Working on schizophrenia movement piece

Today as a group we continued to work on and improve our schizophrenia piece, We still needed to finish this piece from the other lesson as we hadn't made it to the end and we also changed some of the stuff from the piece as some members didn't feel as if it was symbolic enough for schizophrenia. So everyone went over the piece to adjust it so that it can be more symbolic, a lot of the changes made were to show a more drastic transition between orderly to chaotic inside Carl's head, it was also change to focus more on the side that Carl is being beaten down and then control by his other personalities. The new finished piece helps give a better understanding other Carl's character and how tortured he is over his other personalities as well as having no other way to cope with these problem. We have now officially set everything we need to do for the performance so we had now done a full run of the performance to time it and work out that the performance would be about 32 minutes long, added to the time taken to walk around the tunnels the whole performance should be about 40 minutes long. We have decided to charge £4 per ticket for our audience and have them only enter the performance in groups of 15 for the performance with 2 productions, one at 5:30pm and the other at 7:00pm to give us a small break between showing to clear up and reset for the next performance.
I am feeling very confident about this performance because as a group we have managed to create some very stylistic movement pieces that should be able to intise the audience as well having well developed dialogue between all characters to help develop the plot of our performance as well dropping little hints throughout the performance about our twist ending of the doctor being an actual patient their.

Health and Safety Plan

This is our health and safety plan for our performance in Fort Amherst to prove that we are safe to perform in this location and that our audience is well looked after

My scene

I started to work on my scene today involving me and Dom were he would have like a interview with me to determine how bad my damage is and if it can be coped with so I can go back into the world. the scene would simply start with Dan introducing me before taking freya and leaving Dom with me, The purpose of this will be to give me and Dom a strong intimate scene that could delve deep into the mind of a damaged individual, The scene would start with Dom asking me simple questions to test my basic brain functions after a couple of question i would try and figure out who he is because my character would be uncomfortable with not knowing who dom is, Dom would exchange a couple of details about who he is to me so that i would feel comfortable with him. After this Dom will try and talk to me about how I received my brain damage, what was the incident that caused it, so with this Dom would already know what had caused my brain damage but this would be a test to see if could tell him. I would tell him a very simple version of a story involving me getting mugged down an alleyway having one of the muggers stamping on my head which caused severe injury. Dom would then reveal to me that I had actually received my brain damage as a ten year old who almost drowned because he couldn't swim but suffered without oxygen long enough to kill a lot of his brain cells. My character would be shocked by this and would then say that I actually got my brain damage from falling down and smacking my head on a rock. Dom would then say that my damage is very severe as I proved to have terrible memory issue, Dom would highlight this by asking me questions about himself and id be unable to say his name or anything he had told me a few minutes ago at the start proving i was suffering with a lot of memory problems.

Today we went back and worked on this scene as I had to change this scene not to use Dom in as we need to focus more on characters who hadn't been as used as much, So I now had Kyle and Toby to use for this scene so I started to change the scene. So we'd still start the same way with Dan introducing us but then when he leaves he will take Dom with him this time, The scene would work to explain Kyle's character a bit more as Kyle writes a message for me but i can't read it so he storms off leading to a conversation between me and toby starting about Kyle and working its way towards me before we'd then head off to the next scene. This new version of the scene I struggled to think of what to do in ti as it was only me a character who doesn't talk and Toby's character who we weren't sure what he was any more.

7 Devils

Today we worked on our ending movement piece which we had created back when we started site specific but we wanted to work on it and put others into it. The purpose of this was because we really liked this piece and thought is would be a good movement piece to end on, we went over what we had created before and just added to it further focusing on the idea of demonic movement. For this we watch the video for the song seven devils by florence and the machine which helped inspire a lot of our movement we then created for this piece, like previously said a lot of the movement is very demonic using twitches and claws scratching upwards. We had worked on ways to make this piece unsettling and we have done this by wanting our audience to be all around our performance space so they feel unnerved by being surrounded by us. We expanded upon this with the idea of not being stuck to our chairs by at one point getting up and walking through the audience around us to remove their feeling of safety, this is effective because our piece should naturally be seen as unsettling as it's a tour of a mental asylum so this movement piece will help to kick this up a level before the end so that the audience comes away with a bigger impression on the piece focusing on the obscurity of it all that made it unsettling.

We had a talk about costumes we should wear in the asylum for each character, whether we should all be themed of identical to each other. We simply agreed that the doctor and nurse should be dressed like a doctor and nurse even though the two of them actually are patients. The psychiatrist we decided should be dressed very smart as he actually would be very smart from a rich upbringing so would be dressed like a upper class person. For the boy patients, pale colour were agreed on to wear like grey, light blur ext, plimsolls or slippers and something like a white top to go with, The girl patients would be simply dressed in nighties because these clothes would be era appropriate for the 60's.

Amherst plan

Today we were missing about 4 members of our group due to exams so we thought we'd use this time
to lay out plan for the whole performance showing everything we had done and would like to do in the performance. Each scene we need to create was a scene or piece to help develop each of our mental characters. My characters scene will involve me and Dom as the psychiatrists, this would have Dom questioning my character to find out and understand my brain damage. This would be a very static but dark piece of drama as it's a chance to delve deep into the mind and ideas of brain damage as well as the many possibilities of my characters receiving brain damage.

 

I have done some research into ways my character could have got brain damage and their is a wide range of ways to receive brain damage from illnesses and injuries:

Hypoxia(shortage of Oxygen)

Poisoning by teratogens (including alcohol) 

Infection

Neurological illness

Brain tumours can cause damage. 

Common causes of focal or localized brain damage are physical trauma (traumatic brain injury, Stroke, Aneurysm, Surgery, other neurological disorder). Vascular disorders of the brain disrupt the flow of blood to the brain, resulting in a lesion called an infarct. Vascular disorders of the brain include Thrombosis (is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system), embolisms (is the lodging of a mass, which may be a blood clot, fat globule, gas bubble or foreign material, in the bloodstream), aneurysms (is a localized, blood-filled balloon-like bulge in the wall of a blood vessel) and cerebral arteriosclerosis (is the thickening, hardening and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries).

The effects of brain damage are that the victim experiences Delusion, speech impediments, movement problems (either struggle of movement or spasms), memory loss, Personality changes and and effect on basic knowledge like common sense. 

