Epsom Downs Rehearsal Analysis

Epsom Downs is a heightened  comedy. This means the characters and the dialog; instead of being super naturalistic, have their naturalism and realism relaxed slightly by over exaggerating movements, idiosyncrasies and expressions which makes for very humorous results when rehearsed with a full insight, understanding, imagination and experimentation.

I have five characters in the play:

• Kermit Frog Trader
• Man Down On His Luck
• Grandpa
• Morry Burrows
• Drunk Man

All of these characters are important comedic elements of the play the playwright has created. Some being small and subtle and others being large and obvious. The way I learned this was first by reading the play and each characters dialog and interactions. Man Down On His Luck is a character who fits in the small and subtle category. I think this because of the tiny amount of dialog expelled, the subtlety of the actions the stage directions direct and the lack of overall importance to any other scene in the play;

'He looks up and waves at it angrily'

This is an example of one stage direction that I found during rehearsals that showed me that he never to interacts with any one meaning his actions never impact others, he's basically shouting at a kite because he is angry that he lost his money gambling and only affects his own emotions, a basic and small story that, from the evidence I have found, shows his purpose is the show the audience the funny side of an angry depressed drunk at the races.

'Na. Na'

This is the only dialog said by this character which also shows that he isn't there too interact with anyone else and further proves his purpose of being their to show the audience the funny side to people at the races with his characteristics.

Knowing this has meant that I can experiment with making him heightened realism and coming up with how he moves and talks and all the other acty things.

Carrying on from this, I started finding actions relating to drunks and sad people. I didn't have to look far as a have seen family members like this in the past. I saw a lot of moping around and dull facial expression and stumbling. With this I experimented with walking around normally at a normal energy state. Understanding that everything needs to be heightened, I made a frown with my face like Mr Angry from those children's books as it overly expresses the anger and sadness the characters' feeling to the audience. I think that this felt right and I started to feel a bit mopey and 'down on my luck' myself which is good. I then started to stumble as I was walking around by tripping up over my own feet and scuffing my soles along the ground. I think this worked well at exaggerating the drunkenness of the character and helped me to feel down and drunk at the same time. I believe these actions have given me a comedic and heightened portrayal of somebody who is drunk and down on their luck to the audience.

Another practice and includation of this heightened realism comedic acting style was during Adam's movement workshop for the character Drunk Man. This character is also drunk but in a positive way, he is happy, energetic and having a great time which is oxymoronic to the |Man Down On His Luck. What I had to find with this character in rehearsals was the way he holds himself and walks around. I started off by just doing the simple stumbling around thing and it looked a but naff and felt a bit naff too as it wasn't very heightened nor energetic and exciting. The way I learnt and discovered was through Adam who made me remember the over exaggeration of drunkenness and happiness the character is feeling. He told me to make my facial expressions really big and really stretch open my eyes and become transfixed on things on stage and just stare at them slightly bobbling my head to show the dizziness. He also told me to find a body part and let that body part lead the rest of my body around when moving. I had my hands in my pocket at the time and so I decided to lead with my hands/hips. As my pockets took lead I felt the rest of my body floating behind them making my back and neck to funny things like bend in odd ways. It gave me that visualised version of uncontrollability you get when you're drunk which looks both comical and believable.

During rehearsals I found the language that Morry Burrows uses to be slightly different and interesting. Par exemple;

'Bottle it up Les. Just carry it off bottled up. And we'll get him later in the day.'

I found this to be different from the norm as it misses out certain vocabulary that would usually make a sentence whole. Instead it is very blunt and shortened. I believe from lines like the one produced above that the Playwright has written it in this way as the bluntness and quick pace to the shortened sentences make it comical between the interacting characters. I found it especially funny during my scene with Logan as the characters are both cockney and are very cynical. The interactions are very blunt like I said before and it's like they're miserable until they suddenly crack a joke and then burst into laughter and then snap right out of it again. This is what I think is humorous about the language and what it creates between each character.

