Author: Emily Holt

The Women at War were transcendent within ‘Safe Bet’ as a whole production. As the audience arrived, they were able to watch four ladies who were dressed in authentic 1940’s attire, performing their morning ritual of getting ready for whatever the day may hold. “Rituals are performative: they are acts done;  and performances are ritualized: they are codified, repeatable actions” ((Schechner, Richard (1994) Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology, ed. Tim Ingold, London and New York: Routledge)) The group thought that by having a couple of rituals signifying the morning rituals of these women, and repeating them, we would be demonstrating Schechner’s thoughts. We decided to use four actions linked with four objects: a comb; a perfume diffuser, powder and brush and some lipstick. The ladies were placed in front of four hooks in the exterior wall of the Grandstand on which, it is believed, the horses used to be tied to. These acted as the mirrors for the ladies but also raised issues of pre-war women, women that would have frequented the racing at the Grandstand, being ‘tied’ to the men of the time by marriage or by social conventions. The audience were able to view this happening for a while and passed it when walking into the Grandstands weighing room, where the majority of ‘Safe Bet’ took place.

Once the audience had taken seats inside, the women journeyed indoors and through to the back of the weighing room, which was concealed by a curtain. Since the piece was centered on three rotational exercises, this was a chance for the audience to be briefed on which rotation they would be partaking in first. Between each rotation the Women of War group came into the briefing room and presented some more rituals that women used to employ regularly. The first of these was to rub tea bags on their legs to stain them the colour of stockings, this was done as stockings were difficult to come across during war time England. Not only was it a way of showing a historical fact, but this linked in with our ‘tea’ theme and was a talking point for the audience. The smell and look of the act was noticed on several occasions. Secondly  we explored the drawing on of stocking seams, down the back of our legs in eyeliner pencil, this was also a way to make it look as though they were wearing stockings during the war. This was met with exclamations of “my nan used to do that” and “what are they doing?” from some audience members, showing a mixture of confusion and nostalgia. This gives evidence towards “nostalgic performances are more suasory than other forms of nostalgia because they involve embodiment, enactment and/or performativity.” ((Barry Brummett (ed.) (2009) Sporting Rhetoric: Performance, Games and Politics, New York:Peter Lang Publishing)) Towards the beginning of the process, we thought about filming some of these actions instead of performing them on the day. In retrospect I am pleased with the effect the live performance had on the audience that a pre recorded film may not have had.

Once the audience had been rotated between all of the exercises the Women of War stepped forward and stood in between the two male army officers. By standing next to the men at the front of the audience the group were showing the shift from women lacking power pre-war, to the beginnings of equality with men during the war, with women taking on new roles and exerting power themselves for the first time. Once the audience had returned, the Women of War thanked them for coming to give blood, as a group we had recently found out that the grandstand had been used as a donation station for blood and wanted to include this somehow within our piece. Acting as nurses, the audience were instructed to follow the women into the next room and wait for a nurse within the marked box. This was met with some nervous laughter from a few audience members. Once the audience had been taken to the box, the Women of War left to set up the factory space.

With the sewn cloth hanging above us, pointing to the bathroom which had become a factory, the audience were instructed to begin their next shift. Four or Five audience members were instructed to enter the factory itself and take a seat on the bench. The rest of the audience were stood looking in from the doorway giving the effect of a museum exhibition such as those we saw at the museum of Lincolnshire Life.  The structured scene worked well, with Vera Lynn playing to create atmosphere, and the noise of the sewing machines breaking up the femininity of her voice. An audience member told us later that this mixture of sounds, enhanced by the aroma of tea and perfume had made her quite nostalgic and a little sad. The whole piece was a juxtaposition of abandonment and business. A ghostly nod to the way of life that the grandstand had seen, women taking center stage in society and bringing together the community. The tea representing the taking of that community from the grandstand itself.

As it happened, all of the audience members that received the tea were male, this lead to an alternative reading of the taking of the tea. As well as it being the downfall of community, it could also have been interpreted to be the women taking the power (tea) from the men and pouring it down the drain. Until recently, women were not rewarded for their efforts during the war; therefore another reading could have been the women taking the rewards from the men and tipping them away to say ‘we deserve this too’ or something along those lines. The fact that there were many readings to the taking of the tea is very interesting and has been my favourite part of the experience. Learning how gender, age and even personality can affect how you interpret an act or performance to mean completely different things.

