Evaluation Of Sarah Goodall's Group

Sarah Goodall's group had a really great performance and focused a lot on many of Brecht's techniques. They focused on gestus by having certain characteristics overstated - such as "Her" flicking her hair and they also didn't use names for their characters, which disconnected the audience and made them focus more on the issues that the play was trying to portray.

Within their performances, they repeated many scenes, numerous times, this alienated the audience by taking away the linear structure of the play. Each time, the scene went differently or had a different ending. This helped to disconnect the audience as each scene juxtaposed the different endings to further highlight the issues the play was trying to convey. This looks at Brecht's alienation technique, which effectively disengages the audience to make them really focus on the meaning the play was providing.

Their play showed good examples of prejudice and stereotypes, which contradicts the audiences initial thoughts, therefore asking the audience to question themselves, which is often what Brecht tried to do through his performances.

They also narrated what happened and read out the stage directions, which highlighted to the audience that they were watching a play and this was a further use of the alienation technique. For example, when Dee was talking about the holocaust she was telling the audience the reasons behind it, but narrated it like a children's story. It made everyone laugh, but at the end made you think and question the audience and yourself. Which really helped to get the message across.

The character's in their performance were very two-dimensional, so the audience were not drawn in emotionally. This allowed you to question things about them and made you think. By using songs in their performance it makes you become emotionally attached by the lyrics, but also creates distance and reminds you that you are watching a play. For example, having James play Thatcher. He made her a caricature and reminded the audience he was an actor. The fact he was playing a woman, also distanced the audience from becoming too engaged with the character. Which was even further use of the alienation technique.

Overall, I really enjoyed their performance and I think that they used Brecht's techniques really effectively and accurately to disengage the audience and portray their message.