Schizophrenia movement piece

Today we split into groups, Dan M, Freya, Dom and Ellie went off to work on a scene for Ellie's character while the rest of us created a movement piece based around Carl's character who has Schizophrenia. For the movement piece we thought about what we wanted to show using. We obviously wanted to show his multiple personalities but we an idea came across to either create and show personalities of Carl or have it that his personalities have adapted around our characters so he has a part of everyone in the asylum in him. The movement piece is to help the battle inside his head of the different personalities, everyone in the movement primarily gets a go at controlling Carl to show the personalities controlling him, the control ranges from just moving him to puppetry over him. In this movement piece we have a constant swap between chaotic and synchronized movement to show the imbalance of Carl's characters head, one second were all pushing ourselves in on him and then the next we move back into a line showing that although Carl's Schizophrenia isn't good he still has moments of self control even if it's only for s brief second. This is an effective piece as it will help differ from a very dialogue lead performance at the moment, this new piece as well will we be an effective way to showcase Carl's character as well as provide a break for our recurring characters of the physiatrist, Doctor and Nurse. 

We still need to finish the movement piece and put a few more people into it to help show the chaoticness of the multiple personalities. For the start of the movement piece we are going to use a soundscape, we thought this will help isolate Carl as the sole individual onstage hearing voice as the rest of us won't be seen till were on. Carl is going to play a video at the start which says a load of rules that people should follow when with a Schizophrenic, The main rule stated is to "Never look a schizophrenic in the eye" after this is said the soundscape starts. Each one of our characters speaks a phrase over this which builds up the soundscape, Each of what our character says is related to them, My character is brain damaged so at first i wan't sure what to say but as a class last lesson we had previously discussed giving clues to our audience about the doctor and nurse not being real, Inspired by this my characters say "Their not real, their lies", This is a nice subtle clue as it's being said under the loads of dialogue and it would be considered as vague until the audience sees the twist at the end.

Amherst asylum

Continuing to struggle with coming up with our concept for the ideas we liked in the lesson before. So we went back to thinking about ideas we could use where me and Dan M suggested an idea we had thought up before the lesson. Me and Dan were thinking about the mental asylum idea we had a few lessons ago because we both were very fond of this idea and managed to come with away we could turn it into a whole performance, Me and Dan came up with introducing a physiatrist to the mental asylum to evaluate the workings of it but the doctor there would be a very dodgy one who mistreats patients. Everyone like the suggestion enough to look into it further by coming up with their own ideas for patients in the list (look at picture).
Me and Dom both wanted to be the psychiatrist so everyone said we will be tried out next lesson for it. Overall I feel very confident about site specific now as we gave managed to agree on our concept for Fort Amherst so we can now move on to making it. The collection of characters we have will make a very interesting display of mental illnesses and some more realistic ones. We are going to set this in the 60's as it will help us create our dodgy asylum as the knowledge know about the mind was far less back then and what asylums could do was a lot less strict which gives us more creative room to use our deranged collection of characters forced into the asylum together. The asylum idea works with Fort amherst as we have heard other forts in Medway and the country have been turned into temporary asylums before. So our asylum will be a part of a changed history where the fort was converted to the asylum but never back as the asylum was a useful place for storing the deranged people. 

Voting on idea

Today we came up with three new concepts to use for Fort amherst involving a murder mystery dinner, A tour of the Fort and a war museum based on if the Nazi's had won the war.
After discussing this we wrote them all down on a sheet with all other ideas we've had and talked 

about what ideas we still like or wanted to use for the piece.

As you can see in the photo a lot of our votes went towards the "No power idea", A Night at Fort amherst" and "The Tour" with a couple of thoughts towards the "Ghost tour". I personally am not a big fan of most of these ideas, I like the "No power" idea but after thinking about it for a few days I can't think of where we can go with this idea for the story because i like our start but i'm not sure how we could end it in an effective way without making it either cheesy by having power restored or a bit pointless with nothing changing, still having the power problem. I don't like the other ideas we voted on because I don't see the purpose of them or where they could go in terms of development in narrative. The "Tour of Fort amherst" idea isn't really an idea it's just the opening of a show having someone lead the group in getting a radio call telling them to leave. I personally don't think this is very good because it doesn't set up anything of what it to come later in the performance as well as kind of stopping the performance still by leaving our audience and not being sure what will happen.

The idea of "A night at Fort amherst" I also think isn't a good idea because I feel this piece will be difficult to do effectively as having a murder mystery with our audience all around us and interacting with us will be very difficult to do effectively as we will find t difficult to control our audience to do what we want as well as carry on with our narrative. Their were other ideas on this sheet that I thought would be able to be performed with great effect in the Fort. My actual favourite idea on the sheet is still the mental asylum idea as I see this having a lot of potential in narrative, physical pieces, dialogue and to use our ensemble as a collective as I feel this is my main concern with the ideas we've had, that they have been more character driven instead on ensemble, so in these ideas if you're not one of those characters you won't have a lot to do.

Inspiration from Fort Amherst

Today we were given Three photos of Fort Amherst and split into groups, my group was me, Tom, Dan M and Ellie, we were given the photo below as our inspiration for a new idea to use for site specific.



We struggled at first to come up with ideas for this picture but we then came up with an idea of performing under the bridge and having a dead body fall off of it. My first idea inspired by this was a gang themed idea were two groups had met at this location and were starting to argue over like a drug or smuggling operation, things would get more hostile until suddenly a dead body from above would fall down. I thought this would be a good opening as it would be able to hook an audience's attention and get them involved in the story but i'm not sure what we could follow this idea with in terms of location as the idea of drug smuggling doesn't work that well with Fort amhurst for inspiration of furthering the idea.
Another impression I got from having the body fall was having a group of kidnapped people interacting with each other who are scared and confused about where they are and why their here, as tensions rise the body would fall with a note on it saying they will have to traverse the Fort. I like this idea at first but then thought it was a bit movie like similar to the concept of the "Saw" films so I decide to scrap this idea for it being to much like a film.
The third concept I came up with was to have our first bit of the performance on the bridge and our audience looking up seeing a meet up between three guys who start arguing about a conspiracy ending with one of them going over the bridge. The other two coming down deciding to hide the body and keep it secret. I thought this was a cool idea that had a lot of potential to become a very unique performance but my only downside to this would be the idea is very ensamble friendly and more main character driven so if we were going to do this idea we would need to spend sometime on coming up with how we could use our whole cast in an effective way.
Our final idea we came up with for this was of a distant future that has lost almost all forms of power causing the development of the planet to stop still. Several people receive a call informing them to meet below the bridge to collect a new form of power to use. Upon arriving they all see they weren't the only person informed about this offer, a phone suddenly rings which hasn't happened in years due to the power issue, They answer to hear a voice claiming to be a person called Jordan telling them they will get their power but first instructing them to look up, when they do this they see the body fall in front of them.
As a group we presented our power idea to the others to be used as the site specfic idea for Fort amhurst.

