God of Carnage - Behind the Scenes
Jodie Buzza – Annette Reille
My character Annette is a wife and mother and works in wealth management. She is anxious, polite and desires to please, but she has issues with her husband’s mobile phone and his patronising tone and one or two possible food allergies. What I find the most interesting about her is that she undergoes a cathartic transformation where she finds her voice and lets rip!
Whilst developing Annette I looked at the text and asked myself the following questions; What is the story about? What part does my character play in it? How does she affect others and how do they affect her? What has happened to her leading up to the moment in the play?
I then collect as much information about her as possible to create her story. When on the floor in rehearsal I listen hard, try to find as many clues as I can in the moment and I keep working on my inner monologue.
My character has some cathartic moments in the play, one of which depended on a device being made which in the end we decided against using and went for the option of giving me total control of its outcome. The challenge for me is making it look believable, so drilling it moment by moment helps give me the confidence that I can make it work.
Bernie Tan-Hayes - Lighting Designer
The story behind God of Carnage appeals to me because it demonstrates the fact that despite race, sex, occupation or relation, we all live our life according to our own unique system and order of values. The consequences of not being able to communicate our values in the terms of other people’s values are often devastating.
As a lighting designer, my role with each play is to support the actors and text by providing illumination, a sense of place and time, atmosphere and emotion.
When considering the lighting design on set, it is most important to always serve the play, in this case God of Carnage. I go through several steps, which include;
1) Reading and getting to know the play
2) Extracting information such as times and places that are relevant to the lighting
3) Watching and participating in the actors’ rehearsal processes
4) Drawing up a lighting plan
5) Talking in depth with the Director and Designer regarding the lighting cues
6) Focusing and plotting the lights in the theatre
7) Making adjustments to suit changes in blocking etc.
8) Watching the previews and checking for timing
9) Opening the show!