 

Theatre and performance has always been a feast for the eyes and a delight for our ears, but what about those senses that are hardly ever explored within performance?   During our research, we happened across some information which told us the exact refreshments that were served during the races at the grandstand from the serving hatches outside.  The items were; gingerbread, fresh fruit and alcohol. We had already found out at this point that the Grandstand was no longer licensed to sell alcoholic beverages so we knew that this was out of the question from the start. During our process we have  also already decided to play with the audiences sense of smell by using tea and perfume during the piece, experimenting with emotional memory being triggered by scent. Once we had learnt of the refreshments, we decided to take this idea one step further and experiment with taste. “Taste, however, is linked to the olfaction and therefore deserves mention. The Bread and Puppet Theatre shares freshly baked bread after their performances, and it contributes to the communal meaning of their work” ((Whitmore, John (1994) Directing Postmodern Theatre: Shaping Signification in Performance, United States of America: The University of Michigan Press))We wanted taste to be a integral part of our performance like the Bread and Puppet Theatre, we just needed to determine which tastes would bring the most meaning into our performance. By using our own emotion memories we have decided that the smell of baked gingerbread alongside tea links in with the community feel of the piece, Ideally triggering thoughts of community events that people would have attended; such as village fetes and charity fundraisers.

By using taste our aim is to create a sense of the community that the Grandstand previously enjoyed when it was in use. We really want the audience to feel as though at any second a horse race could begin or a soldier could walk through the room in which they are sat. Our first idea as to where to serve the gingerbread was to do so on a table decked out with some bunting, that we found at the grandstand itself, to recreate the community fete feeling as the audience arrive. However when we learnt that another piece was taking the audience on a small tour of the outside parts of the grandstand, and that it included the serving hatch where they actually used to serve the gingerbread, we decided that we couldn’t ignore the sense of authenticity that this would add.

We may come into some difficulties serving outside however. “At site environmental conditions may change and need to be accepted or actively countered” ((Pearson, Mike (1010) Site-Specific Performance, Palgrave Macmillan)) The weather will play a huge factor in decided if we can do this on the day or not. For example if it does rain we will have to think of a way to either serve it within a container that is waterproof or go  back to the original idea of the community fete table as the audience enters the weighing room. We will have to be prepared for both eventualities of course. Other than weather, we need to be aware of factors such as insects and birds as the food with be served outside. we also need to be aware of hygiene when dealing with food and drink. We will solve this by covering the food inside until it is served on plates, washing the mugs thoroughly with boiling water and washing up liquid in between shows and washing our hands regularly.

“I got to see a place which seemed to me empty, silent and uncared for.” ((Pinchbeck, M (2005) NottDance 2005 Toolkit. Dance4: Nottingham)) ,
To fill these empty corners and walls, the floor and the doorways doesn’t seem enough. As many of the group experienced on their ‘drifts’ people do not always look up. Why is this? I found myself asking when I, myself, went on a drift and discovered beautiful architecture that existed above the shop windows of Lincoln high street, for the first time. With such a mass of people walking around and never looking up in everyday life, it would be interesting to see whether this behavior changes in a performance environment.
The long piece of cloth, inspired by The Riddlers Jacket by John Newling, that the group have been sewing since the very start of our project at the Grandstand site has now reached almost the full length of the weighing room. With the image of ‘looking up’ in mind, the group have decided to hang the cloth from the ceiling using horse hair twine. In trial this looked like bunting which links in quite nicely with the community feel. Because it is on the ceiling, however, the question remains as to whether the audience will look up during the performance.
“How might its dimensions, the configuration of its architectural elements – walls,floors, surfaces – and existing spatial arrangements inform the placement and
dispersal of both performance and audience? Do they limit or broaden
performative potential? Do they facilitate the provision of close-up, shifting focus,
multi-focus?” ((Pearson, M (2011) Arts and Humanities Research Council Toolkit: Landscape and Environment)) this question, asked by Pearson, evokes thoughts about the multi-focus of our piece. As a group we want the cloth to lead the audience through the center of the room and into the factory in which the Women of War are still working on the ‘make do and mend’ patchwork ‘ airplane wings’. By having a centre of focus leading into us, it eradicates any dead space between the other happenings and ours. The spatial arrangement of the cloth and the Women of War piece does allow for a shifting of focus from the ceiling of the building all the way down the drains of the urinals. This gives us the opportunity to capture the whole building and frame it with our performance, hopefully giving the audience a chance to absorb its floors, and its potential, all at once.

