ANDERSEN'S ENGLISH WORKPACK - Out of Joint

22 Pages·2010·4.42 MB·English

ANDERSEN’S ENGLISH WORKPACK
Produced by Out of Joint 2010
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Introduction
Aim of Workpack
The resource materials in this pack are intended to enhance students’ enjoyment and
understanding of Andersen’s English. The activities are variations of the rehearsal techniques used
by Max Stafford-Clark during the production, and present creative and practical strategies for
learning in a classroom setting. The workpack also works alongside the workshop that Out of Joint
provides for Andersen’s English, led by the Artistic Director, the Associate Director or the Education
Manager.
The resources are primarily aimed at students aged 16+ who are studying Drama at BTEC or A
Level. The workpack is in two main sections – Researching the Play and the Rehearsal Process.
Rehearsing the Play
Andersen’s English explores the story behind a real meeting between Charles Dickens and Hans
Christian Andersen, when the latter outstayed his welcome at Gads Hill Place in 1857. Artistic
Director Max Stafford-Clark always encourages vigorous research before and during the rehearsal
process, and with 9 out of the 10 characters in the play being real people, there was extensive
reading on this period of history and the people themselves. This section includes an introduction
into the play’s setting, as well as Dickens himself and the controversy of his personal life in his later
years.
Rehearsing the Play
The Associate Director Jessica Swale gives is an insight into the rehearsal process with extracts
from her diary over the five weeks before opening in Bury St Edmunds.
Student Activities
The workpack includes an introduction into Max Stafford-Clark’s rehearsal techniques such as
actioning and status, as well as classroom exercises relating to the production.
We hope you find the materials interesting and enjoyable.
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Contents
Part 1 : Researching the play
The Play’s Setting, and Characters Page 4
A Background to Dickens Page 5
The Dickens Controversy Pages 6-7
Part 2 : Rehearsing the Play
Max Stafford Clark’s Rehearsal Techniques
Actioning and Analysis Pages 8-10
Exercises To Do Pages 11-12
A Trip To Gad’s Hill Place Pages 13-15
Associate Director Jessica Swale’s Diary Pages 16-19
An Interview with the playwright, Sebastian Barry Pages 20-22
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The Play’s Setting
Andersen’s English tells the story of Hans Christian Andersen reminiscing in Copenhagen in 1870 of
his stay with Charles Dickens and his family at their home in Gads Hill, Kent 12 years earlier.
Dickens, a great admirer of the Danish writer, invited him to stay for two weeks during that
summer; Andersen outstayed this welcome by three weeks.
The sudden death of Dickens’ older and much loved friend Douglas Jerrold in June 1857 deeply
affected Dickens, and he spent much of the summer away from Gads Hill organising readings and
performances to raise money for Jerrold’s family. This left Andersen a lot of the time with his wife
Catherine, sister-in-law Georgina and their children.
The play opens and closes with Andersen prompted to talk about his visit on news of Dickens’
sudden death, at the age of just 58, in 1870. He speaks in hindsight of the collapse in Dickens’
marriage that led to their separation and Catherine’s banishment from the family home and her
children.
But Andersen does not recall the growing tensions in the Dickens household, greatly due to his
hesitant grasp of the English language, and perhaps also due to his huge admiration for Charles
and his desire to be accepted and loved.
The Characters of the Play:
Charles Dickens Aged 46 in 1857 when Andersen comes to stay
Anderson Aged 65 when he reminisces, 52 when he visits Gads Hill
Catherine Dickens’ wife; aged 42
Walter Dickens’ son; aged 16
Kate Dickens’ daughter, aged 19
Georgie (Georgina) Catherine’s younger unmarried sister, aged 30
Aggie The maid in the Dickens household, aged 16
Ellen Ternan an Irish actress, 18 is doubled with Kate.
Stefan a young Danish friend of Andersen’s, 18 is doubled with Walt
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A Background to Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens, arguably England’s all time greatest novelist was born in Portsmouth in 1812.
In 1821 his financially stable childhood in Chatham came to an abrupt end when his father, John
Dickens, was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison in Southwark, London for spending
beyond his means in entertaining and the general maintaining of his social position. The family
soon joined him in residence there, while Charles boarded at family friend Elizabeth Roylance in
Camden Town, North London.
To pay for Charles’ board and help his family, Dickens began working ten-hour days at Warren’s
Blacking Warehouse, on Hungerford Stairs near Charing Cross. His job was pasting labels on jars
of show polish, which earned him six shillings a week. The treatment of employees, particularly
children in the early 19th Century was unregulated, extremely strenuous and often exceedingly
cruel, and this made a deep impression on Charles. It undoubtedly influenced later characters,
novels and essays, and also formed the foundation of his interest in the reform of labour and socio-
economic conditions.
In 1836 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening
Chronicle. Catherine was from a wealthy and established family, and although Dickens was to go
on to become the most famous writer in Britain, at the time it was a match slightly above his social
standing.
Catherine, who bore him 10 children, suffered emotional and physical strain from the many births,
and her unmarried sister Georgina joined the Dickens household to help raise the children.
At the time the play is set, Charles has just learned of the sudden death of his beloved friend, the
