Devising Research

Devising Research

The Red Tree

Our stimulus, The Red Tree, is a picture book by Shaun Tan. The author, an Australian artist and filmmaker, has also written and illustrated other picture books about topics like immigration and social injustice. His books are categorised as children’s and young adult books, but tackling sensitive topics that still ring true with adults.

The book was originally supposed to be based on pieces of artwork about different emotions such as joy, anger, surprise etc. However as Tan was working on it he realised that the pages about negative emotions were more interesting and so he adapted his idea until The Red Tree was created. He said that he is more drawn to exploring difficult subjects because they are ‘still unresolved, like a puzzle.’

The book was a success and is often used in schools to teach children about emotions.

Expressionism

The style of the artwork in The Red Tree is expressionism.

Expressionism is a style of art (originally painting and poetry, extended to novels, architecture, theatre, dance, film and music) that emerged in Germany in the early 20th century, and the general idea of it is to present the world in a way that can be distorted or made surreal for emotional effect – expressionist artists wanted to show meaning and feeling rather than something realistic. Modern expressionism was thought to have been inspired by Edvard Munch’s famous painting, ‘The Scream’.

“Expressionism doesn’t shun the violently unpleasant effect. Expressionism throws some terrific ‘fuck yous’.” – Alberto Arbasino on how expressionism often features unpleasant or angsty topics and emotions.

The Red Tree uses expressionism by showing emotions through visual metaphors and conveying a mood and feeling through surreal imagery rather than through an actual story or overtly saying.

Costume/Make-up

Since we’ve decided to create a surreal world with strange and unnerving characters, I have found some pictures of costumes, hair and makeup that we could take inspiration from. Obviously we will not be able to recreate to this level but we can take inspiration from the general mood.

Devising Week One

Devising Week One

Creative Ideas



Day One



Today I feel we really made a breakthrough with the style of the performance as well as devising some potential scenes and coming up with some really good ideas.



As an exercise we decided to go through The Red Tree and come up with different physical responses based on each one.



One of the first pictures in the book is a clock in a cornfield, but we noticed that where there is supposed to be a cuckoo there is just an egg.




Ciara and Kieran made the trunk of the clock, Emily and Liv stood on chairs behind them like clockwork decorations that could hold the cuckoo, and the rest of us could walk across them in a clockwork puppet type way, whispering ‘tick tock’. We tried this out and it looked really effective, especially when Will had the idea to slow the clockwork walk down then speed it up.



When the clock struck and the cuckoo should have come out, I had the idea that Emily and Liv could pop out holding their (empty) hands out as if they are holding a bird but then realise their hands are empty, look at the empty space, look at each other and make a really stylised sad face. This led to the idea that Emily and Liv’s characters could be like the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of our piece, but could be called words or a phrase from the book – we decided on Wonderful and Things, so that later in the piece we could literally show the line ‘wonderful things pass you by’.



When we noticed there was no cuckoo we all deflated and crumpled to the floor, and then Ciara popped up saying ‘cuckoo’ like she was trying to make the cuckoo. Then Will had the idea we could all laugh hysterically but slightly unnervingly which I really liked as I think it made a really strange, uncomfortable atmosphere.



The next thing we looked at was the first two pictures that are accompanied by writing. They are of a girl waking up in bed with a few black leaves in the room, and the same girl trying to leave her room which is now filled with lots of black leaves.



I thought we could have the girl waking up really naturalistically and ‘normal’ so the audience are left not knowing whether or not the last scenes were real. Then we could have people cut across the stage (like leaves across her bedroom)saying on naturalistic line, so it all looks like a normal morning, but eventually everyone ends up on stage just saying their same line over and over so it gets quite unnerving and strange. Then we could physically embody leaves or pin her down using physical theatre.

I also thought that each of us ‘weird’ characters could be representing one of the issues we originally thought of when we first got the stimulus – autism, dementia, transgender, abuse, conformity, depression etc – and this could be reflected in the way we move, talk, and in our costume and makeup. Each of us could have a mini over-stylised strange scene based on a picture that represents our own issue. This would work with the books heavy focus on metaphors and symbolism.



I think that we should definitely carry on developing the scenes and ‘characters’ we created today and that this style would really work for the piece.



Day Two

Also this week we worked on a scene based on the leaves, and we involved a lift that would ‘fling’ Ciara upright and out the door, which she would leave with her bag in a more Naturalistic and contrasting way. I think the lift looks really effective.



However, I think the start of the scene – where we all cut across the stage increasingly loudly and quickly repeating one line – could be developed further in order to make it more interesting. I think the idea of it really works but with us all talking at the same time as it is I’m worried it might be a bit cheesy or cliché. However, the scene ended up being quite funny so I think as long as we play up and emphasize the funny side of the scene it should be okay.



