Death Movement

The penultimate scene of LTROI sees the death of my character Jonny as well as the characters Mikie and Jimmy whom are viciously killed by Eli during an attack on Oskar. Thomas Alfredson's depiction of this scene in his 2008 cover was amazing; the screen is mostly covered with Oskar's face whilst the action takes place behind him completely oblivious. In honesty,the audience miss the majority of the action however are allowed to let their imaginations run free as what they do see are limbs falling and legs flying revealing Eli's true power, not to mention the gruesome sights one blood after Oskar is rescued. Similarly with the Apollo theatres adaptation of the scene the audience aren't able to see much other than the odd movement of a body being thrown in the red strobes however again the audience could quite clearly see Oskar, again under the water and well lit in a blue uplight. Though the scene still manages to keep the audience engaged as a large tension build up before the scene means the audience are on the edge of their seats asking who is Oskar's savour? Will Oskar survive? and simply because it's difficult to see, what's happening? 

Revolution Arts has taken a different approach in that we want to reveal to the audience as many gruesome details as we can to the audience about Eli's malicious killing of 'the bullies' therefore the stage shall be lit blue, to create the effect of the pool, with red strobes for added atmosphere and hopefully more tension. When choreographing this movement, myself and Jake Kavagner had a large amount of input. In doing so I tried to add a lot of throws and lifts instead of kicks and punches because I felt it was important to show that Eli was almost torturing them; in short she could simply feed on them and that'd be that but instead she takes a brutal turn, in the film for example, as previously mentioned, she rips them limb by limb. Furthermore I felt that the movement had to be fluent, because Eli is a fantastic swift killer, which is why I often suggested Amanda, Eli, throw us, the bullies, placing us across the stage ready for the next sequence of movements.
At first the scene simply ended with Eli circling Jonny, then snapping his neck however this wasn't nearly dramatic enough for the final death and so we later developed the killing eventually ending with Eli about to sink her teeth into Jonny's neck but realising that she isn't there to feed and that Jonny isn't worth feeding on, instead she is there solely to save Oskar.

Gym Movement

'Closer' Movement

Act One, scene eleven; Eli kills an innocent and Hakan watches on sadly, the two are thrown into an argument surrounding their relationship and dependency with the impression being that Hakan is much more dependant on Eli than she is on him. There is much strain on their relationship at this point of LTROI, however further scrutiny  reveals much intensity among the other characters too; Oskar seems to be at the peak of his humiliation and bullied state despite the Act two, scene seventeen, where he ultimately is the victor by any means because of Eli, furthermore Oskar is confused by this point by Eli and the issues surrounding her. Due it to this, it may be natural to assume that Jonny is hitting a high of his bullying by his older brother Jimmy as previously explained, and hence Mikie is also hitting a high of his bully chain by Jonny although I believe they hit their peaks sometime later; Mikie at the lake in Act two, scene four and Jonny at Act two, scene sixteen. Halmberg is also under alot of stress due to his extremely asking job, he is faced with the utterly difficult task of catching the Hakan, a talented killer with plethora of experience behind him, and Eli, the ever so swift, supernatural bloodsucking '12 year old' with a great deal more years of experience behind her. On top of this, Halmberg may have even more pressure laid on him by his superiors and is in great risk of loosing the case, which not long into Act two does happen.

It is at this point we have choreographed a movement that I believe expresses all of these emotions although it flows well from the previous scene of Eli and Hakan's despair and, much to my liking, takes more of a focus to them and the strains on their relationship expressed through movement; other characters partake in much more repetitive movement which I worry may get abit too tiring for the audience although I hope the movement by Eli and Hakan is interesting enough. The movement takes a much more interesting turn after an intense change in the guitar, as pointed out by Liam, which ques  the company to synchronise and all represent Eli then drop to the floor followed by other violent movement to the beat, much of which I'd like to think I heavily influenced. The movement is closed by myself and Harry attacking Oskar; at this point I feel that me and Harry are not Jonny and Dad or Kurt and Halmberg but the embodiment of Oskar's fears and complex issues.  

