Preview: DramaSoc BodyShock Season
This term brings something slightly new for the University of York’s Drama Society. The ‘Bodyshock Season’, in which the run of Drama Barn plays will challenge us to think in new ways about our perception of the human body, is upon us. With typically theatrical aplomb, one society member has summed up the concept behind the season with the phrase ‘Body Exalted, Body Destroyed’.
Certainly, the first play on the bill, Berkoff’s adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, is likely to live up to this exciting tag line. The play charts the misfortunes of worker Gregor Samsa, who finds himself quite literally dehumanised when he wakes up one morning to find himself transmuted into a massive insect. Charting the experiences of a paralysed car-crash victim, Whose Life is it Anyway also considers the experience of losing control over the body.
The theme that dominates the season, however, is that of body image and the sexual body. In week four’s play, The Shape of Things by Neil LaBute, the attractive but manipulative Evelyn takes on average-looking Adam, attempting to mould him into a more attractive person, a process in which the body is seen as central; even suggesting plastic surgery. The power of the female body will come under scrutiny in week nine’s The Balcony by Jean Genet. The Barn will be transformed into a brothel where the prostitutes participate in role-plays, manipulating their bodies to fulfil their patron’s fantasies of authority. Next, another Genet play The Maids, sees three male actors – Tom Powis, Ed Duncan Smith and Jonathan Kerridge-Phipps – take on the task of playing women, further challenging our perceptions of the gendered body.
There are, however, two plays which one feels stretch the theme a little too far. Alan Bennett’s Habeus Corpus, a lewd farce about breast size and frustrated marriage, certainly offers a focus on the body but is not really suited to the dramatic and startling ideas suggested by ‘Bodyshock’. Furthermore, although Martin Crimp’s Cruel and Tender does deal with disability and physical violence, considering the play under the ‘Bodyshock’ title places a rather strong importance on these aspects of the play, perhaps to the exclusion of the play’s important reflections on betrayal and corruption.
Overall though, the decision to have a theme is helpful, giving a sense of cohesion to the term and making sure that all the plays are considered under the DramaSoc umbrella. Jamie Wilkes, the DramaSoc chair, was keen to stress that these plays were not chosen specifically in order to fit the theme. “It happened by accident,” he explains. “We noticed the reoccurring importance of the body and decided to bring them together under the title of ‘Bodyshock’.” I ask him if from now on every term will have a theme. He explains: “DramaSoc could never pick plays to fit specific criteria as that would be against our constitution.”
Wilkes is keen to push the idea of seasons, rather than terms, as part of a plan to change the image of the society to reflect its increasing professionalism. “We need to start pushing the DramaSoc brand; a logo on every poster, season tickets, a strong sense of identity.” He finishes, however, with the observation that “pushing for higher standards and quality is essential, but we need an atmosphere where people can make and learn from mistakes because that’s what being a student is all about.”