Runaways

I have been thinking of my own idea i'd like to do for site specific because at the moment I don't feel like we have enough idea to chose from as a collective. I have called my idea Runaways:

A group of youths have taken refuge at Fort Amherst from a disaster in the outside world (no one knows what has caused this or what the problem is but they know they can't leave the fort). No one knows how long the world has been like this. There's one group of youths who are already taking refuge in the fort and have been since the start when another group of outsiders sneak their way in. The new group start to cause problem by spread rumour s and paranoia threw the Fort of a monster/ghost. Because most of them are naturally youths their imagination gets the best of them and they start to believe in their being a monster/ghost. 

I feel this idea can create good opportunity for physical theatre pieces inspired by Hunting the monster or a bit on the groups despair and losing faith. It also grants equal chance for strong dialogue driven scenes with either one on one scenes and groups scenes would work just as well in this piece.

My idea was inspired by these sources:

• Lord of the flies (Book)
• Revolution (TV)
• The 100 (TV)
• Aftermath (the general concept of what life is like after a disaster)

Choosing Locations

Today we sat down voted on our choice of location from 4 options:

• Fort Amherst

• Upnor castle

• Orchid

• Dockside

As a group we voted and by the end of the vote. We had chosen that For Amherst would be our chosen performance space.

We we're then given our first picture of Fort Amherst taken from outside, so this picture gave us a new range of possibility we could use for the piece. This time we were in three groups, mine was me, Toby, Tom and Theo. The four of us were discussing and wanted to create a new idea that no group had previously thought of. We went through a few ideas like a future revolution or a prisoner story. We put the two ideas together to create a piece that was in a prison with captured members of the revolution. We tried to create this as a dialogue lead scene but struggled to create due to not knowing where we wanted to go in this scene and what should happen that would keep it interesting.

One of the groups had struggled just like we had this lesson to develop an idea that could keep an audience's attention. The last group had created a piece that further develops an idea from last lesson which was the mental asylum idea. They had done it like it was a garden for the patients where doctor walked around describing the problems of the patients.

I like the idea of using a mental asylum and I think that the location provides a brilliant atmosphere for this piece. my only problem with this is i feel a lot of us have already decided on this idea but we don't have a lot of other good ideas to choose from for the piece.

Creating with our idea

Today we split into 2 groups to create two scenes to help decide who shall be our psychiatrist for the piece. We were given a photo of one of the tunnels which is used as a church, so we used it as inspiration for Tom's character who believes he is Jesus. We create a scene where the psychiatrist out thinks the patients logic that he is Jesus causing the patient to get aggregated. This scene can be approved upon later but has the potential to bea very creative and controversial scene. This can be done by using parts of scripture that can reflect on the asylum as a whole and the people in it. This would be interesting as we could bring in religious views on the mentally handicapped and how they can be helped. I also think this could be a controversial scene as religious views can be interpreted in many ways and we could use that to our advantage by tying to find our own dark twisted meaning in scripture to use for our piece. I feel this is a good idea as we could add layers of meanings to the piece by creating our own interpretations of religious scripture. Another idea we came up with today was that the doctor and the nurse were actually patients at the hospital and the actual doctor is missing. This is an interesting idea as it can be a good twist for the ending and a great shock for the audience when they find out they spent the whole journey with not actually being safe from the danger of the patients as they were being lead by the patients. Today was a very productive lesson as both groups created a scene for the show that could be developed upon later but we have actually managed to start creating our show. We had also decided that we were going to use the seven devils piece we created at the start of the unit and would just improve upon it later and add others into it. 

First ideas pieces

Today we split off into 2 groups to work on a single idea for our site specific. My group was me, Toby, Dan M, Ellie, Meg and Freya and we worked on the idea of a mental institute or the idea of mentally disabled people being drawn to a place and studied. Our group wanted to create a unsettling piece and we tried to achieve this by using Promenaded technique in the piece by having our audience move around us while we perform. To start the piece we liked the idea of all of us being spread across the room on chairs as we then had someone else in our group walk the audience through as like a doctor. We used the doctor for expositional purposes before leaving the room. We then wanted to spread our audience around us to help unsettle them as they won't have the comfort of being in a crowd. We then used "Seven devil" a song by Florence and the machine to perform our piece too, their are these key sections in the song where a drum pick up the pace for a burst where we then in time with these burst make quick sudden movements building up to more erratic movements that had us reaching out to audience members. We then all rise up in unison to drop as our doctor re-enters and then shouts at the audience for touching the patients, while this was happening, one of the patients gets up and sits the doctor down, after which they say that their actually doctor and then move on.
I like this piece we have created as I think using this idea for site specific will let us use very creative and unique physical theater pieces as well as a strange atmosphere for the audience.
The other group create a idea where we are waiting for an evacuation from some kind of apocalyptic setting but there has been no sign of rescue.

Locations

Today we started to plan out where we wanted to go and perform in our Site Specific piece we need to create, so for this lesson we split into 3 groups to come up with ideas for locations we could go and perform. This is the list of ideas my group came up with for potential performance areas:

• Hospital
• 3G (Football area)
• Super market
• Road
• House
• Beach
• Golf Course
• Gym
• Blue water
• Zoo
• Tap n Tin
• Casinos
• Dobbies
• Class room
• Prison
• Tom's tree house
• Castle
• Play ground
• Abandoned places
• Chatham Dockyard
• Alley way
• Boat
• Warehouse
• Graveyard
• Behind stage
• Park
• Fort Amherst
• Field
• Pub
• Matt's hill
• Farm
• Woods

After we had thought of all these idea we talked to the class as a whole about what ideas are practice and would be good to create a piece around.
We then chose one of our location to create an idea to present to our class so my group chose a Abandoned place as we want to create a ghost story as well as a present day story that overlapped in the scenes and narrative as these 2 groups effects what happens to the other group. I personality liked this idea thinking we could be very clever in our use of space and split screen to have scenes overlap each other in a creative way. We also had the idea of having a moment where the audience decides the out come of a situation in the show. This is what my group came up with while the other groups came up with the idea of a Mental institute at Fort Amherst and an abduction at a warehouse.

