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Example analysis from ‘Missing’ Mining’s story is simple, an ordinary woman called Lily, has flashbacks of memories such as her wedding day, learning how to dance flamenco, parties she’s attended and parents’ rows. The way it is told through dance, puppetry, music, and simply amazing acting and stagecraft is what makes this piece such a stand out. I found the scene in which Lily and her husband are sat on the sofa, centre right stage, and are trying to be affectionate but always ending up in awkward positions particularly effective.
We away how her behavior was a reflection of what her memories had portrayed as her perception of marriage and relationships. The way in which the actors used their facial expressions towards each other and laughed it off was an excellent contrast to the frustration we could see growing as they looked away from each other, it allowed the audience to see how Lily’s memories were affecting her own personal experiences. Another scene was in which Lily’s parents spoke one sentence to the younger puppet of Lily, and were constantly re-winded to repeat the sentence.
The hardness of movements, timing and fluency of which they moved in harmony with the sound effects were outstanding. It created a real sense of sadness and awe, at how meaningful a sentence can be to a child, and Lily’s ability to retain that memory, which had an effect on her adult behavior. Finally a scene in which the focus is on Lily’s parents I found particularly effectively, and they are having a heated argument. The language barrier and expression through tone of voice, body language and much stressed facial expression creates a tense atmosphere which grips the audience.
This is then interrupted by the entry first of the puppet of baby Lily grabbing onto her father’s leg, proceeded by Lily herself, and this moment really allows the audience to empathic with her and shows how she has been affected since childhood by her parents relationship and still as an adult needs the reassurance and comfort of having her parents there for her. As an audience we could already empathic with her at this point, as we were aware of her blatant emotional instability, but weren’t 100% sure what was causing it, and the way in which Gecko slowly built up to honing it in such a humbling way was brilliant.
The build up to all of these scenes was very particular and bold and fluent, but there was always subtle hints at the reasoning for Lily’s behavior and it let to me thinking I understood then one scene later questioning that thought, it was incredibly thought provoking and clever, the beauty of the play is that it would mean something different to everyone who saw the piece, but one thing I think most people would agree with is that it was simply outstanding. Missing by gecko theatre By bilabial