Offering the audience juxtaposing views of the Grand Stand has been the groups aim throughout. With the senses of smell and taste being tantalised with food and drink in such a damp and dirty environment and people being brought into a space that is so dead, we already offer contrasting views of the space. To take this further the group needed to attain a specific space with the Grandstands weighing room to work with. Since we wanted to create a ‘factory’ environment, using our sewing machines to exhibit the work of the women in Lincoln during WWII, we needed a space that was mechanic, cold and quite harsh. The room that the group were instantly drawn to was the bathroom. With its exposed urinals, singular shower cubicle and revealed boiler it created the effect that we needed. On further inspection there are open pipes, holes in the walls and uneven surfaces which work well to juxtapose the bustling factory environment, created with the piece, with the abandoned building that the group are actually working in and with.
Coming to the Grandstand, the group made sure to remember that they are actually strangers to the space, and pondered on the question as to how long they would remain in that status. Being strangers, it could be difficult to really understand the space and its design, uses and history without really thorough research. For the Women at War group this was not so much of an issue. The toilet space had an obvious use, it was a bathroom, somewhere to relieve oneself, to powder the nose and even to taken a shower after a race. It was apparent that the facilities (especially the shower) were not regularly in use, the cobwebs and dirt had built up over time. However, although we were familiar with the uses of the space, we were still strangers to it. We therefore wanted to play with it in a juxtaposing way. Placing lipstick, perfume and toiletries around, their scent alongside the smell of freshly brewed tea, so that the “Scents mingle and intertwine” (( Curious (2003) On The Scent, Online: http://www.placelessness.com/project/1121/on-the-scent/ (accessed: 19th April 2013 ))  as we wanted to offer a new viewpoint and use of the space. “The strangers’ perspective may result in the space itself appearing strange to the spectators as the visiting artist offers up new understandings of the location and practices within the site” ((Govan, Emma et al (2007) Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices, London and New York: Routledge)) Our new understanding of this masculine place full of decay and rot as a feminine one, full of tea and productivity, will hopefully provide that strange and confusing atmosphere for the audience to take pleasure in, finding meaning from the semiotic of giving, and taking away the tea.

From the first time that we as a group stepped into the Grandstand building we were intrigued, bewildered and passionate. Knowing that this space had such an overwhelmingly rich history but was, unfortunately, so unused at the present time was a shocking and inspiring juxtaposition.
War is a recurring theme within our group. The Grandstand had such a role to play within the 1st and 2nd world wars, it was involved in army training, and trench practice and it was also closed during both of the wars. This led me, Jamie, Sophie and Phoebe to think about the women that would have been associated with the Grandstand before the wars and during the wars. What would have happened to the women that worked there? Are there any parallels between them and the women that use the Grandstand now?
We began looking at involving the audience’s sense of smell within our pieces, taking inspiration from reminiSCENT by Jim Drobnick in which he explores the relationship with scent and memory “If the sense of smell appears to be eclipsed by the other senses in western culture, there is one realm in which it retains an almost mythic power – memory” ((Drobnick, Jim  (2009) ‘Sense and ReminiSCENT: Performance and the Essences of Memory’ , Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 137, Winter: p.6-12)) At first we thought that using a perfume that the women of the Second World War would have worn and spraying it on letters would be effective in taking the audience on a journey through time, we experimented with this somewhat. However, as our research deepened we decided that we wanted to instead, take the audience on a journey back to when the Grandstand was alive and bustling with people “As much as smells conjure memories, they also conjure places”  ((Drobnick, Jim  (2009) ‘Sense and ReminiSCENT: Performance and the Essences of Memory’ , Canadian Theatre Review, Issue 137, Winter: p.6-12)) , We discovered that they would serve gingerbread and fruit to the crowds of spectators at the Grandstand, which would have created an aroma specifically related to the atmosphere of the races.
Another level of scent that we wished to include was that of tea. We know that the Grandstand is currently being used as a sort of ‘community centre’ and we found teacups  saucers and a kettle on the site therefore there will probably be tea being served regularly. Since “tea is –after water- the most widely consumed drink in the world”(Deadman,P (2011) ‘In Praise of Tea’ Journal of Chinese Medicine, October: 14-8))  and has been in available in Europe since 1606, almost everybody can relate to the smell. Within Britain it is the drink associated with home and comfort, community and togetherness. Therefore we decided that it was essential to combine the audiences personal memories of community based activities, with the imagined atmosphere of the day at the races. This not only links together the site with the performance but also the past, present and maybe even future of the Grandstand through scent alone.
This research helped us to create a part of the piece so far in which we aim to combine the image of the women working at the Grandstand previous to war, having to leave and abandon their ‘normal’ tasks, to contribute to the building of aeroplane wings or to join the WAAF. This is something that would have happened to the women of Lincoln during the war; it disrupted the community and changed the way the Grandstand was used. We have tried to do this by creating layers of emotional and memory evoking material using scent, visual aids and sound to devise an effect such as the one Cage talked about in Kostalanetz; “I would like the happening to be arranged in such a way that I could see through the happening to something that wasn’t it”(Kaye, Nick (2013) Site-Specific Art: Performance, Place and Documentation, London and New York: Routledge)) We want the audience to achieve this level of vision when interacting with our piece. The scent of the piece should be the first thing that hits our audience as they walk through the doors. The mixture of tea, gingerbread, fruit and the damp of the unused building will mingle together to form a potent aroma, representative of all of the different aspects of the overall performance narrative.