Critique

      This essay sets out to critically reflect upon the final performance of ‘Unplugged’, a physical theater performance I choreographed based on the layering process studied throughout the length of the course. The main focus of this critique is the character development, physicality, theatrical clarity and the choice of music. The concept of the piece is a development of the formative solo assessment I previously created earlier in the course investigating a recently discovered condition of a nomophobia. The topic explores the subject of mobile phones, primarily focusing on smartphones, nomophobia and the effects it has on individuals as well as social interactions between people.

      Nomophobia is a recently established term deriving from the combination of the words no, mobile and phobia. According to Tim Elmore (2014), it is a term describing ‘the fear of being without a mobile device, or beyond mobile phone contact’. He states that there is a growing percentage of people that text or tweet instead of actually talking to others. A study conducted in 2010 by the UK Post Office commissioned research organization YouGov, discovered that ‘nearly 53 percent of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage’ (Elmore, 2014).  According to Victoria McHugh (2013), physical symptoms of nomophobia can include 'panic attacks, shortness of breath, dizziness, trembling, sweating, accelerated heart rate, chest pain, or nausea’. As Madeleine Stone further explains, it could also result in not being able to focus on conversations and/or persistent checking for notifications (Stone, 2012, p.1).

      ‘Unplugged’ is a physical theatre piece aimed to examine the effects of nomophobia and how can they be translated into movement in a theatrical setting. It set out to provide the audience with a visual journey that provokes a deeper consideration of a social matter. Beneficial to stimulate the audience into getting further individual experience, the piece was created as a physical exploration rather than following a direct narrative plot.

The initial concept of nomophobia itself, provided a basic structure to the piece whilst specific physical effects of it, served as a stimulus for generating movement material. Therefore, it was very important to focus on the intention of the performance in terms of exploring emotional and physical symptoms and to ensure that it conveys the intensity of the emotional journey each character was undergoing. Creating the piece based on Four Basic States allowed to develop individual characters, distinctive enough to represent various types of people as well as establishing the physicality of the piece as a whole. Each character having different movement vocabulary clearly signified diverse personalities, they were embodying. It has also allowed a clear demonstration of their individual journeys within the piece, through different aspects of the effects of nomophobia. For example, in the opening section Richard’s character is moving very slow with a strong focus on his hand gesture which was indirectly symbolizing his attachment to texting. Embodying that relationship in a more abstract way was engaging and intriguing to watch signifying the importance of the gesture without revealing the meaning of it. In this way an audience member was instantly engaged and curious of what it actually symbolized. The speed, minimalistic movement and strong focus drew more importance to the character’s state of mind. As the piece progressed Richard’s movement quality was getting sharper gradually increasing the speed. It was clear that his character’s state of mind is growing and expanding resulting in much bigger movement towards the end.

Distinctiveness of each character has also been successfully complemented by the variety of costume styles. As a character, Richard, who was wearing a smart shirt and trousers, clearly symbolized a different social group than Christine who showed more of a casual, ‘hippie’ style of clothes.

     The development of each section could be sustained more as most of them did not progress enough and seemed slightly too long at times. Each scene was initially choreographed to theatrically as well as physically build up more what seemed to be lost in the final performance. The structure of the piece as a whole as well as individual scenes have been finalized to late into creative process putting a lot of pressure on the performers. Working with performers of less physical background has proven to progress much slower than anticipated therefore the final structure of the performance has been established in the final days before the show. Individual scenes required a lot of performance memory in order to achieve the build they needed. Due to the final formulation of the piece happening so late, performers did not feel confident with remembering all the required details. Although sections lacked of satisfying progress at times, performers seemed confident within their characters at all times not allowing potential uncertainty to show.

           

     The choice of music, an edited combination of musical pieces ‘A Political Sickness’, ‘The Raven’ both by Ryan Amon and ‘This is Our Legacy’ by Zack Hemsey worked well by adding an additional layer to the performance as a whole. Strong, intense soundtrack complemented and sustained the intensity of the piece. Already mentioned before, lack of progression of some scenes at times, contributed to the potential feeling of the music overpowering the staging at times. Yet again due to a very limited amount of time for the creation process, music was introduced relatively late similarly contributing to restricting the development of the final details of the piece.  Overall, the musical score complemented the tone of the piece and served as an added source of empowerment for the performers.  

     In conclusion ‘Unplugged’ resulted in being an interesting, powerful and thought-provoking performance. It sustained the intensity and challenging use of physicality pushing the performers to the limits of their abilities, throughout the length of the piece. Despite the lack of required build up in some scenes, it definitely has a potential to be developed as an even stronger socially- driven performance that will provoke the further debate of the issue in the future.

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Bibliography:

• • ·  Unknown. "Nomophobia" Collins Dictionary. n.p., 2015. Web. 26 Mar 2015.
  • ·  Elmore, Tim. "Nomophobia: A Rising Trend in Students"Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 18 Sept 2014. Web. 9 Jul 2015.
  • ·  McHugh, Victoria. "The Risks of Nomophobia" The Bottom Line Online. College Media Network, 9 Feb 2013. Web. 9 Jul 2015.
  • ·  Stone, Madeline. "Smartphone Addiction Now Has A Clinical Name" Business Insider 31 Jul 2014: 1. Web.
  • ·  Wrenn, Eddie. "The biggest phobia in the world? 'Nomophobia' - the fear of being without your mobile - affects 66 per cent of us" Mail Online. Daily Mail, 8 May 2012. Web. 26 Mar 2015.