Development of Nurse scenes

With the second nurse scene we had some problems with the physical touching of the piece, it was looking very staged and awkward because Antigone was sat down with a tray on her lap while Nurse stood over her trying to cuddle and comfort her. There is also lines in the section which wouldn't make sense if they were staged in a certain way such as: 'hold my hand' 'I'm holding the rough hand' ' rest your hand on my cheek like this', so we sorted this out. At this section of the scene Antigone is quite vulnerable, I feel as though she is trying to take in every memory of her Nurse, who she loves dearly and is scared by thought of her death. I think this scene is summed up by her line 'I'm just a bit small for it all', it is clear that the presence of her Nurse and her Nurses patronising words and behaviour (bringing her coffee and toast and calling her 'little dove,' and 'pigeon') has reminded Antigone of her childhood happiness. Therefore makes sense for Antigone to be sat on the chair with the tray on top of her lap with Nurse behind her cuddling her like she would have when Antigone was younger.

Below is the rehearsal of the first Ismene scene, this was obviouslay before we had set and props and this scene relies quite heavily on those elements, for example we mimed the grape at the beginning and when Antigone sits down she rubs her feet in the dirt and lies down it in to create irony as Nurse talks about her supposed rendezvous when clearly Antigone is still very childish. It also shows how Antigone has just buried her brother and feels very one with the earth and extremely content.

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Stephen Berkoff Research

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BTEC Perfoming Arts - Logs

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