Costume



I also started thinking about potential costuming for the piece today based on our new concept and I think it would look really interesting to have us all dressed different but very strange and wacky – yet slightly dark – like the characters in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, or the citizens of the Emerald City in Wicked. Especially if we are all representing a different issue, then we could somehow work our individual theme into the costume, hair and makeup.



Ciara also suggested we could all have a red leaf on us or in makeup on our face and I really like this idea as it shows the trail of ‘hope’ and represents how the red leaf appears on every page in the book. I think the leaf could be on different places on all of us like it is in different places in the pictures in the book.

Devising Stimulus Initial Response

Devising Stimulus Initial Response

Initial Response



Our stimulus for devising is a picture book called The Red Tree by Shaun Tan.



The book is mostly filled with surreal landscapes that include lots of symbols for emotion. Though they are all self contained the story that threads them together is a young girl who is on a journey where things go from bad to worse, but eventually she returns home to find a sapling in her room which turns into a bright red tree that shines light everywhere.



I found the book very touching, and it felt very personal and intimate. My very first interpretation of the story was that it was about depression and the red tree symbolises recovery and hope.



Another thing we noticed was that there is a red leaf on every single page, and always the bright red contrasted with the dark or strange background. I think this symbolises the path to recovery and better times always being there, even when you don’t think so. There is also a running motif of scribbles, doodles and hidden words or phrases.



One image that really stood out to me was the one of the girl trapped in a dirty glass bottle, because the dirty glass made it hard to see out and therefore distorted her view like depression/negativity does.



I really liked the surreal yet familiar artistic style of the pictures, how they were full of really interesting and different metaphors you wouldn’t necessarily think of – like how instead of a cliché ‘grey cloud’ hanging over the girl it’s a huge polluted fish ‘polluting’ her.



The style reminded me of the books A Series of Unfortunate Events in the surreal-yet-familiar, darkly funny, and ‘children’s books for adults’.



Creative Ideas



From these initial reactions I actually had a lot of ideas which build up even more at other people’s suggestions.



Because I really liked the way the text was written at first I thought we could incorporate the words in some way. We could say a line or a word each spread out across the piece or incorporate it into the story if we decide to have a proper narrative. However, I’m not sure how well this would work as it might end up being a bit forced or out of place.



I also had the idea that instead of coming up with one narrative or literally following the one girl’s journey we could have several different stories based on individual pictures in the book, as the pictures are all self contained. That way we could use everybody’s ideas.



For example, Ciara’s idea about the theme of not knowing where you are being to do with dementia would be based around the distorted view/desolate landscape pictures, Emily P’s transgender idea would be based on the picture where the girl is drawing herself ‘not knowing who she is.’



Then all the seemingly unconnected stories could be connected by the tree fit together like puzzle pieces. We could have all the characters actually know each other but this is only slowly revealed to the audience.



Ciara had the idea that there could be a big red tree in the centre of the stage and this gave me the idea that to start or finish the individual ‘stories’ we could either take a leaf from he tree or put a leaf on the tree. I also thought that between every few scenes we could have a physical theatre ensemble representation of the tree ‘growing’.



Another idea I really loved building on this synopsis is one Ciara had that what brings us all together is the tree being cut down. Will then suggested the characters could be the ones taking it down and I had the idea that if the tree represents the characters coping mechanisms then the ending could be them taking the tree down because they don’t need it anymore.



Then maybe we could all take a leaf or a red light and stand quietly beside each other at the front of the stage, and the lights could go down so just our handheld red lights remain.



Interpretations



The artwork is created to be open for interpretation from the reader which I really like.



I interpreted the whole book and overall story as being about depression/bad times and then the ending as hope/recovery, but many of the individual pictures could represent other issues too.



For example the picture of the girl drawing an outline of herself on the wall with the writing ‘not knowing who you are supposed to be’ could be interpreted as a representation of a transgender person’s inner struggle.



The picture of the girl in a wide open landscape with a hill that looked like a brain about ‘not knowing where you are’ could be about dementia. I also think the picture of the girl trapped in the bottle – although it could be about being ‘trapped’ in depression or the distorted views and being trapped by alcoholism – could also be about dementia because she is trapped, isolated and cannot see the world as it is properly.





Style

I think that this stimulus gives us the opportunity to mix styles. For example, if we decided to base different scenes on pages from the books, some of the really lovely moments could be more quiet and Naturalistic, while other scenes could be more heightened and stylised. I think the picture of the girl on a crowded stage being watched could definitely be very Berkovian.



I also think there is the potential for some Frantic Assembly devices. If we decide to develop the idea of using physical theatre to show the tree growing between scenes, we could incorporate hymns hands to show the roots and branches connecting and growing.