Production Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/bsl.marketingteam/MummiesDaddiesMedeaRevisited?feat=email# Check it out!

lullaby

Firstly I found a live version of our final song by the King Singers that is just breathtaking and amazing to see them actually performing it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2xpg3N1DA8

and secondly this is the original by Billy Joel, I'm putting this up because it's the video for the song and has beautiful moments of children dressed as angels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDFBa5tudPk

Just food for thought :)

x

The News Report.

We’re just receiving some more information on the brutal murder of a number children, in what is suspected to have been an act of vengeance by their Mother against their disenfranchised Father, the national hero Jason. The reports we are receiving speak of the scene that awaited the inspecting officers; we have heard they walked in to find “a room bathed in blood, in the centre of which, the shattered and dismembered body’s of the children were clumsily heaped upon each other.” One report spoke of a scene that was “so unspeakable in nature that no person, least a Mother, could have created it. It must have been the work of a daemon or a person possessed.” We are yet to hear a statement from Jason, but a spokesperson has said that he is “irreconcilably disturbed” by the event. We shall bring you more information on this barbaric murder as it comes to us. In other news…

Goodnight my Angel

Inspired by the song, and by Imogen's stop-motion videos.

A couple of evocative songs...

Craig Armstrong and Elizabeth Fraser - This Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEsUiQIyzd8

Britney Spears (yes, I know) - Baby Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzCh5smNFec&feature=related - It's a bit poppy, I know, but just listen to the lyrics, they're PERFECT (and ignore the random chatty bit in the middle).

ok another!!! from heaven!

dont know, just random, but felt it had some connection to us...song of dead children?

'Sticks and Stones break brittle bones' by Lauren Gauge

Brittle bones echo little groans,
now my stepping stones lead me:
round and round the garden like a drunken mare.
Drunk with vengeance.
Spitting sticks and stones to break your little bones.
Inside, my caged body bare.

I paced my mind and found it rocking in a chair.
Creek, creek, chamber bleak.
My arms ridden with your children
and their beatless bodies stare.

I warned you all, creep out of my world.
tip toe away, drown in my pool of sanctuary,
let my presence make you sway.
Feed on my breast no more;
parasites I wed and bore.

I Cannot Sleep - Unit Six Poem

I cannot sleep. The floorboards creak intermittently. A kitchen drawer opens then closes. A fork clangs against a knife.

I cannot sleep. A mirror shatters into broken fragments. A kitchen drawer opens then closes. The stairs groan under weight.

I cannot sleep. The doorknob squeaks as it is turned. A kitchen drawer opens then closes. The bright naked light seeps into my room as the door is opened.

I cannot sleep. Its Mummy. Mummy doesn't look like Mummy.

I cannot wake.

My Hand

(Revised lyrics)

Please, don't pull at my hand too hard

It like me is fragile and breaking

Why aren't you taking

me

Please keep a strong hold on my hand

It's bruised and sore like my heart

But we've still got to part

Haven't we

Please don't loose your grip, on my Hand

It like me is fragile and breaking

Why aren't you taking

me

Possible speech

some text that could be used in the same way the arguement between rosie and dan happens.


Messenger: Medea! Get away, escape! Oh, what a thing to do! What an unholy, horrible thing! Take ship, or chariot. Any means you can but escape!

Medea: Why should I escape?

Messenger: She’s dead – the princess, and her father Creon too, they’re both dead, by your poisons.

Medea: Your news is excellent. I count you from today my friend and benefactor.

Messenger: What? Are you sane, or raving mad? When you’ve committed this hideous crime against the royal house, you’re glad at hearing it? Do you not tremble at such things?

Medea: I could make suitable reply to that, my friend. But take your time now; tell me, how id they die? You’ll give me double pleasure if their death was horrible.

Unit 6 Poetry

Unit 6:
The King of C and the Princess are murdered by the gifts. In the final act of revenge, the woman murders her children.

‘Hush precious’ devised by The Poets.
Hush precious. I‘m here, it’s time to drift off to sleep. So I shut my eyes, held my breath, swallowed the swelling mound of saliva gathering underneath my tongue and let my flesh soften on my bones, melting in her arms. Your dreams will comfort you. You’ll live forever in your dreams. Go, and sleep forever, never to wake up from that deep sleep of yours. Remember the good, forget the bad and live in purity, precious purity. Heavy eyes, heavy head, sending you to your heaven’s bed.

‘Mummy’s hurting me’ devised by The Poets.
Mummy’s hurting me. Her eyes look red and sore. Surprises me that mummy’s in pain too, no glistening blade in her bodies core. Her warm touch traded for cold steel, her sweet smile becomes a fierce lock of teeth. Arms open as if for an embrace. As she comes nearer, out comes that cold blade glistening in the light of the room. Her eyes speak a thousand words; a thousand words of pain and gloom. I know now mummy must take me to my eternal tomb. I trust mummy through my tears and pain. I live with her in memory- my life, my time, my name.

