KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

Practical Exercisessubject (any subject of your choice - something humorous, current or provocative, such as ‘Jordanshould be Prime Minister’ or ‘Footballers should not be paid more than the prime minister’).However, Team A can only use the word ‘yes’, and Team B only the word ‘no’. Ask students to thinkabout all the different ways they can use their word, considering meaning, tone, volume and pace.Evaluate: What tactics were used? How easy was it to tell what someone meant through their tone?Who won the debate?Practical Exercise Part 2: Ask participants to get into pairs of an A and a B. Then split these pairs intotwo or three different sets. They will all do the exercise at the same time, but each set will have adifferent context to work within. You can watch one example from each group.Group 1: you are brothers/sisters and A has seen B stealing money from your mother’s purse. A canonly say ‘I saw you’; B can say anything that they want.Group 2: A is the parent, B is the child. B, the child, has decided to leave home. A, the parent, canonly say ‘I love you’; B can say anything that they want.Group 3: A is the child, B is the parent. A, the child, has accused the parent of loving their sister morethan them. A can only say ‘Why do you love her more than me’; B, the parent, can say anything thatthey want.Evaluate: Repetition builds tension through rhythm, highlighting significance and building conflict.What do you think the repetition did in each individual scene? What does it tell us about characters?How much of an acting challenge is it? Sometimes the form, the writing style and the way language iswritten on a page can tell us as much about the character as the words they say.Watching the Play: When do the moments of repetition occur? What function do they serve?Exercise 4: Drug AddictionDuration: 15-20 minutesAim: To encourage students to think about the impact substance addiction has - as a medical illness -on family life, and to use drama to illustrate relationships.Discussion: What kind of substances do we often hear about people becoming addicted to? (Alcohol,49 Resource Pack: The Knot of the Heart