Starting the Importance of being earnest

I've been in here for about a month now and they have let me out of my room in to this pathetic excuse of a social room where everything appears rapped in foam and their are only like 4 other people in here at the moment. Their this strange girl laying on the ground talking about someone called "natty" and a tea party. This weird boy in the corner reading a book and this other guy who appears to be shouting at another person sitting on a chair, he shouting at him about something to do with it being "his chair so why the fuck are you sitting their", the other guy is just starring with a very blank face towards him. Why the hell am I in here with these freaks, their is something so very wrong with these people. After a few minutes this other person came in and he said his name was George and he started rambling on about everyone needing to work together to create a a play, I actually thought he was joking at first until he started handing out scripts to the rest of us. The angry bloak from earlier started asking him why "why the fuck are we doing a play". George then started talking about how we have no choice and that the people in charge are making them doing and some other stuff like that, I kinda stopped listening to him because I didn't really care. Things were okay I guess but the play seemed like a load of rubbish, it was just about these posh twats trying to get married by pretending to be someone different. I personally couldn't think of anything more boring. George then came up to me and said that he would like me to play this guy called Algernon, I said "yeah, sure" not really paying attention to him until later when I realised that he gave this massive part in his stupid show that I don't want to do. He then told me its too late and I am now playing Algernon. So just when I thought this place couldn't be any worse, I am now being forced to perform like a dancing monkey to others.

Sub Text



Today we were asked to look at sub text in our lesson focusing on one scene from our play. To do this we were introduced to an exercise where as our characters we would clap which meant everyone else would freeze and whoever had clapped would get to say what they were thinking at that moment but it was said as their character. This exercise helped with the development of our character as it gave us a chance to havelook at our character from beyond what we read in the script, by doing this we can understand not only what our characters are saying but why we believe their saying. It was interesting experience as while watching everyone else I can see who is saying what they feel and who holds it in. My character and Dan's character say how they feel all the time but Kai, Toby and Ellie's characters normal avoid saying what they really feel by changing topic or ignoring their emotions.

We have spent a lot of time working on this scene in our rehearsals as it is the introduction Kinsey and Milo so we wanted to make sure we presented these characters in the correct to reflect on who they are. So before they enter we wanted to make sure our characters were placed right before they came in. We have Kai as George at the front of the stage in the middle with Rose on his left sat down and me on his right sat down. When Milo and Kinsey first walk in  George steps down from the front as Milo pushes past him to show the change in power between the two due to Milo's burst of anger and George's inability to always control him. Kinsey stays back behind the table because Kinsey doesn't step in front of the problem he stays in the background and subtly manipulates it. Through out the scene Milo rushes around the stage trying to square up to everyone and assert himself while Kinsey is at the back making comments to aggravate Milo. We then show the power swap again but this time between Milo and Kinsey as Milo starts to bring up the past which pushes Kinsey into a corner. We show this by Milo regaining centre stage as Kinsey has been moved to edge with Rose. We then discussed how we'd shift the control back to George, we weren't sure how to shift the power back to him from Milo, we first thought of having George rush forward in front of Milo while saying his line in a desperate grab for the control again but thought it was to desperate for the sort of character George is so we then had him slowly edge forward with his lines as he grabs more control of the group but we weren't sure of this idea either as we all though George was more of dominate type so we then though he would start off trying casual take the power back while saying "Can we get back to play" but he would then take more of an aggressive approach when Milo tries to challenge him but George is able to push Milo back for the moment. This is shown by George stepping up towards the centre of the room and then having Milo step down.

Voice of characters

Today we spent the lesson focusing on the voice of our characters in our show by filling out a sheet on how confident we are with certain skills, writing down our strengths and targets to improve.


Diction/articulation: 5
I pronounce and hold sentence structures with correct grammar.
I struggle with the pronunciation of bigger words and I also tend to pronounce my "th" as "f".


Tone: 7
I know how to effectively use my tone to help show my emotions.
I want to learn how to use my tone in an ironic way to convey emotion.


Pitch: 7
Naturally I have a high an pitch voice but I can achieve a lower pitch when needed.
I struggle to maintain a lower pitch voice at a consistence's as I naturally prefer a higher pitch.


Projection: 8
I'm very good at projecting my voice over large distances so that I can always be heard.
I start to speak quiet when I struggle with the pronunciation of words.


Accent/Dialect: 4
I have a very small range a accents that I can achieve successfully.
I would like to increase my range of accents I can achieve so I have more verity.


Vocal Control: 7
I have a very strong voice control of being able to hold my voice at the volume it is.
I tend to have voice cracks sometimes when I am immersed in my role.


Breath control: 8
I have very good breath control when I am performing so that I can perform without difficulty.
After a  Physical theatre piece I can sometime struggle to regain my breath control straight away after it finishes.

First day on site

Well I finally got what I wanted, four walls around me and a bed but I've got to share with God knows how many other freaks. I always wanted a place to sleep at night and now I've got one for free. Haven't been aloud out of my room yet, they have left a tray with pasta on it, no fork or spoon. Guessing they expect me to use my hands, doesn't bother me, food is food no matter how it's eaten. There is also a couple of pills on a tray, I suppose they need me to take them. Those pills will probably make me all relaxed and loopy, so I don't think I will take them. I won't give in to their ways. They'll open the door soon I can step out and look at all those freaks again, I ain't like them, we both need to be here but for different reasons, I just need a place to live but all them are freaks who need help. I can hear them, some of sing at night another person just shouts out every word under the sun. Their is this one guy who just screamed for ages last night, I don't know how long he managed to scream, no clock in this place. I'm not sure if it's light out yet, no Windows in this place. Feels like I have spent weeks in here but I know it hasn't even been a day yet. I feel like I may actually go mad from being in here. Those men I hate them, they threw me in here like I was nothing, they used me and took advantage of me and the got rid of me when I decided I didn't want to their's any more. I'm going to get out of here no matter how long it takes. I can wait, got nothing better to do, I'm going to get out of here and when I do those queer child bashers are going to get what's coming to them... When will they let me out of this room I'm bored. Let me out!

