War- Task 2

Non-naturalistic drama is a performance that is the opposite to life like drama. Non-naturalistic drama was introduced by a German playwright and  director called Brecht. He used non naturalistic drama to give his work a political message. Non-naturalistic drama is strange and unreal so the audience thinks more about the message. life- like drama is a 'slice of life' and shows a realistic performance that you can relate to. In my opinion I prefer non-naturalistic drama because it can portray a message, and it makes the audience think more. This means that the audience would be very captivated by the performance and it allows the audience to infer there own meaning to the play and what the plays message is. Furthermore I think that Non-naturalistic drama is more exciting because it can show something surreal. I think the overall message of the play is not to believe the government. I think it also is saying that the government tell lies (and put up stuff like propaganda) posters to encourage and persuade you to join  the war. When it was much worse than it seems. These lies lead to dreadful things so telling lies is a bad habit. If the performance was turned into a play I think it would be aimed at most ages. because, it still conveys a important message today. this play would help everyone to understand lies are not good and it would make the government feel guilty for the lose of lives they caused in WW1. To younger kids I think this play shows an important message of " don't tell lies" , but to adults I think it shows the horrors of war.

we based our performance on the words dreams, fatigue, begging, shot and cancer. after our still image of dreams ,we used a short role play of someone getting bullied and peer persuaded into going to war. the bully would say something like " your a coward what's better than fighting for your country." We used the Brechtian technique of placards. The placard we held up during this scene said " Was it his friends how told him this?" To me this was asking the audience there point of view. This question is telling us that the bully was told so many lies that he thinks it is okay to pressure someone into going to war although he probably does not know the horror of war. This could also give the audience Ideas on how the government is twisting the truth. Therefore it is also showing the meaning of the poem. Furthermore I think this technique added more meaning to the scene and meant the audience could think about the meaning of the story rather that being told  the meaning.

In the last still image based on the words "dreams" In this scene there is the soldier from the beginning crouched down holding his head, while people stand over him in an intimidating way. This shows that the memories  of war still haunt and taunt him. This would make the audience feel sad, and upset for the character as this one situation has caused him life lose and sadness. It would also make the audience think how much the "lies" have affected this characters life. In my opinion Brecht's idea of non-naturalistic drama has given our play more meaning and helps to captivate the audience. 

Target:
During the short role-play ,with the soldier and the bully. The soldier is being peer pressured to go to war. However he is not being forced therefore, he has a choice to go to war or not. He can make a decision ,and in the end the audience can see that the soldier decides to go to war. They can see this because the soldier begins to cry and then it goes into a still image of him heading too war. we used the word "fatigue" and had a number of people standing at different levels. this makes the audience realise that we have a choice but sometimes do not make the right choice. Brecht used this technique to also portray a message that we have a choice to do good or bad.