Towards the Scrrrrratch....

Always thought that adding elements of humour in a piece that deals with serious issues (like in my case relationships of oppression, dominance and submission) is a very good idea. Laughing when a situation harms somehow a person leaves us questioning what we are actually laughing at.
At the same time, worrying too much about creating my piece away from cliches has produced a huge 'negativity' monster eating my creativity (which is...errr...kind of necessary for artists...).
So, after discussing this with Jordan recently (and with my lovely lovely lovely friends even more recently) this is what seems to be the right way to go towards scratch No1:
-I'll take one of my ideas.
-Work with it from the absolute cliche (enough with my fearing it) gradually towards the non cliche version.
-Work with it from the non cliche towards the absolute cliche.
-Find in these the right points for unexpected subversion (humour prospects).
-Combine the two routes with an interest on the middle point where the two procedures meet. (although that is for later on)
-Do that by combining body movement, sound and props as integral parts of the creation (no lights available for the scratch unfortunately) staying loyal to what my work is about and, of course, to what non-verbal depends on for decoding.
Be back really soon for details.

Diploma Stage Presentation

This theatre performance consists of scenes from a relationship between a narcissistic personality, a non narcissist and theatre acting as a character itself. These three characters interact, exchange actions and energies, affect and are affected by one another. Their normalities, their selves as they have been structured and keep the dynamic of the relationship unchanged, are subverted and distorted by the others’ functions and malfunctions. Inner instabilities are exposed and existing balances are challenged. Their communication and actions are disrupted by the more fluid internal energies and drives that cannot always be controlled and sometimes take over and threaten the codes that keep the relationship’s order.
The aim of this project is to exteriorize such internal situations and present a place that sways between the inner and outer worlds of these characters, a place that doesn’t represent either the world of their external experiences or that of their internal ones, it rather exists somewhere in between.
The performance is not based on a text and it will not be presented by using one. Language will not be the medium to convey meaning. Signification will be based on extra-verbal ways and the effects of the actions will be shown through the bodies of the performers and the functions and transformations of the set. What I call the normality of the performers will be presented as proper coordinated movements and combinations of well executed dance motifs. What goes on in the level of the internal experiences and emotions will be made obvious through the distortion of that normality.

The basic requirements for this piece are:
-a theatrical space equipped with basic theatrical means like lights, sound system and ropes that bring the necessary objects up and down the stage.
-microphone and speakers
-projector and dvd player
-materials like wooden planks and sheets of fabric for the making of the set.


A few words about the three characters:
Na is a person with characteristics from Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
In order for her to exist away from the feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem that are hidden in her unconscious, she has structured a false self of perfection and has adopted this image for herself as a role for life. Deprived of that role she cannot function. Since this perfect image is fake, she depends on others to constantly preserve it and relates with others for the only purpose of getting the affirmation for that image that she is unable to find in herself. Since this need is the only reason why she makes relationships, she uses people as her narcissistic supply and of course doesn’t care for the needs that relations actually have. She is self-centred, always acting her role and must never touch the ground since that would mean she is ‘off her stage’ which is unbearable. She is always comparing others with herself in her attempt to be proven superior and flawless but she cannot stand any comparisons or criticism by others. She is manipulative, shows no empathy for others and can be aggressive and revengeful when her supply doesn’t manage to reflect that false self of hers at all times. When something goes wrong she is never to blame. When her perfect image is questioned or shaken she can be distressed and devastated by the fear of inner truth being revealed.


Nonna is a non narcissist. She is Na’s narcissistic supply and more or less her servant. She admires Na, borrows elements from her and adopts them in her life. She makes sure everything is in place for Na’s show to be perfect and ‘feeds’ Na with what she needs to preserve her false self. Her own problems and needs are never taken care of, she is never the priority. Whenever something goes wrong she is always the one to blame and she is punished in ways that cause her tension, frustration and anxiety. Although her own normality is seriously hurt by Na’s actions, demands and the effect they have on her, Nonna can be easily fooled by Na to carry on with her duty as a servant even when she is almost broken down. Although she can’t bear the adverse effects of this relationship with Na, she never abandons her.

