(Gecko Network)

The presentation of the original theatre piece for the Collaborative Theatre Project was a piece that had the initial stimulus of ‘Green Technology’. My group consisting of Disara Samayawardhana, Nehemiah Senaratne who was unfit for the final performance, Virath De Alwis, and I, Seth Mahima Suranjiv Keerthiratne, performed at the Overseas School of Colombo’s United Nations day, better known as UN day, our original theatre piece that we titled “T-Minus Zero hours”. My initial thoughts before performing the piece were that the audience reaction would be adequate and the extent to which the piece fulfilled its intentions would also be mediocre as we lost Nehemiah Senaratne for the final performance due to an ankle injury we had to adapt to the piece without him. After the performance however, we achieved our desired intention and the reaction from the audience was also really positive with a few critical comments even though we were missing a person.

The original artistic intention of our proposed theatre piece is to portray a view to the audience that it is not too late to change our ways, but the consequences will be dire if we continue like this into the future, which was conveyed clearly especially with the ending we decided to do with the globe, where a blackout was utilized and the light from our phones was used. The impact it had on the audience was that they saw the light that we emitted ourselves was what kept the world as we know it bright, this creates tension by the meaning it conveys, which it is simply put is exactly the same as our artistic intention and the intended reaction from the audience.

An example of a comment from a viewer of our original theatre piece, Mrs. Lindsay O’Sullivan, who said that “Disara and Virath’s moment at the beginning of the piece where she was reading the text on the phone with him was well done. The placement of your bodies and Disara reaching over to scroll for Virath was very visually engaging. I also really liked the timing Seth and Disara used when pushing against the walls in time with the music. That was well timed and added to the stress level in the audience, which I assume was intended”. This means that she feels strongly about the message we intended our audience to see from our artistic intention as we showed her Virath’s and Disara’s interaction, which from the get-go makes Disara’s character seem less human and more of an entity.

Mrs. Loretta Duncan, also like Mrs. Lindsay O’Sullivan, felt that it was a commentary on how modern-day people, represented by Virath, are concerned with themselves and their immediate satisfaction, shown by the use of technology. The greater, worldwide problems, especially climate change and pollution, are too removed from the immediate issues, and as they are not necessary to be dealt with right now, they can be ignored, or left for others to deal with, in future generations. This for her was represented by Virath living oblivious to a sea of rubbish and garbage, which only later became present and relevant for him when his phone ran out of battery which we as a group planned to make it seem. So, then it was like the reality of the situation suddenly presented itself to Virath’s character. She felt that Disara and I were like his conscience and the voice of the world trying to make humanity listen and she believed that the ending was a plea for action, which it was according to our artistic intention.

The most constructive comment we received as a group was from Mr. Hector Vargas. He stated that “It was great, illustrative, sharing, realistic…maybe I would have “thrown” someone dressed up in a yellow jumper/jersey to give it a bit of contrast”. This is a valid point as we as a group decided to wear all black so we could have experimented with the wardrobe and costume section of our piece.

The desired audience impact is achieved by the group when we make them laugh at the given punchline, which was me laughing hysterically like a hyena. The audience recognizes the techniques for this and laughs in chorus in response to me. This shows that the artistic intention was received and that the audience can judge the performance fairly afterwards taking everything into account.

The strengths of the piece as a whole were prominent. They were the movement component and the selection of the music to create a tense atmosphere in certain parts such as when Virath is running on the stage and also creates an emotional atmosphere as the part where Disara’s character and my character. However, the limitations of the piece as a whole are that of course, we were missing a person for the final performance, which really hindered us in the process. What worked was that the music fit really well with the movement and the task was well put together, this is because we took the time to choreograph what we did and rehearsed it thoroughly. What didn’t work is that the voice projection could have been a little louder as there were people in the back of the auditorium who said that they couldn’t hear a single thing that was being said.

In conclusion, the overall performance was a success with absolutely no mistakes. It was well timed and the pauses were used effectively. The cues were fully achieved as well. In my personal opinion, this was a successful performance and the piece as a whole was too because of the aforementioned points.