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SECOND CYCLE
props were referred to in the focus group. "Ihe apples were really good. Ihey
were tasty. Ihey channeled the scenes. If you didnt have the apples the scenes
would have been really different”.°* The participant here is referring to
a scene which portrayed the budding romance of a Hungarian refugee and
an Austrian volunteer. The refugee boy gave the volunteer girl an apple, and
as they were sitting together the boy’s father arrived and quarreled with his
son. An old lady trying to pray close by, had enough of the noise and told
everyone off. The Bible used by the old lady and the apple were central props
in this scene. Even though the apple was used in the scene as a fruit that was
precious in this situation as food, it brought in a set of cultural references.
P1: The apples were really good, because they have different meanings. And I don’t
just mean knowledge and that sort, but in different situations they have different
meanings. It means food, or life in a certain situation. The apple was not just
an apple, it was much more. This was interesting.
P2: The apple is a good symbol because it means knowledge and life, and as a brand
it means technology, Newton’s apple, the Bible. It’s really good.°”?
The object made it possible to connect to the situation through its references,
but it did not remain a cultural reference point, but also offered possibilities
of testing values. In another scene created by the participants a woman lied to
a guard to get an apple from him. The scene proceeded slowly as the woman
told the story of her child, it turned out that the child loved apples. The guard
finally gave the apple to the woman, who left triumphantly, leaving those
watching quite certain that the whole story about the child was a lie. This
opened a strong discussion in the lesson which was described by one of
the participants as the following:
The scene when she was lying to get the apple. It was interesting that people
reflected very differently on the scene. Some thought she’s owning her life because
she got the apple, while others thought that she doesn’t own life because she is
lying to get an apple."9
The action and the story were clear, but the judgement of the action by
participants differed, the situation tested their values and participants were
taking their stand on this question. The Centre defined for the drama was
used as a reference point in this debate, the major point of disagreement
being: is deceit compatible with owning your life?
658 F 56A.
659 Ibid.
660 Ibid.
+ 207 +