Theatre is the third character. Apart from the place where the relationship is sheltered, theatre is also an ‘organism’ that affects it. It provides a stage and audience for Na to live her ‘role’ and offers Nonna its tools to serve her. The several parts of theatre are used by the other two but they also have functions of their own and act independently to interfere with them. Theatre can dictate where stage is or isn’t, when a show starts or ends, who is the protagonist and which space is available or decide what remains hidden backstage or what should be exposed challenging in several ways the fake balance the relationship is built upon. At the same time theatre doesn’t remain intact itself since the actions and situations going on within its walls affect it too and leave their traces on it.
Apart from the body movement of the two performers, the set, light and sound are an integral part in the making of this performance since they are important parts of the theatre’s body, as is the audience whose presence will be in the performer’s awareness at several times during the show.
Apart from my opinion that theatre is a live organism that both reflects life and is changed by it, in this specific relationship theatre has a major role in its course considering how important it is in the narcissist’s life and functions. So I chose to highlight this role by showing theatre as a non-human character - and not simply a ‘housing’ for the performance - as it is an important factor in this story and is actively involved as an integral part of it.




Example scene:

(what you see here is a small platform that is used as stage 1, above it there is local drop-curtain and a spotlight. On the back there is a backdrop and behind it there is a projector and a wall made of wooden planks that is used to hide the ropes that hold or move the fabrics and objects of the performance.)

(drawing 1)
This scene starts with Na on stage 1 with her drop-curtain down. Nonna - from backstage - pulls the curtain up, projection starts, rhythm starts and Na begins to execute her ‘show’ with beautiful coordinated moves and excellent dancing skills.

(drawing 2)
Theatre starts fading gradually the spotlight above Na’s stage from full power to less than half. Na’s movement starts to slow down and lose its clear energetic motifs until she ends up shaking and performing with difficulty one repetitive move.
At the same time that the first spotlight fades, another one is switched on the back of the stage causing the backdrop to appear semi-transparent and a figure on a platform to be seen through, doing its own dance patterns behind it.


(drawing 3)
Theatre releases the left half of the backdrop revealing Nonna dancing different motifs on stage 2. She continues as if nothing happened. Na (facing front all this time) stops shaking and, in an abrupt move, she resumes a straight confident posture. Turning her back on the audience, she starts striking her heel on her stage, messing with the existing rhythm making it increasingly faster and more complicated. Her action interferes with Nonna’s movement making her go faster and faster until it becomes frantic and she collapses breathless.
Rhythm stops and there is complete silence.
Nonna moves her hand very slowly and brings a microphone in front of her mouth so we hear her hectic breathing through the speakers. Na faces front and starts moving in a lightsome way following the breath’s rhythm. Nonna crawls down stage 2 and away from the spotlight. From this moment on, whenever light falls on Nonna she is hurt and disturbed.

(drawing 4)
Na starts hamming in a happy way while facing Nonna. Nonna starts standing up in movements coordinated with the rhythm of Na’s hamming. When she is properly on her feet, she starts pulling stage 2 further to the front. Theatre switches off the back spotlight and the projection. Nonna brings a portable light and places it in front of stage 2. After that she carries Na on her back from stage 1 to stage 2. Na’s body creates a big shadow on the back wall of wooden planks. Nonna withdraws to the back next to the shadow (facing the wall). Sound is on and Na starts performing her dance motifs again, while Nonna starts to imitate the shadow’s movements. In a turn, Na sees what Nonna is doing and starts to use the shadow to control Nonna’s moves. Through that, she progressively makes the moves more ugly, uncoordinated and fragmented. Suddenly, the shadow turns against Nonna and simulates movements of physical abuse. This affects Nonna’s body as if physical contact was actually happening causing her to crash on the floor, be thrown against the wall, back on the floor, etc. At her attempt to escape the shadow’s rage, Nonna rips two of the planks off the wall so the shadow is deformed. All actions stop. Sound starts playing slower and slower until silence.

