Contrasting Dramatic Techniques

Mike Leigh - Naturalism

During this interview, we hear Mike Leigh talk about one of his films called "Happy-Go-Lucky". He says that he uses a very exploratory method when rehearsing to create his films. Also what he mostly talks about is developing the character of Poppy, the  female protagonist. You can see clearly from the way he talks that his method is to build up a extensive character, growing qualities (in Poppy's case, optimism, charm, and emotional security to name a few) rather than using the conventional style of working from a script.

Mike Leigh doesn't start by perfecting a script. He gets a rehearsal space and a cast and he uses many workshops to build characters and to give him inspiration for his films. Using this method he has gone on to create a multitude of films challenging many aspects of life such as race, politics, sexuality and class.

Due to the way his characters evolve over time his films never have a planned outcome, his films evolve with the characters, and as such many films don't have a clear cut beginning, middle or end. This can often make the audience believe that the film is unfinished. But being the controversial man he is Mike Leigh maintains that is his style and intentional.

He is quoted saying "I always think it's important for the audience to walk away from the film with stuff to work with, to think about, to wonder what happened next, and argue about and reflect on. For me, the film you can happily walk away from and never thin about again is not as good value as the one that you take with you and deal with, and savour the flavour for some more time to come."


His process is as follows, first find a cast and brief them on a basic storyline of the play/film that they are to rehearse. Then Mike will start working with each actor one on one, he will ask them to write a list of every person they know or have known, this list includes not just close friends and family but also people the actor may have only known for a brief period of time. Together the actor and Mike Leigh will reduce the list until the actor can form a new character based on the traits and qualities of the people the actor is familiar with. 

From here they begin the very long process of mapping out the characters life, fine tuning every detail including childhood traumas and how the character's parents met. By paying close attention to detail the character almost becomes a alter ego for the actor. This part of rehearsal is kept very private between the director and the actor.

After this process has been finalised Mike will gradually introduce the actors to one another and begin with improvisational scenes to further build relationships between characters. Many actors don't meet one another until their characters meet in one of the improvisational workshops, just like the characters meeting for the first time.

Mike Leigh will then observe as the actors go out into the public and interact with one another and unsuspecting public in their characters. These improvisations can continue for months and often don't stop right up until the shooting of the film.

“Having worked at the characters for ages, the actors can go into character and do a wonderful improvisation that might go on for one or two hours non-stop. That does not give you a scene. That merely suggests a scene. My job is to distil that into something that happens in a few minutes and says just as much. And indeed says more, because obviously my job is also to inject things into it and edit things out, and to open up stuff that’s dormant.”

Over many workshops the scenes become outlined and reduced from what the actors do. Filming will begin and the scenes will be done over and over accentuating the parts that are felt to be successfully and removing that which is felt unnecessary. There is a lot of footage that is left unused in the films however the actors and Mike Leigh have full access to it through out as it helps the performances. 

Kneehigh Theatre Company - Fairytale

Kneehigh theatre is a Cornish based company, that is renowned across the globe for it's outlandish productions that often take a serious stimulus and turn them into something childlike similar to a fairytale.

It was started by a single man, a teacher who began running acting workshops in his spare time. It was encouraged that people who had no experience acting joined the group and they began rehearsing and performing to one another all over Cornwall in unexpected places. Gradually they began to showcase their work to families and held there productions in places such as marquees, harbour sides, cliff tops, preaching pits and quarries. 

They ventured across the Cornish country using weird and wonderful locations as their sets. Over the course of 30 years they have grown to become a theatre company that tours the UK and they are celebrated as one of the most exciting theatre companies in Britain. 

To begin rehearsing a new production they start by collecting their actors needed and returning to a village they have created for themselves in Cornwall. Together the cast will live together in the barns and the house they have in this village as a community and use the inspiration from their surroundings to begin producing their next show. They will watch all sorts of movies and read a diverse range of books. They will sketch ideas and slowly form an idea for their new production. 


Kneehigh is very dependent on the scenery and location of where they do their shows. Emma Rice, Joint Artistic Director, says that "This physical world holds meaning and narrative, it is as much a story telling tool as the written word." Emma will take the concepts that have been developed to the musical director and they will discuss the overall tone of the play. The musical director will than create a array of pieces and soundscapes to complement the work that has been done so far.

Once a huge bank of ideas, discussions and sounds has been created, these elements are brought  to the whole team. Together they will be briefed and they will all write notes on a giant piece of paper and use each others own experiences to relate to the information they have. Then from this they will begin to develop characters and formulate the overall shape of the piece.

After this each person isolates themselves and writes about the piece, whether it is scene ideas or poems about the stimulus. Everyone writes something different so they have a broad spectrum of writings to use or adapt for the show. Each actor brings something different to the piece using the skills they have as an actor.

Lighting and sound is used whilst the actors rehearse from day one. Writers are constantly watching whilst the actors improvise giving them critiques and suggestions as they perform to enhance the show. The actors are told to trust their instincts and hold their nerve as they work. Doubting what they do is said to be one of the biggest hindrances in kneehigh's eyes.

Originally the process of creation would continue in these barns until the performance was completed but now because of how successful  they are, much of what they do is co-produced with other companies after the initial work within the barns. 

Frantic Assembly - Movement

Frantic assembly is a company that tours England focusing on movement to portray their pieces. Another unusual technique of theirs is that they use lighting, sound and effects from the early stages of rehearsal as their ethos states that working without that is like working without a script when making a movie. It doesn't make sense to them that something so crucial to the ambience of the piece would be left until the last week of rehearsal.

However the beginning stages of work hold nothing more than a stimulus and a dance studio. Frantic don't necessarily use dancers in their pieces, they will use actors who are said to have the appreciation of movement to display ideas. Together the cast will explore different ideas and dances appropriate to the stimulus whilst a partnership of directors oversees and begins to get an idea of a script and a design for the aesthetics of the piece. This process is drawn out and can sometimes take years until they believe they are ready.

Next the directors will approach a writer. They will then give strong influences to the script and will often have the majority of the plot or ideas already formulated. The use the writer simply to fine tune and slot the pieces together. Whilst doing this they also approach the techs to begin working on set and lighting. They also get composers to get to make some music according to the ideas they already have.

Then the speed is kicked up a notch. The cast is brought together to rehearse solidly for 6 weeks, they do not take longer than this and will often spend 12 hours a day rehearsing and working through their piece. They believe that work can be over done so by keeping to the strict time period they have time to finalise but not to kill the idea by over preening and obsessing.

Below is a video of their rehearsals and what it looks like on stage...