Taken from the original text the idea of Innocence forming the start of something very dark-
speech begins page 35:
decorated for a wedding
servants delighted, patted gold hair, shook hands, followed them to the princesses room- she turned away and furious to find them there(the children). Your husbands friends must be your friends too. For me. She saw finery and couldn’t resist. Snatched the gorgeous dress, giggling at the reflection of her tiara.
Prinked around the room in her little feet feet. Changed colour, staggered, shiver. Prayer. Her mouth froth was bubbling from her lips- eyes rolled back, colour drained. She lay mute. Raverged by a double torture: flame shot burning ghastly the soft dress began to feed. Shake off the halo- it clung, seared to the bone. Blood dripping from her head. The flesh gorged by the poison dribbled off her, like gum from a pined. We were witnesses. We’d learned.
Child poor child.
The corpses lie together child and father close. The release of tears he craved. Walking shadows that’s all we are.

A Perfect Circle: lyrics-“Don’t cry precious im here step away from the window and go back to sleep safe from pain fear truth and other poisioned devils cause they don’t give a fuck about you like i do.”

Torso (Reprise for Unit Six)

As well as writing new material for Unit Six, I couldn't help thinking that the Torso poem in Unit One fitted well into Unit Six. In this reprise, I have written it from the child's point of view instead (I initially wrote it from the point of view of Medea/an adult point of view). Here goes...

Hack off my feet. Sever my hands.
Cut off my legs. Chop off my arms.
Slice my head from my shoulders and lay me on the ground.
You want revenge. You want him to hurt.
So stab at my heart; plunge your blade through my chest. Lower me to the ground and stand over what’s left.
Relish my body as it is. Your child’s body. Broken; dismantled. Alone. A torso.

An attempt at some poetry writing

I wrote this in a response to Unit six focusing on the harrowing effects Medea has on her children before she actually kills them. Hope you are all well xx


What would you say if I said you don’t care?
That you just rip and tear.
What would you do?
Yes. You.
You who doesn’t care.
Just stares.
Blankly.
I’m yelping. But you’re not helping.
Are you?
You make it worse.
You are the curse-
On me, on us.
In a blink from you I sink
Further.
Further.
All wrong. No song. No pretty, melodic song.
I’m gone.
We are gone.
Now.

Brokenville by Philip Ridley

Hi all,

I briefly mentioned Philip Ridley's Brokenville in rehearsal but thought it would be really useful to give you some more information about it on here. I think it is quite relevant to our project. I hope you agree. The play has lots of very imaginative non literal reinactment as a means to fathom life for the small child and teenagers in the play and they use it to rebuild their pasts of, therefore reinactment group might find this a good source material. I will give you the quote from the preface to the play on here and I'll send you an extract of the openning of the play via email as its too long to post on here.

"Stories are for joining the past to the future. Stories are for those late hours in the night when you can't remember how you got from where you were to where you are. Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story." (Tim O'Brian)

rage faces!

Unit 6

You said you loved me
You said you'd keep me safe
Wrap me up in cotton wool
Fun and Games

Hold me

Instead you gave me away
So the demons came and took me
Exposed to the darkness
I became there prey

Hold me

I long to hear your voice again
Cry for me
stroke me
Protect me
Hold me
Love me
MUMMY

Unit Six Poem (edited by Dan and Flo)

I just wrote this, inspired by the reenactment group's idea of the 'Sleeping Lions' game.

I’m very tired

Night light on

Wrapped up tight

I feel happy now

Not a sound

Moon shines in

On my own

I feel safe now

Big strong wind

Creaking floorboards

Footsteps heard

I feel scared now

Someone’s coming

Heavy breathing

Someone’s crying

I feel upset now

I’m a sleeping lion

It’s just a game

It’s only mum

I feel excited now

My door opens

I close my eyes

Why so quiet?

I’m dead now

Killings as an act of revenge

Over the past 15 years, Ventura County has seen only a few cases. In 1995, Michael Sasse of Simi Valley shot and killed his two children, ages 3 and 4, before committing suicide. He apparently was distraught that his marriage was ending and killed the children during a custody visit.

Cora Caro was convicted and sent to death row for shooting to death three of her four sons in 1999 as they slept in their beds in their Santa Rosa Valley home. Prosecutors argued she killed the children as an act of revenge against her husband for their troubled marriage.

Narinder Kaur Virk of Port Hueneme was convicted in 2002 of trying to kill her two children but was found not guilty because she was legally insane. Virk pushed her two children into the cold waters of Channel Islands Harbor in 2000 before jumping in herself, but all three survived. Her attorneys claimed she was the victim of physical abuse by her husband, allegations he denied.

Daddyblogger.com: Mothers who kill their children

Please see this blog re-inactment for newspaper clippings. Worth everyone having a look at for anything you may be doing could be very useful! For imagery, creative writing response etc

http://daddy.typepad.com/daddyblog/2009/03/motherswhokillchildren.html

Another Blog:

85% of mothers who kill their children are single mothers: Jason leaving Medea drives her to kill her children as revenge.

http://revolutionstreetpreach.blogspot.com/2009/02/85-of-mothers-who-kill-their-children.htm