21 April – 6 MaySouthbank Theatre, The Lawler

9 May – 27 MayRegional Tour

Notes prepared by Meg UptonEDUCATION 2016

– MTC EDUCATION TEACHERS’ NOTES 2016 –PART A

by Harry MellingPeddling

1

BACKGROUND TO THE PLAY AND TO THE MTC PRODUCTION

…going house to house, door to door –

knock knocking – professional doorstep hopping,

hoping that someone might show an interest. Boy from Peddling

Because theatre is an ephemeral art form – here in one moment, gone in the next – and contemporary theatre making has become more complex, Part A of the Peddling Teachers Notes offers VCE Drama teachers and students a rich and detailed introduction to the production in order to prepare you for seeing the MTC production – possibly only once.

In this first part of the resource we offer ways to think about the world of the play, the playwright/creative team, the structure, non-naturalistic performance styles, characters, conventions and elements, themes and ideas and previous productions. These are prompts only. When the production opens in April, Part B of the education resource will be available, providing images, interviews, and detailed analysis questions that relate to the VCE Drama Unit 3 performance analysis task.

Why are you studying Peddling?

The extract below from the VCE Drama Study Design is a reminder of the Key Knowledge required and the Key Skills you need to demonstrate in your analysis of the production.

DRAMA UNIT 3 – AREA OF STUDY 3 - Outcome 3 On completion of this unit the student should be able to analyse and evaluate a non-naturalistic performance. To achieve this outcome the student will draw on key knowledge and key skills outlined in Area of Study 3. Key knowledge

• The ways in which non-naturalistic performance styles and conventions are used in performance • The ways in which characters are represented in non-naturalistic performance through the actors’ use of expressive skills • The ways in which dramatic elements, conventions and stagecraft are manipulated to enhance non-naturalistic performance • Drama terminology associated with performance styles, traditions, and practitioners from contemporary and cultural traditions relevant to non-naturalistic performance.

Key skills

• Analyse the representation of characters within a non-naturalistic performance • Analyse and evaluate the manipulation of dramatic elements, conventions and stagecraft within a non-naturalistic performance • Analyse non-naturalistic performance styles within a production • Analyse and evaluate the use of expressive and performance skills in non-naturalistic performance • analyse and evaluate establishment and maintenance of the actor–audience relationship in a non – naturalistic performance • Use drama terminology appropriately to analyse and evaluate a non-naturalistic performance.

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Peddling synopsis

The Boy’s at your door trying to sell you the essentials of life: you know, bin bags, Chux wipes, loo roll, that sort of stuff, except the price is premium. For as his laminated ID says, he’s selling on behalf of the Mayor’s Young Offenders’ Scheme. But you know the scheme’s just a scam, so you give the door a slam and never give the kid another thought. Maybe you should, though, because going house to house and taking your abuse is not what he’d be doing if he could help it. He’s just a boy peddler peddling as fast as he can, trying not to slip down the cracks. Maybe just one day you’ll open the door and you’ll recognise the kid trying to peddle his stuff. He’s someone from your past. Then what will you do?

From Harry Melling comes a terse-versed one person play, an urban story told in jagged jolting freeform snap-rap, about the kids who get knocked down early and never get a hand up. Who are they? Where do they come from? And is there anywhere for them to go?

Discuss the bolded text that describes the production. What images do they conjure? Watch the UK Trailer of Peddling here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSqFTRalLzE

Creative Team

3

Setting and Structure

The play is set in contemporary London. The central character, Boy, is constantly on the move, traversing the streets, suburbs and wastelands of the city. Time is fluid – night/day, a few minutes, a few hours, or a whole day is suggested between the beats or ‘units of action’. In the end we return to the opening location.

Language

Language is very important in Peddling. The play is described as being written in the style of a snap rap poetry. It is often very lyrical and poetic, and at other times slightly more conversational.

Watch a video of rap poet Kate Tempest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRYLzWovtk

Kate Tempest, a snap rap poet from London, was of the playwright’s influences. This YouTube clip will give you a sense of the rhythms, content and delivery of the poetry.

Locations in Peddling

• Vacant lot, interior of a van • Suburbs of London (Muswell Hill, Finchley, Hampstead Heath, Hendon) • Railway carriage on the North Circular line • Newsagency • Streets of North London • Telegraph pole in the street • Inside the home of the woman and little girl • Hampstead ponds • Outside his mother’s house

show me the point of turning… where one thing becomes the other

Boy from Peddling

Performance Styles

Peddling uses non-naturalism including aspects of physical theatre, story-telling, snap rap poetry.

Discuss the CONVENTIONS of each of these styles. Make a list under each heading so you can build up a sense of what you may see and hear.

4

The World of Peddling – Images of London

What do the following images evoke?

Improvised skate ramp, London London housing estate https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236/1f/d2/cf/

1fd2cff2d68515cceafc3c2b92620c3b.jpg http://photos.urbanartcore.eu/2011/11/evol-stencil-art-london.jpg

Kensington, London Hampstead ponds www.olaleslie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/South-Kensington http://www.hampsteadheath.net/hampstead-no.-1-pond.html

Discuss the setting and structure of the play and the theatrical possibilities they offer. Make note of the many locations in the play. Discuss how the performance styles listed may be used to enable the performer to be in the different locations and play with time. Discuss how stagecraft might assist the performer.

