Rubys Descent into Madness - Essay Example

Ruby’s Descent into Madness Dear fellow actors and members of the production crew, my name is Peter, a director from the Gold Coast Production Company. I am delighted to welcome every one and congratulate you on being part of the most extraordinary play of our times; “Stolen” by Jane Harrison. It is a great honor for my company and me to work with such an experienced team. We believe the play is one of the greatest solid pieces of contemporary Australian literature, a play that can successfully express the history of Australia in a way that creates a lasting impression on the audience. I am sure that all of you are familiar with the original plot, as are the audience. Today, the plays maybe view as a non-related past for the modern society (Manne, 1998). However, this play is a hidden history that must be exposed to the public again. Therefore, our aim for this production is to: draw the public’s attention to the problem of Stolen Generations, explore, problem solve, and transform the all-time classic scene,” Ruby’s Descent into Madness”, to a brand new creative show. I believe that this scene is the most important of the play, a scene that is worth being told again and again. In addition, it is important to remember that “Stolen” is a story about five aboriginal children, who were taken from their families and lived in governmental institutions tortured by a great number of offenders in many different ways. In this brief, I will explicate to you my reading, in the play about Decent into Madness by Rubies, we are committed to show their stories and focus audiences of 2012 on the necessity to keep moral values of society. Position the audience to endorse to the invited reading that historical context will be preserved to a minimum extent, as often it may make the audience marginalise problems. To begin with, I would like to recap the original scene: “Stolen” “Ruby’s Decent into Madness.” This scene explores the internal world of the characters. Different understanding can be obtained, depending on the angle, the scene is shown at. The symbolic meaning of the scene, as I see it, is the internal conflicts. It foregrounds the issue of physical and emotional abuse of what happened to Ruby and her family. The original scene positions audience to understand, it is not only their physical selves are stolen, their mind have been brain wash too. Everybody has the right to control their mental thoughts. However, Ruby is deprived of the freedom, she have lost her family, her innocence, her best years; and now, her mind. Everyone would agree that this scene is filled with variety of heavy emotions. In this play, the designer and director decided to approach the setting in a very minimal way. The director decided to use very old beds made of iron and found in an institution representing the characters and also live at very different periods of time. For instance, Anne’s bed is considered as being prettier only because she was adopted by parents who were white and wealthy. On the other hand, Jimmy’s bed described him as an inmate for he did spent time in custody. The black and white images casting shadows over the set symbolizes characters and way of lives. Props are introduced in the play to symbolize more different lives and social factors in the society. In the play, the characters always carry a suitcase with their belongings (Manne, 1998). The white always clean their room highlights and are seen clearly. They cannot hide or even breathe in the environment that simultaneously sealed their belongings and tear them apart. The broom used to clean is considered a symbol of domestic servitude. Their cabinets are filled showing the repression that each of them did suffer. Light and sound was used to demonstrate fear and hope to the audience. This is witnessed in adult flashes scenario whereby two situations are presented. There is hope when light flashes and the Shirley seen overjoyed when holding her granddaughter. The audience are emotional when the light is on and Ruby being molested. Emotions are created when she is asked to do everything time to time without resting. Concentration of the audience or rapport is important for the message to be passed. In this case, light is used to ensure that the audience rapport in controlled and ensure that the play is displayed well. The scene represents the characters actions as violent. The characters mistreat one character and abuse her. It is well represented by Ruby being a main character and being accused and mistreated by others. On the other hand, there is another character known as Sandy who enjoys favors and travels from place to place. The authoritative voices order Ruby until she loses her senses. Moral illness is also shown in the play when she is sexually abused by one voice. The characters mostly authoritative voices do what they do because they believe that it their right to do so. Also social factors are contributing for the characters to perform what they are doing. They are also motivated to do that because of status as seen when they order Ruby to work while they sit back and enjoy. Rubies personality in this context does not allow her to defend herself and be all she wants for she believes that the duties and mistreatment are right and therefore she doesn’t have any choice but to succumb. Their values differ for the authoritarian voices lack respect to human life portraying others as slaves. On the other hand, the other character shows loss of self esteem and allows that to happen even at time being sexually abused by the authoritarian voice. The attitude towards each other shows disrespect. In the play, the other characters enjoy ordering one Ruby to do each and every task that belongs to them not even allowing her to rest. This is inhuman and the abuses at time creates bad image to the audience. It replicates what happens to the society and sent a message to the audience on family and society ethics through a sad mood in the play. The mood is seen when she is sexually abused and then loses her mind. The relationship between the characters is portrayed as poor or not good. It the scene, even children do not respect her thus ordering her around and assign duties to Ruby; this shows how poor the relationship is between them. Also, the way they order her around not respecting her personal feelings. They tend to show as that they are using a as a tool to satisfying their responsibilities. In the play, silencing factor arises when the main character being offended and mistreated. First, she is kneeled on the stomach by one character. This shows brutality displayed by the character towards her. The audience then will respond with shock towards the act. The same respond is seen when the same character is stripped off her clothes and blood seen in her clothes. The blood represents pain that Ruby is going through; this creates painful emotions among the audience. In the play, application of theatrical techniques will help in positioning the response of the audience towards the characters. The characters are allowed to dress according to their way of acting. For example, Ruby is dressed in an ordinary manner that displays her as an ordinary person. Through her dressing code, she is supposed to be portrayed as being afraid and submissive to the other characters to make the audience move when she is abused. Also her voice should be wobbling to make the audience empathize with her whenever she is abused by the other characters. With the movement, Ruby plays time to time movement or she will be portrayed as mobile. She moves from place to place to submit to the calls and duties assigned to her by the authoritative characters (Mailman & Wesley, 1996). When it comes to appearance, she appears weak due to the donkey work assigned to her with the other characters that molest and abuse her. The other characters are seen as strong characters; therefore, their movement in the stage should be strong and show stamina. Their costume should look neat and stylish. This is because, they are rich and able to buy and renew them as they wish so that the audience are convinced of the power in the characters. Power in their voice is most important as it shows who they really are or describes the positions held by the character in the play. The techniques are used to develop the audience rapport elaborate the social mores in the play. For instance, when the play is controlled with orders the voice must vary between the one giving orders and the one it is directed to. Here Ruby is yelled on to do almost everything through orders coming from different characters, even if she complains, she still follow the orders, it demonstrates how voices are key techniques used in the play to engage or involve the audience. To conclude, stolen is used to represent the snapshots of tribulations and trials of the characters in the play. They represent hundreds of thousands of half white generation belonging to stolen generation (Mailman & Wesley, 1996). Ruby descends into madness in the play thus showing the truth told by aborigines themselves and displayed as being different from the one told by white. The play went ahead to reveal the hidden past that was stolen from generations and was never disclosed before. It serves as a kind of counter to the history and then challenged the current version of history that was created by the whites. Furthermore, it aims at stirring the conscience of the white Australians. I look forward working with all of you from today. I would like to emphasize the word – ‘together’, for, no matter how many brilliant ideas a director possesses, it is impossible to embody them without cast and crew. References Mailman, D. and Wesley, E. (1996). The 7 Stages of Grieving. Brisbane: Play lab Press Publication. Manne, R. (1998). “The Stolen Generations.” The Way we Live Now: The Controversies of the Nineties. Melbourne: Griffith University Press Read More