During the final rehearsal for Safe Bet my idea has developed a good deal. I looked at the RAF debrief I had constructed and saw that the main focus of this was to fly the aircraft continuously I thought therefore that the audience could practice flying over and over again and I didn’t want to give them another speech. As we are trying to depict the horrors of war I thought it would be a good idea to juxtapose this with something negative. I therefore had another inspection of the Dambusters book and found a list at the back of all those aircrew who had lost their lives. I have consequently decided to read these, ordering the recruits to practice flying during this. My main aim in giving the piece a memorial was to portray issues of” ownership and occupation, individual and group identity, power, boundaries, rights of inclusion and exclusion, memory” ((Pearson, 2011, p144)).
Following this sequence, I wanted the audience to wreck their planes, just like the airmen’s lives were wrecked. My first idea was for the audience to place their planes in a burning bin for them to be engulfed by the flames. However, due to health and safety procedures this was discarded. I then thought the same effect could be given if the planes were ripped up and then scattered on the ground , like a battlefield. Though a defect in this plan came when I was reminded that I am repeating this exercise three times, therefore the new groups would already predetermine the activity before it was started, if planes are lying on the ground The world I am presenting depicts “performance as overlapping situations: one place in two different social occasions at one time ” ((Acconci, 1996:65)). Therefore, I thought the audience members could tear their planes to pieces then drop them in a bag. Yet, during the final rehearsal , due to the windy weather the pieces blew away. Thus, I needed to take the pieces inside.
Forgotten Items Housed In The Grandstand, One Of These Being The Tombola Which I Have Utilised
As the performance is centred around betting, one of the forgotten items housed in the Grandstand is a tombola. I am therefore going to ask the audience to place their scattered planes into the tombola drum . By theoretically gambling with lives , I am emphasising how poignant the situation is . Once the names are in, I will turn the tombola , as if they have become one of many forgotten many . Through the glamorisation of war, the audience will react naturally given the sad circumstances. However, I do mention that by gathering up the remains they will never be forgotten, highlighted by the RAF motto.
During feedback, I was told that people found it hard to tear up what they had made , and gradually, as the names sink in, the audience no longer want to fly their planes. This is , in effect ” A restoration of the absent present” ((Pearson, 2010, p46)).
Works Cited
Kaye, Nick (2000) Site-Specific Art, Great Britain: Routledge
Pearson, Mike (2010) Site- Specific Performance, New York: Palgrave Macmillan