EXPLORE ONE LIVE PERFORMANCE YOU HAVE SEEN, FOCUSSING ON THE PEFORMERS USE OF PHYSICALITY TO COMMUNICATE INTENTION

(this would usually be an hour long essay question therefore for these purposes I shall focus on 2 points rather than the 5 I would usually recommend students to write using the VSPFG (voice, space, posture, facial expression and gesture) and IDEAL(Intention, Detail, Analysis, Link back to question)  planning acronyms)
On the 21st September 2018, I was fortunate enough to witness the spectacle that was Selina Thompson's "SALT", at the Birmingham Rep Theatre. This performance relied heavily on hard, physical labour. The one woman show deliberately pushed Thompson to physical extremity. This was to emphasize her key performance intention - to viscerally teach the audience of the impact of colonialism and slave labour on today's society through a clever intertwining of both past and present narratives. Throughout this essay, I shall focus on two moments where this physicality helped to achieve Thompson's intention and had a lasting phenomenological impact on her audience. One moment shall focus on her modern day narrative (of her playing herself exploring her ancestry through travelling one of the salt trading triangles) whilst the other shall focus on her past narrative (where she embodied a slave travelling and working upon the same route as her present self, cleverly blurring the lines between past and present and critiquing how far society has really come). She began with her moment of modernity before transitioning to the past. Physically hunched centre stage, her back arching into an uncomfortable looking ball, the performance space around her felt resoundingly large compared to her small cramped stature. She swayed gently side to side creating the illusion of the rocking hull of a ship, her knuckles lighting under the force with which she held her drawn in knees, creating an illusion of immense discomfort. Her vocal delivery was shaky and muffled, alerting us to the fact that the cabin was "hot and sweaty and the stench of the sea made her sick". Her continual swaying made the audience in turn feel nauseous, phenomenologically forcing the replication of sea sickness. This physical swaying motion is also semiotically linked to those in distress, thus it created a deep sense of sympathy for her; a woman of colour forced into the hull of a ship against her will. This image paralleled one of a much more sinister nature seen many years ago along the same colonialist trading route.As the swaying intensified Thompsons voice became stronger, speaking of how this physical torment was "nothing compared to my sisters past". With a sudden burst of energy, the momentum of her rocking forced her to her feet and in one slick motion she stood, grabbed a pickaxe and bought it down with force onto a hard rock of salt. This physical action replicated her transition into the past. The effort of the motion was clear from her strained facial features, eyes fiery and determined, teeth gritted from the weight of the hammer. She continued her speech as her physicality continued in this strained manner, the force which as being used, clear from her panting jagged breaths as she embodied a slave forced to work physically strenuously for hours upon end. The immediacy of this physical labour and the force with which Thompson made herself work amplified her intention and created a gut-wrenching feeling of guilt within a widely Caucasian audience