So then we had the post mortem and the ‘What next ?’ conversation. The characterisations are sound and need filling out and heightening by adding another layer of narrative, such as a celebration or a heartbreak. Then we can go back to the writing to show how they each handle their different struggles. We talked more about sound and text ; at the moment the soundtrack is from the surrounding environment, which adds authenticity, but could be added to.
Then we can start to play with moving from the literal back to the abstract, which is where this piece started, and see what works best on that axis. Traditionally performance art uses the ‘neutral body’ rather than character which is found more typically in drama.
What has also emerged during this development process is that the work is about many things, and it may work better to produce several different pieces rather than trying to cram everything into one.
Just before the dig was filled in, I did a final shoot.