Knowing the above I had to rehears the pace and abruptness of each line and dissect which lines are serious and which are jokes. An example of me doing this is with this line;

'The fucking bastards knife, third and fourth rib-'

Morry isn't best pleased at this point to see Louis who had something to do with Morry being stabbed. He says this line very seriously and spitefully and is almost attacking him by being very defensive. To get this spitefulness in my voice I thought about somebody I really hated during school and used their dickish face in place of actually being stabbed which naturally made me say the line with a bit of hatred. I felt I needed to heighten this so when I said this line I curled my lip up and flared my teeth like a predator, fiercely pointed to my injured ribs and stared the bastard in the eye. All really over the top which will hopefully increase the comedy within the language.

Overall, I believe that my rehearsal period allowed me to realise the creative opportunities and imaginative realities of the text. I believe that I have rehearsed with all of these factors in mind and have appreciated the playwrights implementation of comedic effect and language.

Grandpa's Character Study

Grandpa is a senile old man who doesn't really stride away from the past. He is always comparing the world wars that he has lived through to the present events that are happening in front of him;

'Fifty third derby I've seen in my life, 'cept in the last world war, when they ran it at Newmarket, on account of the Zeppelins. Or was that the first world war?'

I believe that he always reminisces about his past because he doesn't really like the present. It seems like he misses the wars and his life before this family he isn't really part of. This tells me he is also quite lonely and sad as he doesn't feel like he is part of anything anymore or has anything in common with his family, instead speaking aloud to himself. It also shows me that he loves the derby as he has seen it 53 times which tells me his hobby is gambling on horses.

He is also always moaning about a conspiracy that the higher class are trying to run against the working class;

'I put it all down to that man on the telly with the hat, he's in on the conspiracy to cheat the working man out of his gambling rights.'

Again, this quote also tells me Grandpa is a fan of gambling on horses and that he dislikes anyone who makes it harder or more expensive for him to do so. He seems like the sort of person to be spiteful when talking about anyone he dislikes. The quote also tells me he is working class. Knowing he is working class, I reckon he speaks rather common and considering the inspiration from 'Only fools and horses' I'd say he speaks with a cockney accent.

Grandpa also enjoys his own humour and jokes and loves a good old laugh at himself and quite directly at others;

'Funny thing about coppers, they hate you calling em copper. Hello copper!'

Grandpa has a good sense of humour from what I've found, he cracks these jokes that he finds funny like the one above aloud to anyone that can hear. It tells me he wants people to find him funny and laugh along with him. Maybe this is due to him being lonely with his lack of family connection or maybe Grandpa was somebody who was the comedic relief within his group of pals during his generation. Maybe he misses those days and is once again reminiscing about them but showing the audience in a different way, through the emotion of laughter instead of actually talking directly about what he is reminiscing about.

Exterior Vision

These are some of the items I can see Grandpa wearing/using. There's a wooden walking stick which has been a staple of old age pensionerism in my family, the large 1970's glasses look comedic and dated, just like grandpa and the slippers or some slipper like shoes which are comfortable on his arthritic toes and dry skinned soles. From what I've seen by people watching I think these will add believability and humour to his character.

The two gentlemen in the picture above are from two classic television series. The right is from 'The last of the summer wine' and the left is the character Grandad from 'Only fools and horses'. They are both humorous, senile and 'old' characters which I believe Grandpa fits into. They wear heavy tweed jackets, button shirts with a slightly scruffy collar, hats, one wears a wool jumper and have a little a little bit of facial hair. White of course.

Object Exercise Grandpa

What is your object?

'Inside ere’ is my late wife’s wedding ring'

Why is it sentimental to you?

'Five years ago my family and I, we went to the picture houses off of the East End of London. We watched something called ‘Darling’ by some old raspberry tart. Nothing but a load of old toff if you ask me hahaa!

After the picture I went for a Mickey Bliss and when I walked outside I saw my Moorine lying on the ground surrounded by a bunch of hat wearing coppers.

After that my son put me in a home. The ring is the only thing I got left of my trouble and strife. '

How long had you been married?

'We got married during the second world war at the Mare Street Registry Office '

How old are you?

'87 '

How old was your wife when she died?

'73 years old'