Visuals and Berkoff

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Blacks, Whites and Greys are the main variations for many of Berkoff’s plays, particularly the Kafka adaptations. You can see from looking at some of his productions that they hold this deep underlying darkness beneath the humour and that sometimes the exaggeration works to create jarring characters so unfitting with ourselves that it makes use feel unsettled.  Within a style with such possibility for being sinister, the choice of costume is very important. For our costumes we chose to use all black clothing, in recognition of the style. Berkoff believed that colour could be distracting. He said that “colours can interfere unless they have a purpose, a point”.  And this makes sense, anything bright in a style that already shocks the senses must have a reason, in theme with the idea of total theatre, or it could appear garish and overwhelming.

Image result for berkoff setsExamples of where we did this can be seen more in our use of face paint in the piece rather than the costume. For example, we used a red lip rather than a black to signify the gender roles of the characters. This seems like such a small colour choice, but in contrast to the aesthetic of play I believe it stood out immensely, particularly under the white lighting which we use at the beginning. We chose to emphasise the parts of the face through which you could see the most expression, including the mouth the eyebrows and the eyes. From a technical view, the paint made sure we were not washed out by the house lights, but rather the lighting highlighted it. Face paint felt like an important part in creating the Berkoff style, not only in recognition of his work on mime- for which the face paint helps to exaggerate expressions- but also because of some of Berkoff's other influences including Kabuki theatre.

Kabuki is the name for the Japanese dance-like theatre. The style is particularly known for its elaborate costume and make-up which turns the actors into living special effects. They often share the white painted skin and dark, accentuated features with the mime style, but this is much more artistic and intricate. It can include patterns that extend to the actors entire body. If we had had greater resources, I think it would have been interesting to create this image for Gregor as the insect as well by painting in the arms and legs and using coloured paint to draw insect like designs on the actor’s body.
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