'My Songs know what you did in the dark' movement

When seeing LTROI at the Apollo theatre, I was amazed at the scene where Okar's mother joins him in bed followed by an intimate contemporary dance. I think for me, it really represented their difficult relationship, furthermore it gave more depth to the mother's character whom we don't see very often throughout the play. In terms of their relationship, she cares and wants to nurture Oskar but at the same time she doesn't understand him and who he is and so can't, or even won't, support him properly. This means their relationship can be stretched and compressed into difficult and at times awkward forms. It truly showed their relationship and so was pure and fascinating.

In conclusion to this, our performing company has decided to do exactly the opposite following the scene where Oskar is joined by his mother in bed. For this we have used an instrumental to Fallout Boy's 'My songs know what you did in the dark' which is heavy, loud and surprisingly fast for a song to accompany Oskar's dreams. Whilst still focusing on Oskars issues, his mother his more pushed out of the situation and the movement takes a look at Oskars fears; fears of being isolated, enclosed, fears of Jonny, Mikie and Jimmy, his fear of Eli's supernatural power but also fear of loosing Eli. Whilst I would prefer a slow contemporary dance at this point, I believe the movement we have choreographed is still as impacting on the audience and I am behind it. My imput into the choreography, I would hope, meant that it still conveyed to some degree, the visualisation of Oskar's issues. Moreso, I pushed the idea of Oskar's confusion surrounding Eli, e.i. What is she? Is she manipulative? At the same time I thought it might be effective if Hakan was seen as a shadow as I imagine Oskar would be very confused about him; Oskar knows of Hakan as the man next door but who is he and what is his exact relationship with Oskar's interest, Eli?

This is the most recent of many 'movements' we have choreographed and I am beginning to wonder if we are adding too many of these 'movements' to the already powerful script. If we aren't then my main concern is are they impacting the audience as powerfully as we should hope.

'Knife' Movement

Act One, Scene Six of LTROI is a defining point; when Oskar meets Eli. It is a special moment and so it could be argued that the simple text followed by Eli’s laughter is not enough for the occasion. Therefore our theatre company has devised a piece of movement centred around Oskar’s stabbing of the tree whereby the Oskar begins by stabbing the tree in a variation of ways and is slowly joined by other actors, also symbolising Oskar as well as Oskar’s anger and fear, in waves who build up as a unit around him, mirroring the movement of Oskar. Ultimately, the movement builds a lot tension and suspense before the two character’s initial meeting as well as disguising Eli’s entrance enhancing the fact that she is swift, fluent and supernatural.

This movement was inspired by a similar piece in the Apollo theatre’s performance of LTROI although was choreographed by our company. Our main concern was hitting the beat as, this along with the synchronisation of the group, we hoped, would achieve an impacting and effective final result. However, at times I believe the movement might be too simple due to its repetitiveness and might be more effective if we spent a little more time choreographing more and/or different steps. 

Initial Character thoughs

      

Eli - Is Eli Manipulative?

Eli is arguably the most complex character of LTROI; she's 'the girl next door', a young girl, or is she? Whom has been imprisoned in the same body for so many years that she either can't, or refuses to reveal how long. Living for so long, it bares the question what is Eli? No human could live that long, furthermore, am I even right to keep on referring to Eli as 'she'? 

Is Eli Manipulative?
In saying that Eli is manipulative, you are to assume that Eli's motives for befriending Hakan, and more recently Oskar, as ones of using them for self gain, e.g. to stay alive whilst doing no 'dirty work'. However I think it is a shared opinion, including with Apollo's cast, that both Eli and Hakan realise that Eli will potentially create more 'vampires' by feeding herself, as revealed by the film and novel, and so having Hakan kill for and feed Eli is the more reasonable option. Furthermore this may also be because Eli doesn't like to see herself as "that", the animalistic transformation changes her to a point where, I believe, she is no longer in control; her actions simply become out of her control. In terms of her friendship with Oskar, does she see him as a potential replacement for the old and delicate Hakan?