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Rufus Norris introduces and discusses 'Small Island' Act 1 scenes 4-8
- Key Stage 3
- Year 9
- English
So the rest of the first half, Scenes Four to Eight, are when the story really starts to elide, that these characters start meeting each other. Now, the only link that we've had so far is it is between Gilbert and Arthur and then Queenie, and then with Michael. But Gilbert hasn't met Hortense yet. Hortense hasn't met Queenie, and we haven't really seen how these things are gonna start coming together. So Scene Four, and again, we've got one of these transitions. Out of Scene Three, we're told that the war is over. As that cinema screen is going back, we're really, the war has ended, there's a beautiful juxtaposition which happens in great storytelling of Gilbert's deep grief about the death of Arthur and the celebration of the end of World War II. So the whole world is celebrating while this man is in total despair, because the person that he had grown very fond of, had died, partly as a result of him not being able to resist the temptation to get into a fight. But out of that grief, he goes into the celebration at the end of Act Two, the end of the war, and he's taken back to Jamaica, which is of course where he meets Hortense. Then we are flip-flopping. We're going from Hortense and Gilbert meeting. We go back to Queenie trying to find out what's happened to Bernard. I think that's right. And then we're going, we're going to, the moment where Gilbert and Hortense are. The beginning of them being brought together, Gilbert is going to go with Hortense's friend Celia. That's the plan. We sort of know it isn't gonna happen. Gilbert's never gonna get the money, and Celia can't leave for the reason that Hortense says. And this throws a light on people whose dreams are just dreams. But because Hortense's dream is stronger than that, and she reacts very badly to being ridiculed by Celia, she kicks out, which is a flaw in her personality. Andrea Levy is not afraid of painting people in, you know, in a complex way, but it breaks the idea of this fantasy and consequently ends up presenting the opportunity for the much less optimistic, but more pragmatic movement forward to what they want. So we've gone, we're in Jamaica, we go back to London, we're in Jamaica again for this scene, and then we go back to London again for Michael returning and us hearing about his story about what happened to him during the war. And of course the moment where he discovers that Queenie has kept his wallet to look at the photo of him and they start their very brief but passionate love affair. And then we're back in Jamaica again, and we're heading towards the end now, where Hortense, the opposite of a passionate love affair is a very pragmatic relationship. "I will give you the money to go, as long as you, and I will marry you as long as you call for me afterwards." And Gilbert, he has no cards to play. What's he gonna do? And he takes the very difficult decision to go for it. Both of them are looking at the life that they want and sacrificing the idea of love to do that. And then we're into Windrush at the end. So, it's really where we've set up the three stories Scenes Four to Eight are where these all start wrapping around each other and leading us towards the end of Act One with the knowledge that Act Two is gonna bring all these three stories together in a different and more complete way. Again, you know, big changes. How do you do that without loads of stuff? The scene where Queenie is, you know, goes to the war office to find out what's happened to Bernard is a chair and a lamp. That's all it is, and a bit of a lighting effect. The use of shadows in the scene and a bench in the scene between Celia and Gilbert and Hortense is, you know, is very compact. People being our principle scenery there. So one thing to look at is the deft way that we can tell that story with the minimum amount of stuff. And just seeing how Andrea Levy and Helena are successfully wrapping the story around and round itself to project us forward.
Rufus Norris introduces and discusses 'Small Island' Act 1 scenes 4-8
- Key Stage 3
- Year 9
- English
So the rest of the first half, Scenes Four to Eight, are when the story really starts to elide, that these characters start meeting each other. Now, the only link that we've had so far is it is between Gilbert and Arthur and then Queenie, and then with Michael. But Gilbert hasn't met Hortense yet. Hortense hasn't met Queenie, and we haven't really seen how these things are gonna start coming together. So Scene Four, and again, we've got one of these transitions. Out of Scene Three, we're told that the war is over. As that cinema screen is going back, we're really, the war has ended, there's a beautiful juxtaposition which happens in great storytelling of Gilbert's deep grief about the death of Arthur and the celebration of the end of World War II. So the whole world is celebrating while this man is in total despair, because the person that he had grown very fond of, had died, partly as a result of him not being able to resist the temptation to get into a fight. But out of that grief, he goes into the celebration at the end of Act Two, the end of the war, and he's taken back to Jamaica, which is of course where he meets Hortense. Then we are flip-flopping. We're going from Hortense and Gilbert meeting. We go back to Queenie trying to find out what's happened to Bernard. I think that's right. And then we're going, we're going to, the moment where Gilbert and Hortense are. The beginning of them being brought together, Gilbert is going to go with Hortense's friend Celia. That's the plan. We sort of know it isn't gonna happen. Gilbert's never gonna get the money, and Celia can't leave for the reason that Hortense says. And this throws a light on people whose dreams are just dreams. But because Hortense's dream is stronger than that, and she reacts very badly to being ridiculed by Celia, she kicks out, which is a flaw in her personality. Andrea Levy is not afraid of painting people in, you know, in a complex way, but it breaks the idea of this fantasy and consequently ends up presenting the opportunity for the much less optimistic, but more pragmatic movement forward to what they want. So we've gone, we're in Jamaica, we go back to London, we're in Jamaica again for this scene, and then we go back to London again for Michael returning and us hearing about his story about what happened to him during the war. And of course the moment where he discovers that Queenie has kept his wallet to look at the photo of him and they start their very brief but passionate love affair. And then we're back in Jamaica again, and we're heading towards the end now, where Hortense, the opposite of a passionate love affair is a very pragmatic relationship. "I will give you the money to go, as long as you, and I will marry you as long as you call for me afterwards." And Gilbert, he has no cards to play. What's he gonna do? And he takes the very difficult decision to go for it. Both of them are looking at the life that they want and sacrificing the idea of love to do that. And then we're into Windrush at the end. So, it's really where we've set up the three stories Scenes Four to Eight are where these all start wrapping around each other and leading us towards the end of Act One with the knowledge that Act Two is gonna bring all these three stories together in a different and more complete way. Again, you know, big changes. How do you do that without loads of stuff? The scene where Queenie is, you know, goes to the war office to find out what's happened to Bernard is a chair and a lamp. That's all it is, and a bit of a lighting effect. The use of shadows in the scene and a bench in the scene between Celia and Gilbert and Hortense is, you know, is very compact. People being our principle scenery there. So one thing to look at is the deft way that we can tell that story with the minimum amount of stuff. And just seeing how Andrea Levy and Helena are successfully wrapping the story around and round itself to project us forward.