Slow-motion Tennis

In this exercise, I believe it was a complete opposite to the first two that we did. This task was a reversal in which, I think, made the body flip over the mind and become superior. We had to get into pairs and begin playing a game of tennis. Then we were asked to play it in slow motion, and then slower motion, and then the slowest motion ever! This exercise was definitely the most fatiguing as every action was so miniscule yet used up an entire bag of your energy. Our teacher kept pushing us, as if she was Artaud himself as that’s what he would have done and told us not to give up. Despite there was no racket, no tennis ball and not even any room space (oh and the fact no one would ever play tennis like that) we had to – key word here – BELIEVE. My mind bowed down to my body and went numb, not engaging with what the task anymore. However, my body was so into it physically that, with the demands of my teacher too, I could not give up. My body strength took over and kept me involved in the task when my mind failed to.

Artaud found this was important within theatre in general, much less experimental, as your body needs to learn how to take control, to be able to experiment and have stamina of its own. A reiteration from before – he believed that acting wasn’t just saying a few lines on a stage. It involved as much of the qualities as any other profession.