the audience viewed the Jungle as a conventional performance where they'd sit and observe. The forced immersion the audience had when they were instructed by my character of the human trafficker destroys this barrier and allows the purpose of the performance (which was to address the lives of refugees and the misery of life in The Jungle whilst it was constructed.) to increase in effect. 

Additionally, my use of voice I believe was effective also, with my shift in tones being a key tool in my overall performance and the audience's intended opinion of me. Whilst performing, my intention as a character was to spark fear in the audience, the purpose of this is to address the cruelty of human trafficking and a link to the truly deplorable conditions refugees would face whilst being illegally transported into Britain. I achieved this through voice, via my direct imperatives to the audience and instructing them to sit down, especially towards the end when I bellowed "SIT DOWN!" which caused all audience members to sit down looking scared. The effect of shouting rather than saying that line was it caused an increased level of fear in the audience and helped establish characterisation as I later received information from the audience members they believed I was my role, and not myself. What's more, other acting techniques also assisted me in my role as a human trafficker, such as facial expressions, for which I majorly kept a violent yet authoritative expression, this I decided to use as it established key context that human traffickers such as my role were only in this business for the money, and the use of facial expressions combined with voice established clearly that I did not care about the refugees. This assisted in the theatrical style intended for The Jungle which involves blunt realism and being an expose of the horrific conditions refugees faced in the refugee camp in Calais.

However, when reflecting on my weaknesses in the performance, I believe a skill that could be improved was with regards to my role as a refugee towards the side of the stage, this performance I felt needed more integrity than what I provided, with my movements and gestures being minimal and often copied repeatedly throughout the rest of the performance. Therefore, what I will take from this is I need to focus more on the power of facial expressions as this was my primary tool with my role as a refugee due to the limited movement I was permitted to use and the lack of voice. I also need to work on remembering to ensure the audience can see my face throughout my performance, as my face would often look at the performances that were occurring on stage, which was fine however if I was given the opportunity to do a re-run of The Jungle, I would make sure the audience could see my face whilst I was watching the performances, alongside attempt creative new movements that give off the impression of loneliness and poverty.

In conclusion, however, The Jungle I believe was a successful performance, and one that allowed me to explore new territory as an actor and broaden my understanding, not only of the refugee camp in Calais and human trafficking as a whole but how to use this expose style of theatre to use as a reference for future pieces of theatre which address social issues that will occur in the future.

The Jungle Character Profile

12/11/18

For our college's production of The Jungle, I have been tasked to play the role of a human trafficker, who will "greet" the audience and lead them into the theatre where the play will commence. Now, this is an especially challenging role so below is the preparation I have taken to ensure the role is played well and true.

To research human trafficking, I listened to a Ted Talk called "I was human trafficked for 10 years" and when listening to this talk, not only did I learn more about human trafficking and the logistics, but the tragedy human traffickers inflict on others and how they are to be perceived. I also watched a documentary called "The worst refugee camp in the world", this was more of research regarding how refugee camps functioned, and how it genuinely was for its inhabitants. I can use these two pieces of film to assist me in the role of my character as they both provide realistic facts regarding the concept of refugee camps and human trafficking for The Jungle, and assist me in my characterisation.

For example, when considering the role of human traffickers, I had to consider stereotypes associated with the role, which I learned are that human traffickers are cruel and care solely about profit, and are loathed by the majority of society. I then thought as to why this was, and agreed that a human trafficker as a person was one to be despised, but as with any role, you must find a way to understand why they are doing the actions they are doing, and attempt to understand them so the role you portray is genuine to the actual traffickers. Therefore, in lesson, Yolanda and I discussed how we could make the role of a human trafficker be more deep and complex, and even attempt to "humanise" the traffickers. We considered how it would be from the trafficker's perspective, which was difficult regarding how there was barely any material we could use online, however we did a characterisation activity where we created backstories, names and ages for our specific characters. The effect of this exercise was it allowed me to connect with the role, and giving myself an identity and story would allow me to play an actual  person and not just the role of "trafficker" on stage.

The role I gave myself was as followed:

Name: James True
Age: 31
Story: Fell in love with a refugee woman from Pakistan named Zehra who he married for a year and even had a child with her, until she bolted and took all of his money and memories without even telling him, taking the child too. Since then, his confusion and anger as to why Zehra would leave him unannounced and the loss of his daughter Aaliyah has accumulated to a prejudice against all refugees and joined the trafficking society to exact his cruelty on all refugees, whilst also secretly looking for Zehra and Aaliyah and ask why they left.

There is a reason to each of these specifics, for example the name James I gave myself as it is a name commonly associated with British culture, and as I wanted to play a British trafficker, the name worked. I decided to make myself 31 as it is an age that could warrant such a tragic event that happened to him, and at this age it would still be logical to assume he was not over it and hadn't yet found peace with Zehra. The backstory I gave myself I will use as a bedrock for all the emotions I will show, such as pain and rage, and in my opinion, knowing where this pain came from for my character makes the emotion I give more genuine and allows me to consider the levels as to which his anger and prejudice will seep out in the play.

For future rehearsals, I will practise playing the role with this newfound evidence and story and use voice, movement and characterisation to make the character of James as convincing and real as possible, and the challenge I have set myself is to make James human and complex, despite being employed in a truly detestable profession.