Skeeter And Nev example essay topic

The play 'Still Standing' is a Rock 'n' Roll love story written by Margery and Michael Forde. The Forde family have surprised the La Boite Theatre with sold out seasons for x-stacy, Milo's Wake, Way out West and now Still Standing. The Forde family are award-winning playwrights, after winning the 2001 New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Milo's Wake. 'Still Standing' is set in modern times about a band, which was together in the 80's and is reuniting under desperate yet rewarding circumstances. It follows the high and low moments of three characters as they reflect, rekindle and jam together as if they never split up. The elements Tension and focus, combined together to create Dramatic Meaning, which were used to highlight important moments throughout the production of 'Still Standing'.

The initial moment, which displayed tension and focus, was 'The Fight Scene'. It begins with Brenda and Nev engaging in a deep intense conversation about the specific reasons for the band's initial break up. Skeeter enters the scene and the conversation takes a detour, which forces Brenda to storm out of the scene. Skeeter and Nev continue the conversation, which ends up turning into an argument. Nev questions Skeeters involvement with a drug dealer and also quires Skeeter's marriage.

Skeeter can't stand any more and after warning Nev a first time, he punches him in the face. Nev shows a little reluctance in staying down and Skeeter keeps punching him. After Skeeter had finished assaulting Nev, he leaves him lying on the floor. 'The Fight Scene' was an unforgettable moment in the play; it was the time when the whole tension of the play erupted. The tension was so enormous that you could feel it building from the instant that Brenda made her initial appearance on stage.

The moment created the type of tension that one might endure in normal everyday life, if they are to witness a fight with their own eyes. The tension grew stronger and stronger as Nev kept making injurious comments about Skeeter's life, when finally it had built up so much, that the audience knew what was to come. The whole suspense had become virtually withdrawn as it was replaced with repetitive awakenings of the outcome of the scene. Occasionally, the tension was cracked with Skeeter's painful one liners. In the end, the audience was left with an empty feeling, as Skeeter left the stage and the tension slowly grew again as they were waiting for Nev to get up and get some of his own back.

The focus in the scene was established in one specific way. There was one huge spotlight in the middle of the stage, which was shining down n the actors, which showed that there was no need to look anywhere else. There was one moment in the scene where split focus was achieved, it was where the drummer (robb o) clapped his hands, for each punch, this symbolized the impact of each punch. It was poorly done, because this meant that the audience shifted their attention from the main fight, and focussed on the drummer, who was on his own in the darkness. Dramatic Meaning was attained by the use of these elements in the specific contexts.

It combined the light for focus and the suspenseful tension together to make the moment nail blighting and effectively performed, to a monumental standard. 'The Love Song' was the second of the two moments, which highlighted tension and focus. In this scene, Brenda is singing a "love" song to Nev in the hope that he forgets the past and that they can work things out and 'live happily ever after. ' The band plays the music in the scene, and this time, Nev just stands there and watches Brenda, not taking his eyes off her. As the scene begins to draw to a close, Skeeter makes an unwanted entrance, which ruins the 'love song' and possibly any resolutions, which Nev and Brenda may have had. As in 'the fights scene', there was only one major focussing point.

It was the huge spotlight in the middle of the stage, which highlighted Brenda only. Occasionally, eyes may have wandered off Brenda and onto the band as they were accompanying the solo. At various times, when it looked as if Brenda and Nev were about to share a more intimate moment, another spotlight shone just above Nev's head, which means not to discard Nev and that he is a major player in this scene. Eventually, when Skeeter storms the set, all the lights come back on and the focus is instantly drawn on Skeeter for a quick second. Then the focus is thrown straight back to Brenda and Nev to see if anything else happened.

The tension in the scene was immense. The whole audience was waiting with bated breath to see if anyone of them would make a move. Along with the slow music, the tension grew stronger and stronger as the two never took eyes off each other, until the end of the song where Skeeter interrupts. Also, after the interruption, there is an even greater tension, as the audience waits to see wether Brenda or Nev or any other band member has something to run their mouths off about. Once again, Skeeter eases that strong hatred tension with his harsh comedy, it initially does ease some tension, but eventually the tension is once again regained as the 'friendship' between the three grow further apart. In contrast, the two moments were like opposites in some scales, in the way that one was about hatred and the other was about love.

However, both of the scenes had a sense of lust about them, in the way that Skeeter just wanted Nev to stay out of his business and in contrast, Brenda wanted Nev to forgive her and to love her like he used to. In both moments, it was all about Nev, although he didn't have the lead part in the scenes, it all boiled down to him. It was Nev who was making Skeeters life a misery and it was Nev who Brenda loved and has loved since day one, and tension and focus combined together to effectively made it possible for the audience to single it out. The two moments made a huge impact to the viewing mind, as it significantly portrayed the two major moments throughout the whole play. The two elements were used in contrast to give the play a sense of realism, as it set the scene and it engulfed the audience into the plot, which gave a better understanding about the characters and their significance. 'Still Standing' under the direction of Andrew Buchanan, successfully created Dramatic Meaning by ascertaining the two major elements of tension and focus, by ways as to show the audience how when combined together, can create the idealistic production as he has attained..