Staging and Proximics for Handbag

Over the past couple of lessons we have managed to full stage our whole show. This was at first a simple task as we only have one setting in our show which has a table and 6 chairs spread out around the floor. As we progressed through our rehearsal the idea we have changed a little in how we have the audience, we keep a traditional staging but we have an extra bit on seating on the side of the stage area coming off from the front of the audience. Later on we added the actual stage that was behind our staging area, for the start of the show whenever we enact scenes from "Importance of being earnest" we perform it on the actual stage but for the actual scene we move down to in front of stage. Another staging idea we have stuck with is that each of our characters have a certain chair. from the audience prospective our chair order from left to right goes, Me, Kai, Dan, Toby, Dom and ends with Ellie. Our characters are only aloud to sit in these chairs. We started to look at our characters Proximity's with each other, especially with George and Kinsey as because of their past they try to avoid each other throughout their scenes so we had to always watch them to help make sur ethey move around naturally making it realistic while maintaining their distantace, we also wanted to keep these proximics but not make it obvious that they were avoiding each other during the performance so their movements between each other is subtle. Allan's proximics are easier for me to decide as their isn't anyone Allan doesn't like and would advoid during the show so Allan stays close to most people except when they all start to argue which is when he distance himself from everyone so he can watch with enjoyment.

Allan's Monologue

I have decided that I was going to read over my monologue, I perform as Allan and take it apart to analyse in as much detail as I can.
"Julius Caesar. I can't say I ever saw it. And I used to watch a lot of video nasties..."
During this first line when I perform it I just start to drift off into my own world as referring to "Julius Caesar" as a video "nastie" it triggers a state of mind for Allan where all he can do is talk about is traumatic past. I believe and have interpreted that Allan has trigger words and phrases that bring up his memories from his abusive past. this links back to near start when he talking about 'Oscar Wilde' being gay and how Allan became increasingly annoyed when Rose tried to have a go at him for saying "Queer".
"I used to watch them all the time. When I was a kid. I lived down the road from my local Blockbuster and the manager took a shine to me. He used to take me into the back room to show me these dirty films... not that you get very dirty films at Blockbuster. Smutty more like, though still capable of affecting an impressionable mind."
This is the first time anyone has heard about Allan's past out side of the institute and we learn that it wasn't a very good life. We start of learning that Allan from a young age has been subjected to pornographic images that in his words were "Capable of affecting an impressionable mind." I have also interpreted from these lines that in my opinion that Allan as well as being shown pornographic images was also taken advantage of by the shop owner.
"I preferred the action films. Die Hard. Scream Two. Little did I know that they might one day furnish me with the title of my own autobiography. But the best news was when Blockbuster started renting computer games. Now I could enjoy the violence in the privacy of my room."
From these set of lines we learn that Allan was very sadistic child as he enjoyed the idea of controlling violence through video games. Allan also talks about how he was impression by the violent action films. He says that these film "furnish me with the title of my own autobiography" which is quite a twisted line suggesting his life could be like an violent action film where he'd go out and kill people based on his tragic child hood.

"I preferred Doom and Laura Croft. They were great. I mean, the graphics were really in your face. Only my step-dad... he was dead against them. He used to go on about them. All the shooting. All the killing. People getting mauled by lion and sliced up by monsters..."
We see more of Allan's twisted soul emerge as he talks about the violence in the games with such a passionate and personal attachment to the violence. Allan gives a impression that all he wants to do is play violent games where he could kill and mane the characters to his hearts content. After analysing this section of Allan's monologue I have come up with my own interpretation that Allan isn't actually talking about video games. Allan is really talking about animal abuse, the effects he was talking about are actually the blood splatter from small animals he had been torturing. What makes me believe this is when Allan talks about the graphics in the games make them seem like they're so realistic when in fact the games from the 1st generation of PlayStation were actually didn't have the best graphics because technology had been developed that much in graphics yet. So this lead me to believe that Allan was actually committing gruesome animal cruelty. Alternatively the Graphics are only realistic to Allan because he can actually visualise committing the murders.
"My step-dad used to say that one thing would only lead to another. The blood splatter and the sound effects. They made it more realistic until in the end it almost felt like the real thing and who could blame until in the end it almost felt like the real thing and who could blame you if you decided that you wanted... you know... if you wouldn't actually prefer the real thing. it was one small step."
In this we see the last part of Allan's innocents die as he finally appears to enter a absolute mind of a killer but at the same time at this moment we sympathise with Allan because this is the moment we understand the Allan the most as we have had in the whole show as we have had look into his past to see how tragic it has been for one child. This part raises the question of whether Allan is responsible for his actions he has done because he is clearly now presented as a very damaged individual but should that be a excuse for the crime Allan committed later in his life.
"No. I'm not saying that. My step-dad didn't want me to play violent games. he used to search me every time I came back from school. I had a PlayStation but he personally chose all the software. Civilisation. The Sims. Stuff like that. He'd search my room... he was worried about my long-term  development. Anyway, one night he came in unexpectedly and caught me red-handed, I'd just managed to get my hands on Grand Theft Auto and there I was blasting away, left right and
centre. And there he was, standing at the door."
In this ending paragraph we see the last part of Allan's childhood with his parents before he ran away which is where his step-dad beat him up. This paragraph connects to my theory about Allan being involved with animal cruelty. When Allan was search on his way home for games he was actually being search for weapons Allan tried to sneak home and when his stepdad caught him paying the game it was that he actually was caught torturing an animal.

Character Profile

Real name: unknown
Name: Allan
Character he plays: Algernon Moncrieff



Age: 18
How long in institute: 4 Months
Age he left home: 12



Family:
Dad: Dead, died when Allan was 6.
Mum: After his Dad died, the mum became very neglectful of Allan especially when she met his Step-Dad.
Siblings: No brothers or Sisters.
Step-Dad: Physically abuses Allan for 5 years forcing him to run away.



Personality:
Allan is a very strong individual type when we meet him in the play who sees everything as a bit of joke constantly making quick comments about anything he can. Very early on it becomes clear that Allan is a bit of a homophobia making it clear that he doesn't like gay people but the reason he doesn't like them isn't clear till later in the play. It is made clear that Allan has his own opinion and only this refusing to except any other alternative belief than what he himself knows.



