Drama Coursework: Response Phase

Drama Coursework: Response Phase

The play that we have been work-shopping is ‘Legal Weapon’ by Mark

Wheeler. This play at first appears to be concerned with road safety

but under further study we see that it deals with guilt and denial,

family loss and retribution. We have several central roles, Andy is

the speeding driver and Jazz is his girlfriend who’s seeing a

footballer called Matt whose brother was killed by a drug addict

driver. Kelly is the learner driver who is tragically killed by Andy,

her father, Brian, who desperately wants retribution for the death of

Kelly. There is a narrator character known only as “A” she is

omnipotent and described all the characters feelings throughout the

play and gives us a summary of what is about to happen. We have also

studied a play called Too much Punch for Judy which deals with similar

issues in a very much different way.

From this play, my group and I saw the possibilities for lots of

explorative strategies for example cross cutting and marking

significant moments. We work shopped different sections of the play,

the first section, Loves Young Dream was cross cut with section 2:

Apart. We decided from the outset that we wouldn’t use much set or

costume to keep the attention of the audience on the action and to

emphasize the areas that need to be central. We also work-shopped the

section with the actual accident in it, Section 3: Fatality was we

cross cut with some of section 4: Outcast.

We used a lot of still image in our workshop mostly to portray a sense

of fear in the piece. In Section 4 + 5 we began with a still image of

three separate stages of the drama piece as a way to mark the moment.

CSL was Alex in the role of Andy driving his car, carefree and happy

driving along the road, this is set seconds before he tops the ridge

and hits Kelly, before the freeze, Alex for a few seconds made driving

sounds and turned his imaginary steering wheel before freezing. Most

of the stage was in darkness with a bright spot on Alex. The light

went off on him and a spot then came up on Jenna as Kelly in the

centre of the stage facing away from the audience Sally was a

concerned bystander running towards her; this scene is just after the

accident, Sally being a witness to the crime. As Sally reaches the

stricken Jenna she freezes with a look of panic and a blackout ensues.

The spot comes up on Aaron and I walking as a funeral procession with