writer Douglas Jerrold. Soon after Andersen’s five week visit ended, he formally separated from his
wife Catherine. In the 19th Century it was expected that Charles would remain the primary carer for
his children, and so Catherine’s banishment from him and their home meant that she did not see
her children again. Georgina did not return to her family when Catherine was sent to London, and
instead remained at Gads Hill until Charles’ death in 1870.
It is argued that the catalyst for Catherine and Charles’ separation was the 17 year old actress Ellen
Ternan. Ellen performed in his amateur theatre company in Wilkie Collins’ A Frozen Deep to raise
money for Jerrold’s family. Charles fell in love, and maintained a secret relationship with Ellen until
his death. The exact details of their association are not concretely known, and continue to fuel
debate amongst Dickens’ scholars.
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The Dickens Controversy
Andersen’s English’s focus on Dickens’ family life, in particular the breakdown of his marriage,
could be deemed controversial. While Charles’ relationship with Ellen Ternan is widely known, the
banishment of his wife and continued companionship with her sister is less so.
If one looks at the Wikipedia entry of Charles Dickens for example, in the 16 pages that cover
his personal and professional life there is nothing of his marriage breakdown. All that is said of
Catherine is that she bore him 10 children and accompanied him on his first tour of America
(which she reluctantly did, not wishing to leave the children for 3 months). Georgina is said to have
joined the family over that time to help with the younger children and ‘remained with them as
housekeeper, organiser, adviser and friend until her brother-in-law’s death in 1870.’
In the 19th Century if a marriage separation was demanded by the husband (for reasons of
‘insanity’ on her part, for example) it was necessary for him to remain with the children in the
family home. As a result, Catherine was forbidden from seeing her children, and she never saw her
husband again. There is no evidence to suggest that Georgie and Charles had a sexual relationship,
in fact Charles ordered the doctors to examine her to prove she was a virgin. An extreme measure
perhaps, but in the 19th Century a relationship with a sister or brother-in-law was tantamount to
incest. These statements are undisputed facts; Catherine was sent away, and Georgie remained in
the house, and yet they are not widely known.
Perhaps it is unnecessary to delve into the story of Dickens’ failed marriage. Perhaps his body of
work should speak for itself. Many scholars, writers and members of the public are fascinated by
this period in Dickens’ life, his ‘breakdown’ some argue, which was also near the time he began his
relationship with the 19 year old actress Ellen Turnan.
His affair with Ellen continues to be debated, and there is a school of thought that while they
were companions, their relationship was never sexual. This of course can be neither proven nor
disproved.
In the play three of Dickens’ sons feature: Walter (aged 16), Charlie (aged 18) and Plorn (aged
6), with Charlie and Plorn as puppets manipulated by the actors, leaving Walter the only ‘real’
son onstage. Walter was sent to fight in the army in India by his father at 16, despite desperate
protestations by Catherine and Walter himself. The biographer Michael Slater admits that Dickens
was, not uncommon at the time, rather dismissive of his own part in the size of his family. During
the dinner scene on the first night of Andersen’s stay in Act One there is the following exchange
between Charles and Catherine:
DICKENS: Well, that is an awful lot of singing. I am afraid I will be much
in town now myself, if I am to make arrangements for Jerrold’s
family. At least there are only five children. It was my fate to
have so great a crowd of them, Andersen, that I meet them
in the corridors in the night, and think I have prowlers. One
night I may shoot one.
CATHERINE: I hope you would not kill one of our children.
DICKENS: Of course not, madam -- since it was you made them in the
first place. It’s just that you made so many.
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There is certainly an element of playfulness here, but the general sentiment that Catherine gave
birth to children, of her own accord, that he must now deal with should not be overlooked.
Dickens’ admirable interest in the reform of labour and socio-economic conditions has certainly
heralded him a champion of the people. He could even be considered the ‘father of Christmas’
with his A Christmas Carol, a staple among book shelves and educational reading lists to this day.
The play and the production does not characterise Charles as a cruel Dickensian brute, but it may
come as quite a surprise to learn that his relationship with his own children and wife was not as
generous implied by his stories.
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Max Stafford-Clark’s Rehearsal Techniques
Actioning & Analysis
In a rehearsal period of five weeks at Out of Joint, the first two are spent analysing the text,
primarily using a process called ‘actioning’ that encourages the actors to explore their intentions
in every line, or rather every thought within the line. Before we block (position the action onstage)
any of the scenes, the actors sit around a table with the writer and director and together they
decide these ‘actions’.
An action is a transitive verb, which means something that you want to do to the other person you
are talking to (whether physically present or not). For example, you might tell someone that you
love them in order to embarrass them, please them or anger them. The ‘embarrasses’ or ‘pleases’
or ‘angers’ is the action of the line.
Have a look at this extract between Dickens and Catherine.
Night time.
Catherine is reading a little book of poems. Dickens has a measuring stick and is measuring.
CATHERINE: What are you doing Charles?

