AS Drama Exploration Notes – The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol

To achieve the highest possible grade you must:-

- Show outstanding knowledge of the text

- Include examples of your own practical work
- Be concise and analytical
- Be accurate and show evidence of your own research.

Language
- What do you notice about the language of the text?
- Comment on how the script was put together
- Comment on the use of first and third person – what purpose?
- Comment on any poetry or song used in the script – what effect?
- Do you notice any differences in the way different characters use language?
Discuss these.
- What about the use of any slang, foreign languages, unusual words, - What
tone do these set?
- As an actor, how would you approach the language of the piece?
- Give examples of some practical work you did which helped you to
communicate the language of the play.
Non-Verbal Communication
- Define non-verbal communication (e.g eye contact, physicality, complicity,
facial expression, sounds, positioning, actors as objects, chorus, use of
props…)
- Explore the notion of ‘complicity’ and how the actor might strive to achieve
this.
- Explore the physical theatre / non-verbal elements of the play – give some
examples of how you used these in rehearsal. How necessary are these
elements to the success of the play? How do these elements communicate
the meaning and story of the play?
Vocal Awareness
- How important is vocal technique to the actor?
- Give examples of how you warmed up your voice in rehearsal and how you
used it in performance?
- Give examples of how different vocal expression could affect the meaning of
a particular line (e.g use of 7 Levels of Tension and ‘neutral’)
Characterisation
- What is character? How would you begin to ‘find your character’?
- What technique does Complicite favour? (physical or psychological?) Give
examples of exercises you did to ‘find the character’.
- Comment on the key characters from the script – who are they? What kind of
people? What status? What animal?
- Comment on how you approached the performance of a particular character
in rehearsal – e.g use of 7 Levels of Tension and neutral, use of physicality
and movement, animals etc..
- Do you notice any similarities or differences between the way Complicite
approach character and the way Brook approaches character? Comment on
these.
The Social, Cultural, Historical and Political Context
- What was the historical and political context of the play? Is this especially
significant?
- What was the cultural context of the play? Discuss the influence of
practitioners, such as Jacques Lecoq, on the work of Theatre de Complicite.
- Give some examples of other company’s working at this time and compare
the work they were doing with that of Complicite.
- What was new about what Complicite were doing at this time?
- What influence do you think “The 3 Lives of Lucie Cabrol” has had on
theatre today? What evidence do you have for your opinion?
The Visual, Aural and Spatial Elements of a production
- If you were to see a production of Lucie Cabrol what would you expect to
see? Comment in detail on costumes, props, set, light, casting etc..
- What would you expect to hear? Comment on use of music, song, sound
effects, voice, languages.
- What kind of staging would you think would work best and why? In the round,
end on, thrust.
- What elements would be especially important to the production? Explain
why.
- Describe how you explored some of these elements in rehearsal. E.g use of
canes, chorus, physical theatre, space, props and so on
The Response to a Practitioner
- What do you think are the key elements of Complicite’s approach to theatre?
- What do you think are the key elements of Jacques Lecoq’s approach to
theatre?
- How did you explore some of these in rehearsal?
- What elements did you find useful as a performer?
- Find out about other theatre companies who are heavily influenced by either
Jacques Lecoq or Complicite? What kind of work are they doing?

Interpretation
- Discuss how you interpreted a section of the text of “3 Lives”. What choices
did you make?
- What different ways might you approach the same section of text?
- What influenced your decisions?
- Does the play demand a particular interpretation? Explore this idea.