Beautiful Burnout Contextual Research for Boxing 16/11/2014

Boxing, the combat sport.

Boxing is a full on combat sport, where two people fight to see who has the most strength, speed and stamina.  The aim of the game is to throw punches until the opponent is either down for 3 or more seconds or unconscious, usually from a hit to the head pr exhaustion. Boxers would traditionally have gloves to protect their hand and soften the punches, yet have also been known to just have supporting wraps around hands and forearm.

In one game of boxing it is split up into rounds lasting 1 – 3 minutes, this is decided by the referee who over sees the match and says when a new round should begin and can declare someone a winner or a loser. A boxer can also decide when to stop; this is called throwing in the towel.  This comes from where boxers would physically throw in their towel into the ring, to show defeat or failure.

Boxing as a qualified sport has been around since ancient Greek times, where it was entered into the Olympics in 688 BC. Boxing was a popular spectator sport in ancient Rome, where competitors were known to wrap their bare hands in leather to soften the blow. This then went on to us hard, worn out leather, to make for a harder blow, and act as a weapon.

Image found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing#mediaviewer/File:Young_boxers_fresco,_Akrotiri,_Greece.jpg

Boxing then came to England in 1838, where the rules of the game were re-viewed and made it harder to win a game. Fights were held in a ring of 24 feet by 24 feet. Fighters had to be standing again within 30 seconds to be allowed to fight back. And biting, head butting and hitting below the belt were seen as rule breakers.

Image found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing#mediaviewer/File:Blow2.jpg

The game of boxing in England was known as the gentleman’s sport, and to this day can still be known as this, this relates to the play of ‘Beautiful Burnout’ where the character of Dena doesn't want to fight with the girls any more and feels like she is ready to fight in the same matches as the boys, this is seen as wrong and is not allowed within the rules.

In the nineteenth century boxing is know a more common sport throughout England and some of the United States. And were often held in secret locations and performed as a gambling sport, Now days amateur boxing can be seen at the Olympics and Commonwealth games and other venues sanctioned by amateur boxing associations. And women’s boxing is seen a lot more commonly in these events yet it is still not allowed to have cross over gender fights.

Othello Theatre Review

Frantic Assembly took a classic Shakespearean play and up dated it through the set, costume and technical elements, Designer Laura Hopkins placed the well know play in a run down pub, what a big contrast to the story that the actors portrayed. Love, Tragedy and Envy take over the characters lives as they are easily persuaded to kill and defy. A fantastic adaption taken from the streets of Cyrus and set in a common, contemporary by director Scott Graham. With a pool table being at the centre of the stage, set on tracks, the actors use the set to show characters emotions and change in scene.

With the lighting creating a sombre tone, using washed out, blue and silver gets to show the death of Othello's love Desdemona. The rest of the stage goes silent as Desdemona life is taken. The addition of the blue spot light shows how cold and lifeless she is and sends shivers down audience members spines. However lighting is rather dark and plain to some what represent the dark and dangerous street where murder happens. A spot light is spilt onto the stage from the bathroom where gossip and relationship take place, out of the audiences eye. This shows the brighter side, and where things come clear.

An update in the set and an up date in the costume, bring new life to the show. Characters are dressed in the stereotypical common clothing, such as track suits, trainers and jeans. Mark Ebulue is dress in a sleeveless tank top, some may say to show his muscles, which he uses to show his dominance in the crew, and make him standout from everyone else. Out of the many props used the most significant was the handkerchief, used to represent betrayal , It is a talking point that 'why a creative team would not update this yet everything else on set? I would think that there is nothing that could be used as a replacement.

Parts within the pay may drag and there are parts that may dip form the usual fast pace action, however elements of physical theatre break away from the text to bring back to life, suing loud, bass filled techno music. During these sequence, actors would incorporate lifts and repeated movements. Choreographers Steven Hoggett plays around with the pace of the break outs. The opening sequence contains 10 - 15 minutes of non verbal acting, From this the audience got an understanding of character relationships and the dominant from the weak. Other sequences include Rodrigo (Richard James-Neale) drunken rampage, where the adjustable set is use to show drunken feelings, nothing is plausible. It is not usual protocol to set moving by man, yet Frantic Assembly use this to show the fuzzy feelings that the characters feel. Another sequence is the death scene where Desdemona is lifted onto the pool table (represented the death bed) by Othello, as the roll around, using levels and extension is there limbs to show their relationship connection as he wraps his hand round her neck.

Although mainly set in one area, the audience are teased to small glimpses of different areas, such as the toilets and outside areas. This is due to the moveable set and maybe could be a metaphor for the characters lives revolving around Othello's and their main area. And as the set is moved to create out coves, to allow the characters to eavesdrop on others to get more reasons of defying. This really made the audience understood how much the characters would do to defy one another. With a cast of high standards, it really allows for the story to be told in a exciting and dynamic way. Leading man Mark Ebulue walks into a scene and really shows dominance and control over the other characters. This really helped the audience to understand how other characters would fear him so much.