French School of Sydney

English Department

D.Hamilton

 

Yr 11 and 12 English

Film, Documentary and Drama Appreciation 2008-09

                                                                       

Sequence 3 on Scorched, a play by Wajdi Mouawad

 

Student’s name: ………………………………..

Date: ……………………………………………

 

Stage 5 Drama Elective course NSW Curriculum Outcomes: The student will be assessed on: Outcome 5.3.1: A student responds to, reflects on and evaluates elements of drama, dramatic forms, performance styles, dramatic techniques and theatrical conventions.   Outcome 5.3.2: A student analyses the contemporary and historical contexts of drama. Outcome 5.3.3:  A student analyses and evaluates the contribution of individuals and groups to processes and performances in drama using relevant drama concepts and terminology.

 

I. Before seeing the play on Wednesday 27/8/08

 

1. Who is the playwright?

 

a) Search the Internet to find information on Wajdi Mouawad and write a summary in your own words.

 

b) Find information on other famous writers in exile such as the Lebanese Amin Malouf, the Irish James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, the Rumanian Eugene Ionesco and Cioran and synthesise the information in your own words.

 

2. A historical perspective on Lebanon

Search the Internet and go to a library to find information about Lebanon. Focus on its multiculturalism with the Druzes, Maronites, Shiites and Sunnites populations. What happened in Sabra and Chatila? Answer in your own words.

 

3. A collective creation

 

In 1997 the playwright wrote Littoral, which was translated into Tideline.

In 2003 he wrote Incendies, translated into Scorched

The two plays are part of a tetra logy. Yet Scorched isn’t a sequel to Tideline. It continues to explore the questions of origins.

Wajdi Mouawad intends to write a new play: Ciels, translated into Sky(s) or Heaven.

He describes Scorched in the forewords of the play using the oxymoron: “A ruthless consolation” (“Une impitoyable consolation” in the original version) in which “fantasies were acted out from the most playful to the most serious, the most grotesque to the most conventional. The cast participated in the creation. Reda introduced the theme of boxing, Marie-Claude the theme of best friends, Isabelle the image of the clown nose. This idea took an unexpected turn and became one of the pivotal points of the story. The troupe was at the heart of the process. The writing was channeled through me.”

 

4. The language and its translation

 

The French version contains a lot of quebequisms which cannot be translated. We’ll study two excerpts from the play in English and will compare them with the original version.

 

II. After seeing the play on Wednesday 27/8/08

A/ Formative assessments

 

1. Write your feed back on the play after having talked about it in French and English with your classmates and the IB students

 

2.  Study Chapters 9 and 29

 

3. Write the chronology of the events

 

4. Write a review of the play for a newspaper using the examples from:

 

• The Sydney Morning Herald;
• The Australian;
• The Southern Courrier
• The director, Neil Armfield’s interview in French and English on SBS

• The meeting with the actors after the play

Analyse the choices made by the director regarding the cast, the setting and props, the lighting…

Explain why, in your opinion, the play has encountered an international success.

 

B/ Summative assessments

 

1. Questions on the historical perspective (…/5)

 

2. Translation from French into English of a short excerpt (…/5)

 

3. Essay writing (…/20)

 

III. Extension

1.     Read the whole play in French and/or English

2.     Read and summarise David Armitage’s article about civil wars in the Sydney Morning Herald Weekend Edition July 19-20, 2008

3.     Choose your favourite activities in the excerpts from the Teacher’s Notes provided  by Company B Belvoir St Theatre

 

 

 

 

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