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The Character of Boy

Boy is 19 years old. His father passed away when he was small. His mother became depressed and couldn’t care for him. The play suggests she took him to the church they used to attend. He was found there and then put into care. The suggestion in the play is that the Woman was one of his care review officers.

Other Characters

This is a solo show so other characters are portrayed by or appear through the character of Boy. Sometimes we hear them speak, sometimes they are described, and sometimes we get a sense of the Boy interacting with them.

These other characters include:

• The Boss man

• Other young offenders

• Customers in nice houses

• An elderly senile woman

• A little girl

• A woman from his past (care reviewing officer)

• A newsagent manager who sells Boy some fireworks

• Boy as a young boy in church

Discuss the following:

What are your immediate feelings about the Boy? How can a solo performer create multiple characters? What expressive skills do they need to use? Do they need to fully transform? How might stagecraft assist?

6

Set and Stagecraft

At the design presentation for Peddling, the design team offered the following insights with regard to the set, costume, lighting and sound:

• The set has a feeling of found objects. It alludes to a skate ramp, but is not a skate ramp – there is no skating in the performance

• The set is structural and can be climbed on/through

• The ramp features worn tracks, reinforcing the concept of the Boy running, over and over

• There will be live percussion - a variety of drums as well as buckets and other less conventional percussion items are proposed

• Lighting will reference billboard lights but placed at floor level to generate a sense of a city and also a sense of height

• The colour palette will allow the Boy to blend into his surroundings, be enveloped by the city and structure

• Oversized clothes will be used to make the Boy appear smaller

• It is envisaged that most of the sound will be created live on stage

• The Boy will have a bag/backpack as a major prop that will store his door-to-door sales

goods the cement of – concrete London (which, when) –

swirling, turns this city… Boy from Peddling

Reference images in the MTC rehearsal room for Peddling. Set and Costume Design: Marg Horwell

7

What’s in a name?

Play titles are not necessarily accidental nor co-incidental. Often they are deliberate and created in an attempt to capture the essence of the play. What follows is a series of definitions of the terms: peddling, pedalling, and to pedal.

Peddling

1. Try to sell (something, especially small goods) by going from place to place – “He peddled printing materials around the country”

Synonyms: sell, sell from door to door, hawk, tout, vend, offer for sale;

2. Sell (an illegal drug or stolen item) – “Youths involved in drug peddling” 3. Promote (an idea or view) persistently or widely – “The giant con that has been peddled in the

Conservative press” Synonyms: advocate, suggest, urge, recommend, champion

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pedlar

A peddler (in British English a pedlar) also known as a canvasser, cheapjack, monger, or higler is a travelling vendor of goods. In England the term was mostly used for travellers hawking goods in the countryside to small towns and villages; they might also be called tinkers or gypsies. In London more specific terms were used, such as costermonger. There has long been a suspicion of dishonest or petty criminal activity associated with pedlars and travellers

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peddler

Pedal

1. A foot operated lever used to control certain mechanisms, or to play or modify the sounds of certain musical instruments such as pianos or organs

2. A lever-like part worked by the foot to supply power in various mechanisms such as a bicycle

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pedal

Pedalling: Metaphors and quotes

- Pedalling uphill is like swimming against the current; downhill gives you the brief instant of going over the waterfall – Anonymous

- The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine – John Howard - Melancholy is incompatible with bicycling – James E. Starrs - Life is like riding a bicycle - stop peddling and you fall off – Author Unknown, c.1936

• A key DRAMATIC ELEMENT in non-naturalism is SYMBOL • A common CONVENTION is DRAMATIC METAPHOR Discuss how the definitions, metaphors and quotes presented above might have meaning and application in the production you are going to see.

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What else?

The following is some background information to aspects of the Boy’s life and job you may be unfamiliar with.

Door-to-door sales

Door-to-door is a sales technique in which a salesperson walks from the door of one house to the door of another trying to sell a product or service to the general public. People who use this sales approach are often called traveling salesmen, or the archaic name drummer, to "drum up" business.

Young Offenders

In the play, the Boy is a young offender and is working in the Lord Mayor’s Young Offenders’ Scheme.

The following link takes you to a blog that runs a discussion about schemes such as the one in the play. It is opinion only. Read the blog: http://www.netmums.com/coffeehouse/house-garden-194/kitchen-household-14/603882-ex-offenders-door-door-sales.html

In the UK a young offender is a young person who has been convicted or cautioned for a criminal offense. Criminal justice systems often deal with young offenders differently from adult offenders, but different countries apply the term 'young offender' to different age groups depending on the age of criminal responsibility in that country.

