Frantic Assembly essay

Frantic Assembly Essay

Frantic assembly is a theatre company that specialises in physical theatre based work. That is expressing emotion or parts of the narrative through movement alone although they may use music to help convey the intended mood/atmosphere.

They were founded in 1994 and the founders had wanted to start a physical theatre company for ages and had thought that their initial style of play was a bit too unoriginal and maybe a bit too similar to the groups they had been inspired by such as DV8. While DV8 had a more of a style that focused on political, social and human nature issues, Frantic Assembly wanted to go in a different direction and by that I mean that they have no real direction for their company but still there work doesn't seem focused on these kinds of issues or themes. They also have a different way of devising their work such as DV8 often use certain human issues to inspire an idea in which they then expand upon and there is always an element of symbolic movement in each scene where as Frantic assembly they will have an idea that is inspired by very simple things such as conversations they've heard or thoughts that come to them listening to contemporary music. Their ideas can circle around and be thought about for years before they even get started on becoming a production if at all and their shows are split between a mix of naturalistic acting and having scenes of physical theatre which is another thing that differentiates them from DV8. They take pride in that their ideas are considered for a very long time if they need to be and this in my opinion is a wise decision since they can discuss and recognise the flaws of a certain idea if there are any. I think this because I have had ideas and thought that they were great at the time but upon reflection just a short time after thinking them discovered a few reasons for why they wouldn't work. I even did this recently with a physical theatre activity in class. The ideas I came up with under the time limit of the day upon reflection seemed unfinished and that they could be developed and even though we didn't actually get to further any of them in class because they were scrapped but the more I developed them in my head the better they got even after a while of thinking about them.

Frantic often use "Building blocks" such as the "Round by through" which is  basic movements which they can string together in any order or any amount of times they wish and then they can form a narrative around it. This is something I also used in the recent activity but I didn't use the move and formed a story around it I incorporated this move into the already existing narrative but used the move to help with establishing a specific moment and an intention. I used it to show that I was killing someone by going through them and them after I've pushed their head down to symbolise killing them I moved around the body. However I did build upon that move by adding the emotion on my face and to make it seem like getting through him was indeed a struggle which showed more aggression which did come across according to the class feedback. Another building block they use is "hymns hands" which involves two or more people moving either their own or their partners hand/hands to anywhere on their body or their partners. They can also lead their partner to do something such as they can make them turn round or push their head down or make them do some simple motion. This was also something I used to a degree in my task. After I had gone through this person I pushed their head down with which was inspired by this and also from another thing called "Chair duets" but it did come from this too and even before I went through him I grabbed his arm arm pushed it away which does come from this but like i'm supposed to, I added something to it. I added speed and aggression which fit the theme and stimulus we were given. These methods of using building blocks and using your idea/theme/stimulus to add depth to them is an excellent way and it shows because it did help with me quite a bit during my devising.

These methods do show up in there work for example "Lovesong" which is a beautifully done play and does incorporate these elements although since it's frantic assembly they don't show up too often or have had so much more added to them that you may not notice even if you know these techniques. Adding these layers of depth to it does work to hide the basic moves because you're taken in by it's extra layer of whatever emotion is being portrayed in it. "Lovesong" does this very well. The movements have clearly developed into something more fluid and with more purpose and since "Lovesong" is part naturalism and part physical theatre, the physical moments stand out more to show that they mean something a lot deeper, something emotional or in the case of this play they can convey the passing of time which is a theme throughout it. So while these moves may start off basic, their depth and the fact that they aren't constantly use help to make them stand out or seem special and help them to be beautiful moments in a beautiful play.

Frantic assembly do have some very useful devising methods that have worked for them very well in their productions and even helped me in my early devising work and probably will help me in the future. Their style of naturalism mixed with physical theatre is a great idea and makes the moments of extreme/surreal movement stand and mean something deeper or emotional than the rest of the story even though they are still very well written, acted and overall excellently produced.