Home life:
Allan's home life was a nice life until he reached the age of 6 which is when his dad died. After his dad died his mum became very distant to Allan causing Allan to become a victim of Neglect from his mum. A year later Allan's mum married a man who became Allan's step-dad, Allan clearly becomes a victim of abuse from his step-dad causing Allan to avoid his home as much as possible which is when he started to go to blockbuster where he met the owner who started to take sexual advantage of him after showing him "video nasties". Eventually Allan managed to find enjoyment in playing video games before his step-dad stopped him playing the games by putting him in the hospital. Another idea about Allan's childhood we had as a group that Allan was into torturing animals and him playing his video games is a code word for the animal abuse, so when he was searched each day after getting home from school his step-dad searching for weapons not games, when Allan talks about the graphics of the game being realistic he is actually reliving his past experiences of torturing the animals. When his step-dad caught him playing games he was actually in the middle of torturing an animal. Eventually at the age of 12 Allan ran away from home.



Life in London:
After running away, Allan went to London for years staying on the streets avoiding the police who tried to kick him off the streets. Allan found refuge with a group of homeless people for the first year who helped show him how to steal a meal and live on the streets. Eventually Allan found refuge in Victoria station in which he was taken by a man who tried to turn Allan into a sex salve where he was raped by many older men in the cloakrooms of Victoria station. After having this done we discussed that Allan ended up in the institute for one of these two reasons: 1. after years of being a sex slave, in fear and anger he attacked one of his clients killing him which ended up putting him in the institute due to his tragic life. 2. Allan eventually refused one his Clients who was high up in power and hit him when the client tried to assault Allan, this lead to the Client filling a police report making out that Allan is a dangerous youth and should be sent away.





Character relationships:
These are the relationship between our characters we wrote about together as a group.
Allan:

• George: George doesn't dislike Allen, he just gets annoyed at him. Wants Allan to just do as is told. Gets angry at Allan a lot.
• Kinsey: Thinks he's a bit strange. Video games. Sympathetic due to his past. Thinks he shouldn't be there.
• Milo: Doesn't really know much about Allan so doesn't tend to get angry or pick holes in Allan. Probably dislikes Allan. Probably jealous Allan has a better part then him.
• Rose: Rose misunderstands Allan and doesn't get why he reacts to her in a negative way. Wants Allan not to be rude. Thinks Allan has stupid opinions.
• Specs: Gets ignored by Allan. Allan doesn't like Specs because he prompts him.

George:

• Allan: Allan irrates George easily. As people they don't mind each other. They only fight about the play. Very sarcastic towards each other.
• Kinsey: Blames Kinsey for ending up in the institution. Kinsey wants to move from the past. Kinsey feels rejected.
• Milo: Milo wants authority and control over George. Milo hates George for being in charge. George is patient so the complete opposite to Milo.
• Rose: Understands Rose and talks in a way she will understand. Knows when Rose needs help. Feels safe in his presence. Looks out for her.
• Specs: No respect for Specs. Very condescending. Know he controls Specs

Kinsey:

• Allan: Mutual respect. Jealous of relationship between Allan and George. Doesn't mind Allan. Doesn't want to be enemies.
• George: Friends before. Committed a crime together. George blames Kinsey. Disjointed relationship. Kinsey takes control.
• Milo: Love/Hate relationship with Milo. Kinsey likes Milo and thinks they are friends. Milo still hates Kinsey and everyone else. They can put up with each other.
• Rose: Thinks Rose is dumb. Misunderstands why drugs are used. Gets annoyed with Rose because how she is with drugs.
• Specs: Specs is the only person he doesn't know anything about. Doesn't want to know anything.

Milo:

• Allan: Has no problem with Milo. Never had a conflicting issue. Both have strong personality. Share similar. Both don't like the play.
• George: Feels slightly intimidated by Milo. Anxious about Milo's anger. Backs down when confronted by Milo.
• Kinsey: Tolerates his anger. Banter. Follows his behaviour. Influenced by him. Finds him funny. Friends?
• Rose: Doesn't understand Milo's anger. Try's to joke about Milo but doesn't realise how he'll react. Thinks they're friends. Wants Milo to understand her.
• Specs: Don't speak. Don't acknowledge each other.

Rose:

• Allan: Separated in opinion. Allan has a simple understanding of Rose. Is very blunt with her. Rose sometimes miss understands Allan's intentions which cause conflict.
• George: George likes Rose but thinks she is stupid. Doesn't understand why she is the way she is. But George can be sympathetic to Rose. Defends her.
• Kinsey: Thinks Rose is dumb. Misunderstands her. Gets annoyed with her. Undermines her.
• Milo: Milo constantly gets frustrated with Rose's stupidity. Angry and annoyed when she speaks. Rulebook annoys him.
• Specs: Doesn't like Specs but is sympathetic towards him. Specs likes her because she doesn't bully him.

Specs:

• Allan: Doesn't like Specs. Is very harsh and quick to raise his temper at Specs. Doesn't like being told what to do by the prompter(Specs). Avoids interaction with Specs when possible.
• George: Treats Specs with no respect. Takes Spec for granted. Bullies him. Gets frustrated with his stutter.
• Kinsey: Sees Spec as the most innocent one. Thinks he's harmless. 'Walking the streets'. Thinks he shouldn't be there.
• Milo: Doesn't care about Specs. Never notices Specs. Thinks he's weird.
• Rose: Does actually like Specs but says she doesn't to fit in. She sympathises for Specs as everyone bullies him. Thinks he needs looking after. Specs seeks friendship in Rose.

Costumes

Today we started to have a talk about what we wanted our show to look like for our audience. We briefly talked about set and then we had a debate on costumes.
Set was simple to sort as we all agree e wanted a table and a couple of chairs but to adjust this set to suit a young offenders institute. So we said we look in covering the corners of the tables in foam and instead of chairs we could get foam cubes to sit on. This set would work for a institute as it helps show the safety in institute which they talk about in the play.
Costumes was harder to set as we all have different ideas for different reasons:

All white:
Shows that there clearly in a institute and that there all inmates (realistic)

All white with 1 iteam of clothing:
This has the same reason as above but the idea of an extra iteam to help show individuality.

IOBE clothing:
We also thought about having them all in costume for "Impotence of being earnest" (IOBE) as they are all doing there dress rehearsal of the show.

