Homework Task About Pace

'Why is pace so important to the delivery of the play'

Pace - 'Move or develop (something) at a particular rate or speed' '

I think that pace is important to this play because although it does have some serious parts, there is lots of comedy moments and so timings and pace become very important. The first act of this play I think should be fast paced throughout, there shouldn't be any lulls in pace and there should be constant movement. On the other hand, act two is a lot slower, there are blackouts, as well as parts with little to no dialogue. Because of the very sudden change between the two acts, as a cast we have to make sure that the speed from the first act, doesn't carry on into the next.

The play 4.48 Psychosis is a play written by Sarah Kane. It explores the subject of mental illness through a very Brecht like way. There is no setting or no real characters and the dialogue varies from naturalistic to almost poetic. The lack of setting is similar in Dissocia because although it vaguely mentions settings, there isn't any real description of them. Although Dissocia doesn't use any Brecht techniques, it still has a very fast pace matching 4.48 Psychosis.

An example of a slow paced performance is the production of Electra we saw. I felt that although there wasn't any cuts, I didn't feel that it went anywhere in excitement levels. which is similar to the second act of Dissocia. Although there is lots of things going on, there isn't anything particularly thrilling or out of the ordinary.