DICKENS: I am measuring.
CATHERINE: What are you measuring?
DICKENS: The distance - between two points.
CATHERINE: And why Charles?
DICKENS: Because – I – it will be easier perhaps to block the door to my
dressing room.
CATHERINE: It was very convenient for you, going in and out that way.
DICKENS: It was. But now I find I wish to be inconvenient – and inaccessible,
except from the corridor outside.
CATHERINE: I do not understand you.
DICKENS: I do not understand myself. Indeed I am like a man on fire, like
a sailor in a plunging ship. Like a fierce, buzzing fly without its
wings.
CATHERINE: It’s time to sleep. I can read no more of these Four Seasons.
It used to calm me. I have reached the end of Spring and I am
exhausted. I will blow out the candle, if you not mind.
DICKENS: And leave me in the dark?
CATHERINE: I will obviously wait until you are in bed.
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Stanislavski, the pioneer of naturalism (believable acting) thought that everything a character
does or says must have an established ‘objective’. In the scene above, (in its most simplistic form)
Dickens’ objective is to block the door to his dressing room, and therefore change the layout of
their bedroom, and Catherine’s is to dissuade him. To delve a little deeper, Catherine’s objective
is to connect with her husband and calm his worries. But it would be very dull and unhelpful
direction to tell the actor to simply ‘plan’, ‘dissuade’ or ‘connect’ all the way through the scene.
The lines show us that Dickens is distracted and perturbed, but that again is not a helpful direction
for the actor on its own. To play a scene ‘distracted’ throughout would give no texture to their
dialogue, or to their relationship. In terms of Catherine wishing to dissuade him, or calm him
down, there are numerous ways that one can do this. One can dissuade someone by ‘attacking’,
‘soothing’, ‘seducing’ or ‘pleasing’… to name just a few.
Actioning encourages an actor to play with the ext before making more specific decisions, and
helps to map the emotional journey of the scene. If the company feels that the scene steadily
builds in tension, then the actions could rise in intensity with each line. For example, to ‘focus’, to
‘alert’, to ‘warn’, to ‘grip’, to ‘shake’ and to ‘horrify’, as actions in a sequence would ensure that the
scene develops towards a natural climax.
Here is the scene again between Catherine and Charles, only this time with ‘actions’ for each
thought or line:
Night time.
Catherine is reading a little book of poems. Dickens has a measuring stick and is measuring.
CATHERINE: [PROBES] What are you doing Charles?

DICKENS: [EVADES] I am measuring.
CATHERINE: [PINS] What are you measuring?
DICKENS: [RIDICULES] The distance - between two points.
CATHERINE: [PURSUES] And why Charles?
DICKENS: [TEACHES] Because – I – [TESTS] it will be easier perhaps to block the
door to my dressing room.
CATHERINE: [RESISTS] It was very convenient for you, going in and out that way.
DICKENS: [CONFRONTS] It was. [INVOLVES] But now I find I wish to be
inconvenient – and inaccessible, except from the corridor outside.
CATHERINE: [CONFRONTS] I do not understand you.
DICKENS: [ENLISTS] I do not understand myself. [HORRIFIES] Indeed I am like a man on
fire, like a sailor in a plunging ship. Like a fierce, buzzing fly without its wings.
CATHERINE: [SOOTHES] It’s time to sleep. [ENGAGES] I can read no more of these Four
Seasons. [LIGHTENS] It used to calm me. [AMUSES] I have reached the end
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of Spring and I am exhausted. [PREPARES] I will blow out the candle, if you
not mind.
DICKENS: [REPROACHES] And leave me in the dark?
CATHERINE: [HUMOURS] I will obviously wait until you are in bed.
You can see how certain actions allow the actor more room to play and develop. Catherine’s
lines ‘It’s time to sleep…..I will blow out the candle’ has five actions that colour and deepen the
character’s intentions. The actor is directed here to ‘soothe’ and then ‘engage’ in quick succession,
breaking up the short sentences with new and invigorating ways to play them.
Here is the next section of the scene, for you to action yourself:
While actioning always think of what the character wishes to do to the other. Of course each
character has their own emotional state and their own agenda, and these are very important
factors. But they are not alone in the story. Characters may be driven by these factors, but the way
in which they communicate them is what enriches the scene.
Dickens staring at her
CATHERINE: What?
DICKENS: I am fixed to the floor. I wonder if it is not a symptom of madness to be
unable to rest, even when quite still? Two foot six and a half inches. I will
just note it down for the carpenter. I will go and do so. I won’t wake you, never fear.
I will creep back later.
CATHERINE: What is the matter?
DICKENS: There is nothing the matter, in the proper understanding of the phrase.
CATHERINE: If you say not.
DICKENS: I say – go to sleep. Go to sleep. Go to sleep.
CATHERINE: I will not sleep easily, with Walter going away.
DICKENS: We should be thankful there is a great Empire to mop these sons up.

CATHERINE: To mop them up? These boys I love?
DICKENS: Well, well, come now, Kate, let’s not pretend you had the doing of them. It
has been Georgie mostly has tended them.
CATHERINE: Now you are getting angry.
DICKENS: I am not getting angry.
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