Normal clothes:
I suggested normal clothes to try a trick the audience at first into thinking we are normal people so that when they hear clues of the horrible things that we have done it could be more of a shock to the audience.

Grey clothes:
This is similar reasons to wearing white except by wearing Grey it shows less purity with our characters and a more darker tone.

Singular colour:
We each wear a single colour that represents our characters.

Grey and white:
To show realism like some young offenders institutes. Grey bottoms and white tops.

Character reasearch part 2

http://www.streetsoflondon.org.uk/about-homelessness

7,500 people sleep rough on the streets of London every year. They come from every walk of life, and many of them want to find work.
Relationship breakdown, redundancy, poor mental health, alcohol/substance addiction, domestic abuse – these are just some of the reasons why people end up homeless.
people don’t choose to be homeless - they find themselves sleeping on the street because they arefacing a major crisis that means they’ve ended up with nowhere else to stay.

Sleeping rough has serious consequences. On average, homeless people die at just 47 years old, compared to 81 years for the average UK citizen. A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person.Two thirds of rough sleepers surveyed said they had been insulted by a member of the public, and one in ten said that they had been urinated on. We need to change attitudes towards homeless people – they have a right to be treated with the same respect as anyone else.The streets are a dangerous place to be - homeless people are 13 times more likely to be a victim of violent crime than the general public, and 47 times more likely to be a victim of theft.

NSPCC definition of child abuse:
Child abuse is any action by another person – adult or child – that causes significant harm to a child. It can be physical, sexual or emotional, but can just as often be about a lack of love, care and attention. We know that neglect, whatever form it takes, can be just as damaging to a child as physical abuse.

An abused child will often experience more than one type of abuse, as well as other difficulties in their lives. It often happens over a period of time, rather than being a one-off event.

Physical:
Physical abuse is deliberately hurting a child causing injuries such as bruises, broken bones, burns or cuts.
It isn’t accidental - children who are physically abused suffer violence such as being hit, kicked, poisoned, burned, slapped or having objects thrown at them. Shaking or hitting babies can cause non-accidental head injuries (NAHI). Sometimes parents or carers will make up or cause the symptoms of illness in their child, perhaps giving them medicine they don’t need and making the child unwell.

Neglect:
Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic needs and is the most common form of child abuse. A child may be left hungry or dirty, without adequate clothing, shelter, supervision, medical or health care. A child may be put in danger or not protected from physical or emotional harm. They may not get the love, care and attention they need from their parents. A child who's neglected will often suffer from otherabuse as well. Neglect is dangerous and can cause serious, long-term damage - even death.

Trafficking:
Child trafficking is child abuse. Children are recruited, moved or transported and then exploited, forced to work or sold. They are often subject to multiple forms of exploitation.

Children are trafficked for:
Child sexual exploitation.
Benefit fraud.
Forced marriage.
Domestic servitude such as cleaning, childcare, cooking.
Forced labour in factories or agriculture.
Criminal activity such as pickpocketing, begging, transporting drugs, working on cannabis farms, selling pirated DVDs, bag theft.

This has been my further research into creating and developing my character of Alan in a Handbag. I have looked at homeless life in London as Alan has spent some time in London with nowhere to go. I also looked further into child abuse as before I had only look at sexual abuse, this time I looked into the other forms of abuse I know Alan has received and some I believe he could have received. This is all to help me to create my character profile for Alan.

Algy research

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/the-importance-of-being-earnest/character-analysis/algernon-algy-moncrieff

Algernon Moncrieff is a member of the wealthy class, living a life of total bachelorhood in a fashionable part of London. He is younger than Jack, takes less responsibility, and is always frivolous and irreverent. As a symbol, he is wittiness and aestheticism personified. He — like Jack — functions as a Victorian male with a life of deception. Unlike Jack, he is much more self-absorbed, allowing Wilde to discuss Victorian repression and guilt, which often result in narcissism.
Along with Lady Bracknell, Algy is given witty lines and epigrams showing his humor and disrespect for the society he will inherit. In discussing the music for Lady Bracknell's reception, Algernon says, "Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music, people don't talk." This is Algernon's wit and wisdom contained in a single line. Occasionally, he even congratulates himself on his humor: "It's perfectly phrased!" He poses and moves luxuriously about the stage with the studied languor of the aesthete who has nothing to do but admire his own wittiness. One might certainly see him as a representation of Wilde's cleverness and position in the aesthetic cult of the 1890s.
Parallel to Wilde in deception, Algernon is leading a double life. He uses an imaginary invalid friend, Bunbury, to get out of boring engagements and to provide excitement in the otherwise dull life of Victorian England. As he says, "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it." This secrecy, of course, was also a facet of Wilde's life, which was unraveling before his Victorian audiences all too quickly by the time the play opened in London. With his irreverent attitudes about marrying and his propensity for a secret life, Algernon represents the rule-breaker side of Oscar Wilde — the side that eventually would meet its downfall in a notorious trial.
Finally, Algernon functions as an expression of the lengths to which Victorians had to go to escape the stifling moral repression and guilt brought about by a society that values appearance over reality. Algernon's constant references to eating and his repeated actions of gorging himself on cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and whatever food might be handy are symbols of total self-absorption, lust, and the physical pleasures denied by polite society. Just as institutions such as the church (Chasuble) and the education system (Prism) function to keep people on the straight and narrow, human nature denies these restrictions and seems to have a will of its own. Algernon symbolizes the wild, unrestricted, curly-headed youngster who is happiest breaking the rules.

http://m.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/canalysis.html

Algernon, the play’s secondary hero, is closer to the figure of the dandy than any other character in the play. A charming, idle, decorative bachelor, Algernon is brilliant, witty, selfish, amoral, and given to making delightful paradoxical and epigrammatic pronouncements that either make no sense at all or touch on something profound. Like Jack, Algernon has invented a fictional character, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to give him a reprieve from his real life. Algernon is constantly being summoned to Bunbury’s deathbed, which conveniently draws him away from tiresome or distasteful social obligations. Like Jack’s fictional brother Ernest, Bunbury provides Algernon with a way of indulging himself while also suggesting great seriousness and sense of duty. However, a salient difference exists between Jack and Algernon. Jack does not admit to being a “Bunburyist,” even after he’s been called on it, while Algernon not only acknowledges his wrongdoing but also revels in it. Algernon’s delight in his own cleverness and ingenuity has little to do with a contempt for others. Rather, his personal philosophy puts a higher value on artistry and genius than on almost anything else, and he regards living as a kind of art form and life as a work of art—something one creates oneself.