(drawing 5)
Theatre turns on again the spotlight above stage 1. Na vocalises a continuous piercing sound. Nonna, broken and still, responds speaking an incomprehensible language. Na vocalises again the same sound in a stricter, louder and more demanding way. Nonna performs the following actions:
She takes one of the planks that lie on the floor and places so that it connects stage 1 with the floor. She takes the second plank and places it so that it connects stage 2 with the floor. She places the fallen part of the backdrop as a carpet that links the two planks. She goes backstage and turns on the projector.
Nonna executes these actions moving in ways that show the effects of the previous incident remain in her. These movements are jerky and the normal control of the body parts is now difficult to achieve since now, her body itself resists her will.
Na follows the path Nonna created for her and reaches stage 2 without touching the floor. She is ready to start her show again.


This was one of the scenes the performance will be structured around.


I’d like to say a few words about the choice of narcissism as a subject as well as the preference of non-linguistic ways of signification.

First of all, according to psychoanalysts like Melanie Klein, Andre Green, Julia Kristeva, Otto Kernberg and others, we live in a narcissistic era and contemporary individuals become more and more narcissists, something that of course undermines interpersonal relations since their functions and needs are affected by the particular characteristics of such a personality.
As Julia Kristeva mentions in her book ‘New Maladies of the Soul’:

Today’s men and women – who are stress ridden and eager to achieve, to spend money, have fun and die – dispense with the representation of their experience that we call psychic life. Actions and their imminent abandonment have replaced the interpretation of meaning.
Modern man is a narcissist – a narcissist who may suffer but who feels no remorse. He manifests his suffering in his body and he is afflicted with somatic symptoms.
The psychic life of the modern individual wavers from somatic symptoms (‘healed’ by pills) and the visual depiction of their desires (daydreaming in front of the TV).
A wide variety of troubles can bring new patients to the analyst’s couch: relationship difficulties, somatic symptoms, a difficulty in expressing oneself and a general malaise by a language experienced as ‘artificial’, ‘empty’ or ‘mechanical’. Maladies of the soul that are not necessarily psychoses, but that evoke the psychotic patient’s inability to symbolize his unbearable traumas. As a result, analysts must come up with new classification systems that take into account ‘wounded narcissisms’, ‘false personalities’, ‘borderline states’ and ‘psychosomatic conditions’. Whatever their differences, all these symptomatologies share a common denominator – the inability to represent. Such a deficiency in psychic representation hinders sensory, sexual and intellectual life. Moreover, it may strike a blow to biological functioning itself.



Psychoanalytical and linguistic studies have shown that a normally developed healthy person, in his interpersonal relations, uses language efficiently to speak and communicate not only for intellectual subjects, but for psychic ones as well. But, when something goes wrong, when there is some sort of internal turmoil, language and the ability to use it in an ordered meaningful way are amongst the first to be afflicted, from a simple momentary smattering in a stressful situation to a possible complete loss of speech in more complicated cases. When emotions and energies in the level of internal experience become overwhelming, the ordered structures of the ‘self’ are threatened, people regress to more primeval, archaic modes of signification and the body takes over to communicate non verbally (beyond language) what is going on inside.


Following this information I would like to say that this theatre performance is anthropocentric and addresses issues such of difficulties in interpersonal relations which – for a lot of people – are a major concern in life. When communication cracks because of instabilities in the human psyche, speech becomes inefficient to express matters of the soul. We’ve all had - more or less - moments when stressful situations made us ‘lose our words’ or start shaking and sometimes even fall sick because of extreme tension building up inside. Moreover, since narcissism is a personality characteristic that has started taking big dimensions in our times, contemporary people experience all and more the frustration and problems that come with it, either as being a narcissist or as someone closely related to one.
Since theatre has always been engaged with the contemporary sensibilities, everyone that goes to theatre for reasons other than mere entertainment, people who are concerned and question their functions in relations and their affects on others, would be the audience for this performance. This audience is not expected to read or understand something really clear and specific. They are not invited in this performance to be taught a lesson about something, especially since this not a study of the inner world of narcissism. The subject is chosen because it is growing bigger and bigger in our times and this piece is built by borrowing facts and traits from it, but the aim is to present externally inside energies and emotions that are not seen or articulated. Borrowing a phrase from Pina Bausch:

Basically, one wants to say something that cannot be said, so we make a poem where one can feel what I meant…

Now, what one feels depends on many factors and every member of the audience can receive the image and complete it according to their own personal experiences and histories so translations of what is seen and heard may vary from one viewer to another.

photos