Lesson 2

Gestus
The word Gestus comes from  a combination of the words gesture and gist and it translates as:

"An attitude or a single aspect of an attitude that can be expressed by both words and actions."

The gesture you make reveals your attitude towards a person or thing, to the audience and based on this, the audience judge the attitude, thinking about why that specific one has been chosen, and make a social or political judgement on what they see before them. Keeping with the style of Brecht, it causes the audience to stop and think, without the actor having to say a single word. Such reveals in a piece, happen throughout Brechtian theatre, normally being intensified by lighting, sound or slo-mo asking the audience to closely analyse what they see in front of them. It creates a trail of breadcrumbs through Brecht's pieces, giving away little reveals to the audience, isolating them on stage to give the audience the best chance of using it to answer the overarching question that the piece may pose.

I believe this is an effective technique as it is a useful tool in transitioning and weaving a piece together and it supports the style of Brechtian theatre. Dramatising a specific moment in a piece, is identified by the audience as a deliberate choice by the director, asking the audience to specifically notice this moment. The use of lighting, sound and slo-mo enhances this further. If there were subtle aspects within the piece or essential moments we wanted to highlight, Gestus is a direct way of achieving this goal.

Spass
Spass is the comedic element of Gestus and literally translates as 'to have fun.' One of my favourite logics of Brecht's I have come across so far, is Spass. Brecht thought fun and comedy were important in pieces of theatre, as do I. If you do a piece that is purely dark and depressing, it becomes just that; depressing and therefore not all together enticing for the audience to watch. A perfect example of this is when we watched 'Firebird.' Although it was dealing with a very poignant, tragic subject of trafficking, there were moments of humour in the piece which I believe made it complete and enhanced the topic by showing the people who are trafficking these young, vulnerable people, are not your stereotypical 'baddies'; they will appear to be humorous, kind and all together normal. Therefore I believe it is something I have seen work and appreciate as a performer and spectator so will definitely use it to enhance my performance.

Exercises- War Freeze Frame and Snobs and Servants
The first exercise we did today was a freeze frame of soldiers coming and going from the battlefield. The first freeze frame was them going to war, the second them coming back, reacting to a dead body. We played with Gestus in this exercise, by choosing an attitude in each freeze frame. In the first one we are downtrodden, as we have been fighting a long and hard war, and know this battle could prove fatal. We walked in a jagged line, ignoring formalities, knowing they won't save us, with me holding the soon to be dead body on my shoulder. In the second still image, we are hopeless, after the loosing the battle. The dead body was lying on the floor with me closing their eyes and the others walking ahead not looking at it.

This helped me understand Gestus because it proved to me that I can express an attitude to my audience, which they can clearly identify, without speaking. By understanding the attitude I have to something on stage, I can transfer this emotion to the whole of my body and, like in the war freeze frame, make a political and social commentary on something. I believe we showed that in the end, war destroys man and his morality. To be able to show this just through our body and face, is a very powerful tool.

The second exercise we did was snobs and servants. I was allocated the role of snob along with 4 others and the rest of the class were servants. We walked around the room, initially not saying anything, just gesturing to instruct our servants, for example, waving carelessly to a cushion for them to place on a chair for you to sit on. Then we added in speech so we could order them about. I tried to be as pompous and extravagant as possible to add to the hilarity of it, making direct use of Brecht's Spass.

Putting Spass into direct use was fun, yet surprisingly daunting. It was funny to let go of boundaries and yet, I found it at times awkward ordering people to carry me across the room on their back. It seemed very over the top and strange, but I suppose, this is exactly how Brecht wanted it to be.