Tag Archives: character analysis

The Merits of a Narrative Poem

John Kirk specialises in drama workshops and theatre for young people.When I was younger I didn’t think that I liked poetry.  Outside Shakespeare I rarely read verse for pleasure.  Last year though, I was introduced to Alfred Noyes’ “The Highwayman” and it changed my view of poetry completely.  Since then I have been reading other narrative poems including the “The Ballad of the Fleet” (Tennyson) and “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (Carroll) and incorporating them into my work.

A narrative poem tells us a story but it is set out in stanzas with the rhythms and rhyming patterns familiar in other types of poem.  It will contain a skilfully woven story packed with wonderful imagery and metaphors which compels its audience.

In my opinion the narrative poem offers so much that I have even used them in pieces for Birthday Parties!  Here are what I see as the merits of working with narrative poetry.

The narrative poem is perhaps one of the most ancient form of storytelling (The Iliad and Beowulf are both story poems).  As a Drama Facilitator I believe they are a fantastic way of introducing complex text to young audiences which demonstrates the breadth and depth of our literary heritage beyond Shakespeare.

It offers a whole story.  A chapter of a book or a scene from a play wouldn’t offer the beginning middle and end in this way.  If I want to guarantee that a group have heard the material a narrative poem is a concise way of quickly offering an entire story.

The narrative poem will capture the imaginations of boys and girls as it often recalls and romanticises some kind of adventure.

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.Investigating narrative poetry through drama is a lot of fun and once a group has a story they are better positioned to explore the author’s imagery and language choices.  The poems I am talking about were mostly written in the 19th and 20th Century and whilst the language is certainly complex it is not impenetrable.  Accessing it allows young  participants to make their own judgements about themes, events and characters (perhaps physically characterising or hot seating characters about their decisions in the story or making up scenes based upon their deductions).

I have also found that exploring a narrative poem can become a catalyst for exploring rhythm, rhyme and meter and getting groups to write in poetry.

_ _ _ _

“The wind was a rushing train, dodging every tree

The moon was a shiny banana ripe and ready for me.

The road was a lonely wanderer, under an ongoing spell

and Mr Highwayman came riding, riding, riding

Josh Highwayman came riding, up to the Grand Hotel.”

_ _ _ _

“The snow was a breeze of coldness coating the leafy bush,

The sun was a ball of fire, gleaming upon rushing waves

The field was a soft green carpet, over the earthy road

And the Highwayman came skating, skating, skating

The Highwayman came skating up to the big mansion’s door.”

_ _ _ _

As well as getting excited about narrative poetry I have discovered narrative songs.  My taste in story song is eclectic ranging from Benny Hill (The Fastest Milkman in the West) to Charles Daniels (The Devil Went Down to Georgia) and Chris Wood (Hollow Point).  You could easily laugh some narrative songs off as being novelties but constructing an effective narrative within a poem or a song is a great skill.  Tennyson and Noyes might not be matched for their poetry’s beautiful imagery  but Hollow Point particularly is (in my view) a powerful piece of modern verse based storytelling.

Up to now narrative poems have formed the basis of workshops or featured within other work that I have presented but this summer to coincide with The Summer Reading Challenge 2014 I am taking my new found love of the narrative poem to a whole new level as I reinterpret Homer’s “Odyssey” for a young audience.

My final reinterpretation is unlikely to be a narrative poem but one thing is certain – it’s going to be epic!

Special thanks to the children of South Malling Primary School for sharing their “modern” takes on “The Highwayman”.

Subtext: Stories in Silence

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.Subtext is a term which is often associated with the work of Constantin Stanislavski.  Stanislavski was a director and drama theorist who developed a system of acting in Russia in the early part of the 20th Century.  Stanislavski’s work was a reaction to the shallow, melodramatic performances of his time.  He believed in a naturalistic style of performance, challenging performers to bring truth to the stage.

Stanislavski advocated techniques, including the “Magic If”, in which performers attempt to recreate their character’s truth by asking how they themselves might respond in similar circumstances to the scene (“What if I were in this position?”).

John Kirk is a storyteller and drama facilitator specialising in drama workshops and theatre for young people.Subtext refers to the unspoken thoughts of a character during a story and can help a performer to sustain their role.

I recently saw “Slava’s Snow Show” (Royal Festival Hall/International), a renowned clowning piece set to music with almost no vocal communication.  The absence of words did not make the piece less engaging because the clowns were telling their stories with their facial expressions and their bodies.  Every move and gesture was carefully played so that the audience could see the character’s unspoken intentions.  Okay, perhaps a clown isn’t the greatest example of naturalistic performance (they are prone to exaggerating and demonstrating their unspoken thoughts) but for 90 minutes they communicated their character’s truth quite beautifully and almost entirely non-verbally.

In Primary Schools I might introduce subtext through a thought tracking exercise in which I ask the participants what their character is thinking within a prescribed frozen picture or I might ask them to think of a line that their character might say to themselves in the bathroom mirror each morning and then challenge them to repeat the line to themselves as they walk about the room.  At the end of the exercise I am interested in how these techniques change the way the participant thinks about their character and the way they inhabit their role.

In Secondary Schools and with older groups a way of exploring subtext is for the performers to act out a scene.  At a given signal the performers must act out their subtext.  In acting out the subtext the performer should feel free to express themselves physically, vocally or verbally, exaggerating and demonstrating their character’s feelings (like Slava’s clowns!).  As the signal is repeated the performers return to their scene with a heightened awareness of their subtext.

I recently lead a play study in which we considered “An Inspector Calls” by JB Priestley.  The story is set against the back drop of a family gathering and is concerned with issues of class, sex and social responsibility.  Throughout the story characters listen to lengthy monologues relating to an incident that has happened.  The performer must respond to the information contained within each monologue as their character might if they were hearing the news for the first time.  Then, as each character is lead to reveal their own secrets do their unspoken thoughts belie their words?

During the play we must believe that Gerald and Eric are uncomfortable long before they are asked to give their accounts.  Equally, Mr Birling’s indignation and Sheila’s shame should be apparent even when they aren’t talking.

John Kirk specialises in drama workshops and theatre for young people.In building a subtext for the character, the performer becomes a more active listener and responds more truthfully to the circumstances of the story.  In our study we physicalized our character’s sin.  Taking the seven deadly sins (Pride, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, Lust and Envy) I challenged the group to demonstrate their character’s main vice and then to sustain that vice as the inner life of their character during the scene.  Rather than thinking about the lines or what they might be having for dinner, even the simplest of subtexts will help the performer to remain animated when at rest and to respond more appropriately to the story.

In its simplest application subtext can be very liberating.  The performer has free rein to imagine and consolidate a world for their character with a web of unspoken thoughts and opinions.  For some subtext can help their ability to concentrate whilst for others, sustaining a subtext helps them bring truth to the mechanics of a story (why do I move at that moment?).

The skill of the storyteller is in repetition and in my opinion this can only really be achieved through rehearsal and fully understanding the story and a character’s objectives.  It is important to treat subtext as a tool in a larger kit to avoid unspecific and generalised performance.