RADA Blogs

Konstantinos Symsiris blogs about multi-disciplinary artist Jan Fabre, who delivered a three-week teaching programme with students from RADA’s MA Theatre Lab course, incorporating his unique teaching practices and a mini-project inspired by his 2001 work 'Je suis sang' (I Am Blood).

It seems like it was only yesterday that Jan Fabre left his base in Antwerp and began his visit to London to share his training method and direct a mini-project with our Lab team, a project based on his 'medieval fairytale', I Am Blood.

Jan’s training method was introduced by one of his actresses - and 'muses', as he says - Ivana Jovic, while he was there to guide us and help us dive deeper into his world. Starting from breath and grounding ourselves to the earth, in the first instance, we slowly transformed into cats, dogs, tigers, wolves, lizards, insects and played within this framework, interacting with each other. A key to Jan’s method is to focus on what you are doing. To spot the difference between the act and acting. In contrast to what is usually taught to acting students, in Fabre’s 'physiological' exercises and performance, an action does not begin from an emotional and thus psychologically constituted impulse - it stems from a physical one. The very fact of going into a trance state with our bodies opened another dimension within ourselves, a world where imagination plays a leading role. Discipline, focus, self-abnegation and specificity are pre-requisites for such work. Although after a couple of days most of us were bruised and tired, we learned to be resilient, persistent and to keep going. It has also been a great lesson for us to take care of our bodies’ needs and maintain our energy as performers.

Day 3

The day of the performance had arrived. The sun rising warmly behind the mountains was the best omen of what was approaching.

We travelled back to the ancient ruins and started to warm up our bodies and voices within the amphitheatre and amongst the flora of the place. Our polyphonic singing rehearsals echoed on the Greek mountains.

The audience gradually arrived and the theatre was full. Almost 600 people were applauding, welcoming us and encouraging us to perform. The team moved behind the theatre to stand by and, after a short speech by our beloved course leader Andrew Visnevski, the performance started.

From the very first moment of our stepping onto the stage, we felt the warm vibe of the audience embracing our efforts and listening attentively to our story. Personally, I remember moments in my speech when, as Prometheus, I was referring to the sun and the sky and addressing them in real time; while beyond and above the audience on the hill, crowned with the ruins of the ancient temple of Aphrodite, was another reference point for me.

Our connection with the play through nature and the space itself was extraordinary. Another unique moment was a sonic boom heard during the performance. Our trance state, engagement with the play and connection with the audience has transported us to a different state of mind and space - we even thought for a moment that this very sonic boom could have been Zeus striking in angry reassertion of his high might.

April has come and here we are on the next stage of our journey. We are travelling to Greece, where Western theatre was born more than two thousand years ago, to present our devised work on the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound at the International Youth Festival of Ancient Drama in Ancient Messene.

Day 1

A week before, we were devising our performance in a lower ground floor studio in grey and cold London. But now we were in Greece. Clear, deep blue skies welcomed us, and the wild mountain of Taygetus and the town of Kalamata greeted us through the plane window. As we stepped off the plane, the sun was rising over the mountains and shining on our travel-worn faces, while the blossoming spring surrounded us and provoked our senses.

We arrived to be welcomed by cheerful Greek people (perhaps descendants of Xenios Zeus!), who immediately reminded us of the essence of Greek hospitality. They taxied us in their cars from the airport to our hotel in Messini. The first treat given to us was a bag full of Greek products: honey, olive oil and traditional pastries. After strolling around the quiet narrow streets of new Messini, we went into a small Greek tavern for our lunch. Traditional Greek food and salads were served along with local wine and tasty starters. We were so grateful for such a treat. Words can't do it justice.

A FLASHBACK

Another term has come to its end. Last week we travelled to Greece to present the Ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound at the International Youth Festival of Ancient Drama in Ancient Messene. But before we reflect on our trip to Greece, let’s go back in time and recapitulate on what's happened in our Lab lives in the past three months.

January 2017

The first month of the year. Everyone had recovered from the previous term and was extremely excited to come back to the Academy. We missed each other a lot during the Christmas period and now we were back, ready to work on Mother Courage and her Children. We started an in-depth exploration of Brecht and his acting methodology. We got in touch with the Expressionism movement and the German Weimar Republic, all of which influenced Brecht’s life and artistic vision. Brecht was also inspired by the new artistic trend of Kabaret.

We were given the opportunity of a masterclass with Eva Meier, one of the most famous cabaret (Kabaret) singers around. We selected our cabaret songs and, supported by Phil Raymond, performed them for Eva. A lovely lady with a kind smile on her face, she was there to share her experiences and give us feedback and directions to help us enter this world of cabaret.

Besides this introduction to the socially committed world of cabaret, our inspiration in this journey towards the Epic Theatre of Bertolt Brecht included films by Fritz Lang, paintings by Egon Schiele, Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, and music compositions by Kurt Weill. The exploration of the alienation effect (or alienating effect, as we preferred to call it), and other mechanisms used as part of Brecht’s acting methodology, expanded our acting selves and gradually made us realise that art and theatre are here to serve something bigger than just psychology.

A Brechtian actor contributes with his acting to the transformation of society and therefore he has to go one step further than his own psychology. He has to value such a contribution and, in connection with his instrument, be precise enough and aware of what he is doing on and off stage at the same time.

Along with the Brecht process, the company had slowly started to dive into the world of Greek tragedy and Prometheus Bound, collecting information, songs and images to contribute to the ensemble production.

On 5 March 2017, Lucy Pitman-Wallace, co-founder and director of Three-Legged Theatre Company and former associate director at the RSC, held a masterclass for the MA Theatre Lab on Antonin Artaud and putting into practice his theories on The Theatre of Cruelty.

Antonin Artaud saw both the world around him, and theatre itself, in need of change. Deeply influenced by surrealism, he tried to create a theatre that could awake the dormant dream images of the mind. Although Artaud sounds very interesting on a theoretical level, he is one of those practitioners that is often difficult for theatre folks to grapple with, since his ideas go beyond the ‘norms’ into the foreign ground of the unconscious. Therefore, the best way to approach the essence of his work is by experimenting through engagement of our instrument – the body. And that’s what we did.

RADA’s MA Theatre Lab provides performance students with the opportunity to re-examine and broaden their skills in an experimental and collaborative environment. The intensive year-long course includes a range of masterclasses and workshops from guest teachers and practitioners. MA Theatre Lab student Konstantinos Symsiris blogs about a recent workshop led by Oleg Mirochnikov on the Vakhtangov tradition – a school of acting pioneered by Yevgeny Vakhtangov, with focus on spontaneity and transformation.