I feel that my performance went extremely well, as I think that I told the stories of the two women in a dynamic way. My main goal was to try and make the monologues not cliche. I would say that that main obstacle concerning my performance would have been acting the roles of the two women convincingly. For instance, I was worried that the audience may have found the performance amusing as I was playing two females. However, this proved not to be the case at all, as the response I got was extremely positive and many people seemed to be emotionally moved by the subject matter of the piece. I believe that this was due to the fact that I just let go and completely immersed myself in the two roles, as I knew that I couldn’t get away with performing this piece half hardheartedly.
Spalding Gray was a huge influence on me. His autobiographical monologues helped me to create the monologues for Virginia and Sylvia. After researching some of his Gray’s performances, such as Swimming to Cambodia, Terrors of Pleasure and Monster in a Box , I was able to examine his specific style of theatre which consisted of direct address to the audience, and playing fictional characters. My main go for the performance was to tell the stories of the two women, and I thought to myself what way could have I have told their stories better than to actually be the women themselves and tell them. The autobiographical root I followed seemed to serve the performance well, as the speech at the start of my performance gave the audience an insight into maybe why the women were unhappy. Furthermore, I wanted the speech at the start of my performance to touch upon the fears and wants of the audience and to make them ask some tough questions about themselves and their own lives. I wanted the monologues to have a melancholy effect to them and to make the audience sympathize with Plath and Woolf. Although, one could argue that my performance was about the lives of the two famous writers, and in a way it definitely was but I would also say it was about life and death and happiness and unhappiness. I wanted this to be the main thread throughout my piece, as I felt that happiness was something that the two women could never achieve.