In England and Wales the age of criminal responsibility is set at 10. Young offenders aged 10 to 17 (i.e. up to their eighteenth birthday) are classed as a juvenile offender. Between the ages of 18 and 21 (i.e. up to their twenty-first birthday) they are classed as young offenders. Offenders aged 21 and over are known as adult offenders.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_offender

Young Offenders in Australia

Juveniles (those aged 10-16 years in Queensland and 10-17 years in all other Australian jurisdictions) commit more property than violent crimes, and generally commit less serious crimes such as graffiti, vandalism, shoplifting, fare evasion, motor vehicle theft, unlawful entry and road traffic offences.

In Australia children as young as six years were once incarcerated for crimes such as these. However, today’s approach to young offenders is quite different. Prison is now widely acknowledged as a solution of last resort for most juveniles.

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A different approach

Australia’s legislation, policy and practice recognises that juveniles are more vulnerable than adults and need to be handled differently. Compared with adults, juveniles lack maturity, are more likely to take risks and are more easily influenced by peers. They are also more likely to ‘grow out’ of offending, becoming more law-abiding as they mature. A sentence in prison may entrench a criminal mindset and set a path for an adult life of crime.

Throughout Australia juveniles have been dealt with separately from adults and treated less harshly than their adult counterparts. A range of policing measures has been introduced to divert offenders away from the criminal justice system. These include cautioning, conducting meetings between an offender and their victim (restorative justice conferencing), and convening specialty courts (such as youth drug and alcohol courts). These options for dealing with juvenile offenders are often more intensive and costly than dealing with adult offenders, but have a better chance of ensuring young people do not go on to commit further crime.

Source: http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/in_focus/juvenilejustice.html

Discuss the following: • Why do young people offend? What circumstances may lead them to do so?

• Consider what circumstances might prevent young people offending? For instance the structures of family, school, friendships, society?

• What does your knowledge of the play suggest about Boy? What type of offence might he have committed?

• What are your thoughts about the Young Offenders’ Scheme? What else could be offered?

Reviews from the London production

“…the whole monologue has a feverish intensity. Its rapid rhyming structure is reminiscent of Mark O’Rowe’s Howie the Rookie and Terminus, while the rhythms and inflections are closer to spoken word poets like Kate Tempest or Polar Bear.

The Boy’s desire to make himself heard, to put a light in the darkness, leads to him buying a firework - but while they may blaze in glory they can also be destructive, damaging. Melling walks that line with uneasy menace as we wonder where and when he's going to blast off. This is typical of Peddling - for all the play is grounded in a grimy, desperate urban London, it aims far higher with its symbolic imagery.”

Holly Williams, The Independent (2015)

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/peddling-arcola-review-harry-mellings-solo-show-has-a-feverish-intensity-10095159.html

Discuss the bolded phrases and words in the above review extract. Brainstorm what insights do you they offer you about the production?

10

Excerpt from interview with Harry Melling

Adrian Lobb, The Big Issue UK (March 4, 2015)

“When I was young, we used to get lots of door-to-door sales boys coming around selling dish cloths, marigolds, oven gloves and things like that,” he says. “Sometimes we would buy things, sometimes we wouldn’t. On one occasion, my dad opened the door, said ‘no thank you, not today’, but then we heard this huge commotion outside. And this boy totally lost it. This must have been the last straw of a very long day of doing the same thing over again. Ever since then that person has stuck in my head. What happened to him, where did he go, what brought him to that point, what will happen to him in the future and what does he dream of? All of those questions. I have been playing with this idea since I was about 16, of putting it into words. And only in the last two years did I give it a really good crack. I wanted to revisit that kid. That is why it is a solo piece – it is an isolated job, going door to door.”

So how did Melling, by his own description a middle class boy who grew up in ‘a biggish house’ get further inside the head of the character he wrote and portrays? And what was his research process?

“It is a very tricky one to research because you don’t want to abuse a trust or probe too much,” he says. “But equally you want it to feel real. I talked to as many people as I could. If a salesperson visited, I would engage with them and have a good chat.

Sometimes they would be homeless, sometimes not; sometimes a boss would take commission, sometimes they peddled the idea they were part of a young offenders’ scheme – which I looked into and found there was no such thing. It was something they would say to hook into the charitable idea, which is part of it. So there are lots of different ways they would present themselves. But one thing they have in common is going around London suburbia, going to places that they have no relationship with. That collision of class I always found fascinating. You could walk down one road and it is affluent and another nearby is very poor. We are all living on top of each other in that sense. It is a play about London and class.

My feeling towards it is that you have to tackle it from the inside out – the second you try to attach a political or social agenda onto the play, it just doesn’t work. It sinks. It all comes from this boy’s world view. The politics, the social comment, are all coming from an emotional and psychological honesty – which is born from observations of these people I have met and talking with them. At one point there is reference to the care system, and I did loads of research into it, but it is not a play about that. It is a play about this boy wanting something else.”

Source: http://www.bigissue.com/features/interviews/4950/harry-melling-interview-these-real-people-are-living-amazing-magical-lives

Discuss the themes and ideas in the play, as discussed in the review above.

Discuss each of the bolded phrases and sentences. What insights do they offer about the themes and ideas that are present in the play?

Do you agree that you shouldn’t attach a ‘political or social agenda’ to a play?

Discuss what the political or social message of Peddling might be from your knowledge so far.