When deciding which speech to experiment with, it seemed that the idea to experiment with Marilyn Monroe’s notorious speech regarding ‘beauty’ was a good place to start. This we found due to the words Marilyn is saying, seem to contradict the persona that she is portraying.

“I feel that beauty and femininity are ageless and can’t be contrived,

and glamour, although the manufacturers won’t like this,

cannot be manufactured.”

                                                – Marilyn Monroe

The above quote itself a contradiction as the truth was that she was a platinum blonde whose image was constructed to be a sex symbol, her identity changing so much that her name did also. Taking all of these aspects on board we felt the best way to represent the concept of irony that is being conveyed through this speech would be for an average male to speak it, who is out of the limelight and not a symbol of glamour. Our workshop led us to experimenting with our stage manager Andrew, reading the speech as if he were in the tech stand on opening night (which would be pre-recorded), whilst three glamorous and extremely fake looking women strutted on-stage. Whilst on-stage they moved in unison in a robotic like rhythm (to create a manufactured doll like image) in time to the words, so that it resulted in a choreographed piece of physical theatre representing all that contradicted the spoken words.

Making the transition from  the beginning of the scene as beautifully manufactured like dolls to insecure natural beauties to contrast with this image of ‘beauty’ that is being conveyed in the speech, we felt that this hopefully represented the concept that we were trying to portray; that beauty should not be constructed, as Marilyn suggests, even though she presents otherwise.

Following the exploration of feminine beauty in the previous scene, I felt that the next scene would work perfectly exploring the concept of feminism and its topics that are continuously discussed throughout generations, yet all women are guilty of doing. For example, we are all products of consumerism, whether it be wearing make up to trying to ‘perfect’ ourselves. This being so, we experimented with using this idea of ‘generations’ to try and follow from the previous scene into a scene of comical relief, yet which is a satirical approach to women throughout generations discussing feminist topics. And so we explored the idea of presenting this in a ‘generation game’ type scenario which, along with lighting, would look aesthetically pleasing when eventually performed.

Thus after experimenting and workshopping these two themes of ‘beauty’ and ‘feminism’ that we had discussed in weeks passed, these two scenes compliment each other in terms of subjects presented.