Algernon is a proponent of aestheticism and a stand-in for Wilde himself, as are all Wilde’s dandified characters, including Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband,Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere’s Fan, Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance, and Lord Henry Wootton in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Unlike these other characters, however, Algernon is completely amoral. Where Lord Illingworth and Lord Henry are downright evil, and Lord Goring and Lord Darlington are deeply good, Algernon has no moral convictions at all, recognizing no duty other than the responsibility to live beautifully.

Character reasearch part 1

Child sexual abuse or child molestation is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation.

While children may exhibit regressive behaviours such as thumb sucking or bedwetting, the strongest indicator of sexual abuse is sexual acting out and inappropriate sexual knowledge and interest.

Child sexual abuse often occurs alongside other possibly confounding variables, such as poor family environment and physical abuse

A well-documented, long-term negative effect is the repeated or additional victimization in adolescence and adulthood. A causal relationship has been found between childhood sexual abuse and various adult psychopathologies, including crime and suicide.

Research has shown that traumatic stress, including stress caused by sexual abuse, causes notable changes in brain functioning and development.

Physical effects of sexual abuse:

Depending on the age and size of the child, and the degree of force used, child sexual abuse may cause internal lacerations and bleeding. In severe cases it can cause death.
Child sexual abuse may cause infections and sexually transmitted diseases.


Types of Sexual abuse:

• sexual assault – a term defining offenses in which an adult uses a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification.
• sexual exploitation – a term defining offenses in which an adult victimizes a minor for advancement, sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and creating or trafficking in child pornography.
• sexual grooming – a term defining the social conduct of a potential child sex offender who seeks to make a minor more accepting of their advances, for example in an online chat room.

Early signs of a serial killer:

• Psychopaths have a strong tendency towards antisocial behaviour, so watch for extremely antisocial children.
• Many serial killers start as arsonists. Arson is psychologically attractive because it involves manipulating power and control, something that serial killing also offers.
• This is one of the strongest warning signs. Children who torture or kill small animals like squirrels, birds, cats, and dogs without showing remorse are highly likely to be sociopaths.
• Many serial killers are abused – physically, psychologically, sexually – as children by a close family member.
• From a young age, many serial killers are interested in voyeurism, sado-masochistic pornography, and fetishism.
• Despite higher than normal intelligence, many serial killers have trouble keeping jobs or work in unskilled labour.
• Bed wetting is also a sign of serial killer at young age if the child in question is still wetting there bed later in their life compared to other children of the same age.

To help me understand my character of Alan I have look into the issue of sexual abuse because in the play it is clearly presented that Alan is a victim of sexual abuse, I have looked at the negative reprocutions this can have on a teenager physically and mentally which will help me better understand Alan as a character. I also thought it would be interesting to look in to signs of a serial killer at a young age as I believe from what I found in the research that Alan fits most of theses signs from lines in the script or by my understanding of the sub text. This is to help me start my character profile of Alan.

Research

Within our class we had been put into 2 groups for our contemporary theatre piece. I have been put in the group performing "A Handbag".
Our cast list is
George: Kai
Allan: me
Rose: Ellie
Kinsey: Toby
Irene (Milo): Dan S
Specs: Dom

In our first rehearsal we managed to do a full read through of the play learning its about a group of people in a special facilitie trying to put on a performance of "The importance of being earnest".
We were asked to research into this play so we could have a better understanding.

Play: "The importance of being earnest"

Playwrite: Oscar Wilde

First performed: 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London

Play type: A Trivial comedy for serious people

Synopsis (Act 1):
The play begins with Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff welcoming his friend John ‘Jack’ Worthing to his home, whom he knows as Ernest. ‘Ernest’ has come from his country estate to propose to Algy’s cousin, Gwendolen. Algy refuses consent until Ernest explains an inscription on his cigarette case which calls him ‘Uncle Jack’. ‘Ernest’ admits to creating an alter ego. He is Jack in the country, guardian of his ward Cecily, but regularly leaves for London to visit his pretend brother Ernest. Whilst in London he pretends to be Ernest, a flirtatious socialite. Algy also admits to creating a fictitious invalid friend called Mr Bunbury, whom he visits in the country to get away from London.
Gwendolen and her terrifying mother Lady Bracknell arrive to visit Algy. Jack quietly proposes to Gwendolen, who accepts, saying she could never love a man who wasn’t called Ernest. Lady Bracknell finds them alone together and quickly interviews Jack for his suitability. She learns he was adopted after being found in a handbag at Victoria Station, and refuses the marriage because he has no direct relations. Gwendolen says she still loves Jack and he gives her his country address. Algy secretly reads it.

Synopsis (Act 2):
Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism, on her uncle Jack’s esate. Algy arrives and pretends to be Ernest, Jack’s brother. Cecily has never met Ernest, she falls in love with his secretive nature and they become engaged. Like Gwendolen, she claims to only love men called Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack decides to give up his alter ego and arrives on his estate to declare the sudden death of his brother Ernest. Algy, however, is pretending to be Ernest, so Jack has to go along with his story for fear of revealing his own lies. Both men secretly plan to be officially christened as ‘Ernest’ by the local vicar Dr Chusable. 
Gwendolen then arrives at the estate having escaped from Lady Bracknell. She meets Cecily and they both declare to be engaged to men called Ernest. Jack and Algy’s lies are exposed.

Synopsis (Act 3):
Lady Bracknell arrives, having followed her daughter, and is shocked to find Algy and Cecily engaged. She is easily won over, however, after learning about Cecily’s trust fund. Jack refuses to give consent unless Lady Bracknell agrees to him marrying Gwendolen.  Miss Prism enters and Lady Bracknell instantly recognises her. She was a family maid who took Lady Bracknell’s baby nephew out in his pram 28 years ago but mysteriously vanished. Miss Prism admits that she had absentmindedly put a novel she was writing in the pram, and the baby in her handbag, which she left at Victoria Station. Jack announces he is the lost baby and therefore Algy’s brother. Lady Bracknell accepts his and Gwendolen’s marriage because he has found his relations. Gwendolen is confused as to her lover’s real name. Lady Bracknell says he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the army lists and finds that his father’s name was in fact Ernest.