1

2

THE CYBERSCENE PROJECT

COOKIES RESOURCE PACK

Commissioned by the Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust

In Collaboration with Kidscape

Sections 1, 2 & 3 have been written and curated by Lucy Curtis A further two extension sections have been written and curated by Education Consultant Susie Ferguson

3

Writing About Cookies These paragraphs are starting points to support GCSE & A Level students in writing about live productions as well as covering AQA, Ed Excel and OCR examination requirements. Teachers are encouraged to guide students towards the technical terms in their description and the analysis of the costume choices, which should always be discussed in relation to the intended impact on the audience. The paragraphs offered do not constitute a full answer but instead can be used as helpful starting points for specific questions. WRITING AN INTRODUCTION I saw a production of Cookies by Emily Jenkins. It was performed at the Theatre Royal Haymarket on 29 October 2017. The production explored a range of issues associated with the issues experienced by young people today, focusing on cyberbullying, radicalisation and sexting. It presented the stories of various teenagers, all originally from the same social circle, and the impact that online interactions had on their self-esteem, beliefs and relationships. The rest of this paragraph then needs to be specifically tailored to the specific question that you have been asked. For example: “The way in which the non-naturalistic set design was used to suggest a variety of locations was extremely successful. The set designer Frankie Bradshaw used lights, a telegraph pole and video projections (designed by Nina Dunn) to successfully create a variety of different settings for the audience.

DESCRIBING WHAT AN ACTOR DID Toward the end of the play, Eva gets increasingly desperate as the intimate photo images of her spread across the internet. She said, “I’ve not left the house and I’ve not washed in a week.” In contrast to her earlier costume of dancewear that showed her shoulders and midriff, she was now wearing a zipped up hoodie and she keeps one hand in her pocket. This created small, very self conscious body language and I felt very sorry for her as the voiceovers of those looking at her pictures was played. The actress flinched by moving her shoulders away as if being touched by unseen hands and it successfully communicated how she felt violated and constantly looked at. I was also very conscious of how alone the character felt because she was standing on her own, stage left. Even though Eva had a lot of space to herself on stage, it was interesting that she did not look up – she kept her eye gaze to the floor slightly in front of her. This was a strong contrast to earlier in the play when Eva was broadcasting an online dance tutorial. She had appeared very confident and enthusiastic, looking out towards the audience (and the webcam) and her dance moves were crisp and confident. In contrast, her movements towards the end of the play highlighted the loss of confidence she was feeling – short, sharp movements and they were also intended to communicate self-protection. She covered her ears with both hands and used a very desperate tone, with rising pitch, as she said, “For each one that’s deleted, another appears”. The actress was extremely successful in communicating the extreme change in the character’s confidence and personality. The way that she used her costume to create mannerisms and defensive gestures was also effective in her fear.

