- Political view: Everyone is corrupt. The judge and prosecutor have been paid off by the gangsters and the witnesses are most definitely all lying. The only ones who are innocent are the Defense council and Fish, but even Fish has been drugged, so that e won't say anything.
- To show this we can use Gests of the characters, but also the scene makes multiple jokes in it, which indicate what side is everyone on
- Music is the Chopin Funeral March, but as the scene goes forward the music will get faster and faster to become this disoriented dance music. This will show how in the scene the lies are getting thicker and thicker and the tension of the scene should follow the rise as well.
- Sophie had an idea of having a video of an actual funeral on the background, but have be hacked so that it turn into a 'UI' sign
- We talked about this, and I feel we need to try it out, but it might also confuse the audience. They might think it is an actual funeral or confuse about why it is there. I do think having the UI-sign is a good idea though, to show that it is Ui and his men indeed who have rigged this trial.
- I suggested during the devising that we could show a scale on the screen that throughout the scene keeps getting heavier on Ui's side, representing the corruption of the court and how it is more on Ui's side.
- We would have the stage divided into two as well, the other side being the side of people telling the truth, and then those who are working for Ui to win the trial and get Fish sentenced. At the part where Hook is testifying we can have him actually change sides, since it is pointed that he is beaten up in between two parts of the scene, where he also changes his statement.
We wanted a way to show the audience the different parts of the trial, also showing that some time has passed. It was suggested that we could use boxing match type 'Round'-signs as indications of each sections. This would also loosely connect to our showgirl styled prologue, since in boxing matches they pretty much use showgirls to prance around the ring to show off the signs.
As the judge, I would be showing the different signs, since the judge usually decides when the trial goes on break. This can also bring a more humorous side to the scene, since showgirls are usually unnaturally happy and my judge character needs to be very serious. Sophie promised to make these signs in a very simple way, with black paint on white paper, which will work perfectly. I will be ahead of creating the scale, since it was my idea.
I have a few ideas about how to do the scale, but I will really have to try them out to see which one works the best. My first idea is to simply cut the shape of it from cardboard and then have someone move it between each section of the stage behind the canvas. This might not work very well with the shadow and we would also need someone backstage to do it for us. Another idea is to animate it, but honestly, I have no idea how to do it. Also it would have to be perfectly timed to have it match up with our acting, which means this might be a too unpredictable method to use. As theatrical actors, even tho timing is important, there always has to be room for mistakes and the animation won't leave too much for our possible mess-ups. I could also simply make different pictures, which each have the scale slowly tipping to one side, but depending on if we can black the project in between each picture, it might look very tacky and too much like stop-motion animation, where we would rather have it smooth.
In this scene, we really need to be more exaggerated than we were in the rehearsals. This is scene is a farce( "In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed.") of a normal court, so our Gests need to extremely clear, but also we need to show the corruption of the characters even more over the top than we would usually. For example, the look between the Judge and Prosecutor needs to be big and clear, and I feel that the Judge could even wink when looking at the prosecutor, to make it clear that they are up to something, or rather simply playing with the innocent Defense Council who doesn't know what is going on. Other ways we can show the characters are corrupt and have even planned the whole trial is by for example having Givola answer the question too quickly, but also have Dockdaisy say her confession as if she would have just memorized it.
As the judge, I first thought that perhaps he could have been threatened into doing this, with showing some resistance towards Giri when he is yelling, and even being scared, but then I was wisely reminded that this is Epic Theatre and we need to have very two dimensional characters, especially in this kind of a scene. This was very true and I want to aim more to have a very serious and stereotypical judge instead. He could even feel bored, as he does know what is going to happen at the end, but is there just to make it seem like there was some fare play for the defendant.
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