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CHAPTER FIVE: DATA ANALYSIS
P2: Maybe they didnt know what to do, they only knew that they want to hide it.
So if she puts the stone on it then maybe it is hidden.
Me: But why would this young person in the tribe want to hide it?
P2: Just to get rid of it, to shake the burden off. If she hides it maybe someone else
can find it but ít is not stuck to her."
The actions with the objects opened space to reflect on the situation, for those
in it and those watching as well. One constraint I introduced during the lesson
was that the boy in the improvisation should eat a clementine. This produced
a different reaction:
When Tomi played the last scene you said he must eat a clementine offering. They
are a fairly religious tribe, aren’t they? Now the offering is in him. He himself
becomes an offering. Making an offering is supposed to help them and he eats
the offering, so the offering will help him as well.”
The main question at the point in the narrative was what to do with the deal
offered by the man in the sunglasses, and what to do with the phone that
the young Kalaf found. These uncertainties were strongly reflected in
the actions. Rather than the combination of the objects, which is an
intellectual process, it was the eating ofthe clementine that aroused the most
poetic response. Ihe sentence “he himself becomes an offering” can be
understood as the clementine cathexing the young Kalaf, at least in the eye of
one participant. The clementine was an offering for the Silverbird, but it also
regained its fruit-ness because the boy ate it. The two layers of meaning operate
at the same time and open possibilities of re-evaluation of the young Kalaf as
well. Also, the sensual effect of the action could be another reason for why it
produced a response of a different quality. However, the constraint remained
a structural intervention, it created a problem to solve for the participant
playing the role, rather than facilitated him to be in the situation and explore
it through the action, which would have been the aim in the first place.
While objects can be used in the drama to create opportunities for making
meaning, these worked primarily in situations where the teacher in role
used the object. There were examples of objects making it possible to change
perspective and reflect on other roles than those taken on by participants.
For objects to be used by participants in situations to achieve Cathexis they
would need to have an awareness of the aim of using objects to explore
situations, and also reference points like the Centre of the specific drama
lesson.
646 F D2.
647 Tbid.
+ 196 +