Richard Maxwell Project

Dear all,

Well todays lesson was jolly difficult! I have to say, I wasn't convinced by the play we watched, this may be because the sound was a bit 'iffy' and theatre always seems a little suspect on film! The individual work, however, was really interesting. I thought that it was SO effective using the 3rd person descriptions of the actions. I just thought it was so helpful to really plot out a template for the situation. I started to think that Maxwell is merely providing us a template, or generic signposts about the way human nature works. He flags up the accepted response to situations rather than actually recreating them.

Still, I find it difficult when watching Maxwell's work to actually connect or engage with a scene. But I really like how his work raises questions and demands thought from the audience about speech patterns, communication and physical expression. It's really good to be studying something so different from our preconceived ideas of 'theatre', and challenging why we expect certain things from drama. Who creates the rules that guide the way we judge theatre? Hmm.

Anyway I'm just off to do a bit of research to unpuzzle my head!

Have a nice week guys

Laura xxx

// posted by danrebellato @ 7:49 AM