Physical Theatre and Dollshouse

Primarily, at the beginning of this lesson, we were told to write down some bullets points on a piece of paper. We were told to write anything we know or felt about sexism and gender inequality. This was to be used later in the exercise. We used these videos in the lesson, in order to create a short reinterpretation of Doll's house in a physical way. The video on the left focused on creating a small scene by taking several techniques, and adding them all together. This focused specifically on using a beat to create a physical piece. We recreated this by placing the men at the back of the room, with each on their own desk. The women sat at the front, squished onto one desk. This represented the difference in the treatment of the genders- it showed that the men had the luxuries of their own space and equipment. Moreover, the men would face the women as if they were controlling them, and the women would hunch over on their shared desk.  

We then continued and focused on lifts. We used the video on the right. This taught us how easy it is to create a dynamic lift with the whole class. We did this multiple times and attempted to make the lift more dynamic, by moving the person in the air. Finally, we used several different lifts to create meaning- we used the 'callipo' lift to show Nora's longing for escape, and how controlled she was. The class holding her represented the masses, specifically Helmer, who believed that she should stay, and be controlled.