4 hours. One character.
Underneath the Theatre was a group of old rooms and cells with a creepy corridor connecting it all.
Each of us was given a letter containing a stimulus for our character in the form of a stream of consciousness.
From this we had to create our character and make a detailed back story to it.
After a consultation with Mr Chipp I felt very secure in my ideas for my character so I felt pretty confident at how I was going to act it going in. I wasn't completely prepared for being blind-folded and having fake blood poured all over my face but once told what was happening I was very excited at the prospect of being blind for 4 hours. Probably the scariest part of being blind was being led down the stairs by Mr Chipp then being completely disorientated.
Once in the rooms, I was tied to a chair and had bag loosely placed over my head. Even though I wasn't alone in the room, it felt that way for a very long time as the other person was 'unconscious' on the ground. This feeling of loneliness, silence and helplessness was very effective at amplifying my broken and tortured character who had been there for ages. This was most noticeable for me when Connie entered as 'Clara' and untied me as just the contact of someone else almost made me hyperventilate as I had just been immersing myself with the character that when someone else came it was a shock and I was almost sobbing with the release from the chair and simultaneously the release of all the emotions. I found the first interactions with the other characters the most emotionally heightened as everyone was trying to find their feet as their characters and get a grasp as to what was going on. Trying to grasp the situation around me was made even more interesting by the fact I was blind folded as I had no idea what the room was like, where I was in it, who else was there and what they were doing. It wasn't until half an hour into the roleplay that I actually found out that there were five in the room rather than four as I thought. Even more disorienting was that I didn't know what was going on when the door was opened and closed.
Looking back on the first room, I thought that my character was pretty realistic to the idea I had in my head, but I could have done something more when I was released from the chair such as getting away from the place I had been trapped and finding a wall to sit against as I don't think someone would stay in the chair they had been trapped in even if they couldn't escape the room.
I felt that the fear of being taken by Mr Chipp was likely amplified by the fact I had no idea he was coming for me, and it was quite a shock when he grabbed my arm and dragged me from my chair. Furthermore, I was taken to a room which earlier in the day Mr Chipp had warned had had a 20ft deep hole dug in it, so when I was told to 'stay by the wall' and felt the cold of the night I was a frankly terrified. However, later I found out it was just the courtyard - this made sense as I was confused as to why a 20ft drop meant we could hear outside noises. When I was put in here, I was alone for a while and I remember feeling eerily lonely with the lack of sight, the cold air and sound of fireworks in the distance adding to the dark, fearful atmosphere. I stayed standing for a while but to be honest, if I was actually someone who has been tortured for weeks I think I would have sunk to the ground immediately due to weakness and weariness. Furthermore, despite my character losing resolve as a 'soldier' I think she would given a bit of a fight simply out of years of training and instinctive defensiveness but I played her a bit to much like she was resigned to her fate.
When some other characters entered such as Thomas and Clara, the one on one conversations felt more personal and I felt a bit bad when 'Thomas' got really uncomfortable with my character falling into a kind of madness out of misery and pain. When Clara also entered and met Thomas, I was quite touched by the pain in Clara's voice over their relationship and at the same time Thomas' pleas for them to be together despite society. It was a bit awkward being in the middle of this reunion but at the same time very emotional.
During this time I had sunk to the floor, and just before I was taken to another room Mr Chipp stood in front of me and said, "Stand up soldier" to which I did. It was pretty intimidating as it felt like the tall figure of Mr Chipp was looming ominously over me and I decided stand up slowly into the most soldier-like proud figure I could. Then I was dragged off into another room.
This room appeared to hold the rest of the group and as I hands came up to help me I fought them off, not able to trust them any longer. I stood in the corner for a long time, trying to work out what was going on around me. I definitely felt like the atmosphere was so much less personal than the ones when it was just a couple of characters as many of the quiet ones wouldn't say a word leaving the loud ones to control the situation which left it feeling a bit forced at times and I think in a realistic situation with the closeness and fear in the room there would have been a few more confrontations. What was also quite spooky was that I didn't know when Mr Chipp was in or out of the room and had to read it from the silence. I normally guessed right but at one point there was some talking as people talked about drinking something so I thought they were just discussing a drink and it was an instinctive reaction when I felt something come to my mouth so I pushed it away. Shouts then came up from the room telling me to drink so a hand came around the back of my neck and tipped a bottle to my lips. I feel like I should probably have fought more at this point but I was a bit confused at what was happening.
The way that the extended roleplay ended was for people to choose 'one who would stay and one who would go' and I later found out this was between partners in the play as I hadn't met my partner and hadn't been told in my stimulus that there was someone else who was involved with my back story. I wish we had met because I feel that this could have ended in a dramatic and emotional confrontation as I killed her family so it could have had her anger and my remorse at what I had done in the past. I was the first to be chosen however and was taken up to the safe room where I was able to relax for the next hour whilst everyone else worked out what was going on and came up one by one.
It was testament to just how effective and absorbing the exercise was as for the next hour people just couldn't stop talking about what had happened. It had required such a huge amount of energy, concentration and investment into the emotions of the character that it just left you on a high after you had left.
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