4

WRITING ABOUT COSTUME

Costume is used to communicate Rayah’s increasingly radical views. She has married an Islamic State fighter and is living in Syria. At the beginning of the play, she is wearing a light pink hijab, a blue denim jacket and a pink mid-thigh tunic. Underneath the tunic she is wearing a loose pair of grey leggings and black trainers. These conservative clothes suggest that the character is a Muslim who conforms to the rules about women’s dress. The pink colour of the hijab and tunic are pretty, youthful colours and coordinate with those worn by the character of Salena, who is the same age as Rayah. As an audience member, the colour and fit of these clothes were familiar to me and I could relate to the character. Later in the play, Rayah’s costume changes slightly. Instead of the denim jacket which communicates youth and a Western way of dressing, it has been swapped for a long sleeved, thigh length navy blue cardigan. This suggests to the audience that Rayah is becoming increasingly extreme and inflexible in her thinking and it illustrates the way in which her beliefs are different from those held by Salena who remains in her original costume. As Rayah’s costume started to change, I began to feel more distant from Rayah and the costume successfully created a visual picture of how her radical beliefs were becoming stronger. The different between her costume and Salena’s also helped communicate the geographical distance between Salena (who is in London) and Rayah, who is Syria. In addition to the way in which the costume conforms to Muslim beliefs in conservative dress, Rayah’s costume also appears to physically prevent her from moving too freely. The actress tends to keep her arms by her sides once she wears this cardigan – perhaps demonstrating to the audience the rigidity of the radical thought that she is trying to pass to Salena. Rayah has a third costume towards the end of the play. Her views are becoming so extreme that Salena has started to become uncomfortable in the exchanges between them. The audience needs a further visual reminder of Rayah’s changing attitudes – there is so much dialogue in the play that the creative team has used visual cues to successfully remind the audience of the change in Rayah’s character. Replacing her tunic and leggings, Rayah now wears a floor length jilbab. It is a grey colour – suggesting the removal of her own personality or individual character. It has long sleeves, and the actress continues to keep her arms by her sides whilst wearing this in strong contrast to her freer movement in the denim jacket at the beginning of the play. It is buttoned up from the neck to the ankle length hem. I found this a successful way of demonstrating how much Rayah has changed from the beginning of the play up until this point. It was particularly striking because Salena’s costume remains the same as she is not completely sure about the radical views that Rayah is sharing. The colours of Salena’s costume contrast increasingly sharply with the change of Rayah’s costume which starts off in pinks, and then ends in a very metallic, dull grey colour. When she starts to doubt that Salena is travelling to Syria, the grey also reminded me of how scared Rayah was becoming, and how she herself was being controlled by her husband and not having any free thought of her own. WRITING ABOUT SET DESIGN The non-naturalistic set design successfully allowed the performers to create a variety of different settings, including a bus, Brixton streets, internal locations such as the rooms in which the boys are playing Call of Duty, and even giving the impression of distance between a teenager in London talking to an online friend in Syria.

5

The script refers to “…a war zone. It is not literal or realistic. It should be stylized.” This has been achieved successfully by set designer Frankie Bradshaw who used the a telegraph pole, which was placed centre stage. From this pole, 4 strands of lights extended outwards from the pole to the sides of the stage. This represented the various different modes of communication – speech, online interaction, Twitter, and instant messaging. This design concept was very effective because the objective of the play is to explore the way in which communication happens, and the negative impact of online communication, in particular. … Another way in which this set design was successful was the way in which it enabled the audience to view the video content. For example, when the nude pictures of Eva have been uploaded online, the video on the cyclorama showed the number of viewings rapidly increasing. Because the themes of the play included the impact of digital media, it was matched very effectively by the use of video and projection and it meant that there could be rapid transitions between one scene in a street, to another in which three boys were playing against each other in Call of Duty. WRITING ABOUT ENSEMBLE ACTING Director Anna Ledwick used the ensemble in a number of different ways. In some scenes it was to create a crowd gathered looking at something – for example the stabbing of MakDown, whilst at other points the ensemble used choral movement to emphasise the content of what some of the characters were saying. Because it is a play with a lot of spoken text, it is important that the audience does not become overwhelmed by what they are listening to. The use of the ensemble effectively highlighted the key points of the speech, as well as highlighting the emotional content of the story. One moment that I thought was particularly effective was the use of the ensemble at the start of the play. Individual members of the audience walked across the stage, not interacting with each other, and in dim light. I interpreted this as a way of showing that a lot of the ‘voices’ on the internet are anonymous, and you could be walking past someone with whom you’ve spoken online, without even realising. This was a thought provoking way of starting a play about the pressures that young people face when interacting online. This was then emphasised even further when the ensemble then all stood on stage and used gestures such as pointing two fingers to their head (like a gun) when all saying together, “go kill yourself”. The contrast between all of the individuals, and then a huge group of people saying this was a very effective way of showing the power of constant comments online. Because the line was spoken at high volume, and with everyone looking out at the audience, it was particularly intimidating and successfully showed how influential people can be online, even if they would not say those things to someone’s face.