This lesson me and my partner taught the class the opening to our duet. This was a gestural piece representing a wife brushing her husbands jackets. This piece originally used petals but if we use it the final piece we probably won't have them. This piece works well as an opening.
We also all brought in real letters written to wives from husbands in world war 1. We are using these real letters to develop the box sequence. We brought in boxes to use, but the for the final performance we should have all had the same box bought for us, so it looks like an official parcel the army might have sent. With these letters we all cut them up and picked a few lines each from the various letters. We then all sat in a space and took turns to say each line. We then kept this order and started off by opening the boxes and taking out the jackets and smelling them. This is because scent is extremely evocative and when you have a connection with someone or an attraction you know how they smell. Smell can often trigger memories or remind us of certain people or things. After the smelling we put on the jacket and look through all the letters until we find the one that is written to us from our husband not the other way around. We then begin reading it, by saying our lines one by one.
This piece allows us to extend our physicality whilst maintaining a grounded and realistic emotional connection to the characters and relationships we are portraying. It allows us to personalise the movement, and take our time in doing so. It isn't fast paced or gimmicky, it is an honest representation of the pain someone women went through when their husbands or sons died in the war. It also shows how significant some of the little possessions left behind can be.
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