In devising and creating work, much of our idea is based on existing work that we have witnessed, read, or heard about. One may see this as cheating, or being void of originality, however if we had no point of reference, we wouldn’t know where to begin. Almost every company takes influence from other people within the industry, such as Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment) and Elizabeth LeCompte (The Wooster Group). Yet, while we have these influences, it is useful to remember that many people like to see originallity, so it is essential to find your own level of creativity to use within your work too.

Looking at four different play texts wrote between 1960 and 1978, clarity occured in realising theatrical devices that were used, and how the social politics of the time effected the work produced. In ‘Saved’ by Edward Bond (1965), we noticed that through the use of devices such as phonetic spelling and specific character description that the writer can have a say in how the work is produced later on. By using phonetic language, the director and actors are forced to use this phonetic language too. In ‘Saved’ the phonetic language provided a vivid picture of the character’s class and locality, as Bond would have intended, in order to make a statement. Through presentation of characters in North London, in a state of culteral poverty, Bond made a specific remark towards a particular issue of his time, which he perhas didn’t want to become more generalised.

The use of shock tactic is also highly noticable in ‘Saved’. In his work a baby is stoned by a group of men for amusement, this perhaps making a comment on how high levels of unemployment, lead people to bordom, finding amusement in the most drastic way. While this may be a hightened portrayal that one may consider ‘exteme’, through artistic choice of portraying the problem at an emphisised level, we make the problem one in which an audience are forced to conciously consider, instead of allowing them to remain passive to it. I noticed this myself in the work of another current playwright, Philip Ridley, also known for controvertial work, in a play called ‘Shivered’ (2012), in which a story is told of a baby burning itself, as if it were a comedy. This level of controversy forces one to consider what is right and wrong, and what their opinion is. If the theatre wasn’t at this level, and audience may remain more passive to the ideas which are being communicated.

Again, in the play ‘Cloud 9’ by Caryl Churchill a noticable number of bold features were used to make a certain point. Set between colonial Africa in the Victorian times (Act 1), and London in 1979 (Act 2) we see a significant contrast in how society is stuctured. Using the same characters, as only 25 years passes for the characters, while 100 years passes in time, we see that the women and homosexual characters become more open and voiced in act 2, as opposed to a firmly male dominated society in act 1. Personally, as a spectator from the current time, I also found act 1 to seem almost absurd, with cross relationships and certain phrases to describe characters, while act 2 appeared to be more at a level of normallity, perhaps suggesting that in a society more devoted to equality, we would find an increased level of truth. This idea is futher hightened by the use of cross gender performers in act 1, which visualises through it’s juxtaposistion how different identities (male, female, homosexual) are seen in a time where, with a firm and defined structer, come firm and defined steriotypes.

In a third play, ‘The Caretaker’ by Harold Pinter (1960), we notice how much can be seen through the use of playing with elements such as Grice’s maxims, in particular the maxim of quantity. Throughout the play the contrast in volume of speech that occurs between the charactures Davies and Aston is highly noticable, and can tell a lot about the characters. With a character that might speak at a high quantity (Davies) we may find in the case of ‘The Caretaker’ a level of mis-trust with the character as opposed to Aston who speaks less, but we feel more trust towards, which might go against general ideas, that people would think vice-versa. This use of the maxim of quantity also suggests how, without directly communicating something in the language itself, an audience may come to conclusions towards a character through more subtle means, such as the amount that they express themself.

Furthermore with ‘The Caretaker’ we realise how import stage action is, as this is a way in which Pinter strongly expresses his characters and the situations they are in. For example, in a moment in which all 3 characters try to take a bag from one another, we lean about the status between them in terms of feeling towards one another and dominance. This use of precise stage action shows how many playwrights are not only involved with the langauge of a piece, but other defining qualities of the performance too.

The final play we looked at, ‘Absurd Person Singular’ (1972), by Alan Ayckbourn, takes place over three consecutive days of Christmas. Looking at the relationships between three couples, this farcicle comedy explores class, success and happieness in a way that can be relatable to a modern audience. The use of off-stage action is a key element used within the play, as the audience watch the action within the kitchen, yet the main action taks place within the living room next door. The use of this allows the audience to use their imagination as to what occurs as the ‘main’ action. Yet, the main action is what we see taking place in the kitchen, this questioning what the ‘main’ action in a performance is. In the kitchen, it can be argued that we see characters that are more genuine, as they are away from the pressures of ‘making an impression’ at the party within the next room, allowing us to see a more truthful dynamic.