“The green one ... The narrow one ... Always pale ... The pale eyes ... The look they shed before ... The way they opened after ... Spirit made light ... Wasn't that your description, Joe? . .”
'Before She Goes'
It is a story about one summer night, which fulfilled the destiny of the ‘Green one… the narrow one…always pale..’ and the nature that witnessed that. The concept for the performance is breaking through the traditional and rigoristic form of staging ‘Eh Joe’ which is based on an interrogative analysis of Joe's reaction towards the female voice from his head to give a real shape and embodiment to plural female characters and that what makes ‘BSG’ experimental.
Presence of
Another twist to this play comes from fact that it was never directed by a female and doesn’t follow the Becketts description of how this play should be staged.
First four stages of ‘BSG’ were built upon the last scene of the play, which reveals a story of the suicide of the Green one. It is very important for me as a female and director to make this story universal by creating an embodiment of many characters, as Beckett in my opinion described something still so common which gives us a chance to review the experience of life as a young woman in 2023.
‘Before She Goes’ is an experimental project which is rooted in the TV play ‘Eh Joe’ written and directed by Samuel Beckett in 1966. I started developing this piece in December 2021 and since then it has gone through a four devising stages, that explores themes like ‘the heavenly powers’ which I defined as Femininity, Immortality, and craziness of love which sometimes takes it all.
Outcome of the first R&D
Audio scenography for the play, composed by connecting ‘Metamorphosis II’ by Filip Glass with a text of the final scene of the play, read by five actresses.
Voices R&D:
1. Renee Eskilden
2. Bella Speaight
3. Laura Lucia Duque
4. Grace Ackary
5. Keziah Joseph
BSG was born from the need to express the universal issue of undervaluing women as a human, by seeing us as less than we are and the danger, which is surrounding us in everyday life. The scale of harassment and violence against women is so overwhelming, that it feels right to stand up and advocate for changes in the social concept of women and express resistance against taking women for granted and shaming us for disagreeing with them.
... This all new to you, Joe? ... Eh Joe?
Femininity
Feminine
Femme
Female
Male
Man
Mine
Mine
Me
Me”
Sohaila Ferrier;
‘Before She Goes’ text devised during R&D at The Directors Playground
'Ah, she knew you, heavenly powers!.. Faint lap of the sea through the open window...Gets up in the end and slips out as she is...Moon...Stock...Down the garden and under the viaduct...Sees from the seaweed the tide is flowing...Goes on down to the edge and lies down at the edge of her side...'
‘Eh Joe’ Samuel Beckett
“The Power of Femininity
Is to be able to command the curvature and shape of your brain, while crushing a continent with the tip of your tongue.
To think, To breathe, to know, to want, to own.
Feminine”
Material from rehearsal for the forth stage BSG exploration: Short Movement Video
Movement Director: Tamara Hayes Elliott
Actress: Katarzyna Pachelska
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Video material ffrom4 sttage of development of the project "before She Goes""; BSG exploration: Short Movement Video
Movement Director/ co-creator: Tamara Hayes Elliott
Actress: Katarzyna Pachelska
Voices:
Voice 1: Isabella Speaight
Voice 2: Keziah Joseph
Video: Aurelia Bergs
Video Editing:
Ewa Emini
Tamara Hayes Elliot
Sound Design:
Tamara Hayes Elliot
Ewa Emini
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Ewa Emini, Tamara Hayes Elliot
Hampstead Heath, London, June 2022
Who the F*** is Joe?
