'13' By Mike Bartlett - Contextual Research

The Context Behind '13'

Presentation 1 - The War During '13':

The first presentation had shown the process of exploration that the pair had done to give their interpretation of a possible war taking place during the time of '13'.  The war that this group was working with was the one which took place in Iran during 2010-2011, the year that '13' is set.

One of the notes that I had gained from this presentation is that in June 2010, the U.N Security Council had imposed a round of accusations against the Iranians which included tighter financial funds and weapon restrictions.  There was also talk of a possible production of nuclear weaponry being made in Iran.

I had linked this information towards Act 2 Scene 7 of '13', which includes the British Prime Minister, and her three Political Advisers, having a meeting with the U.S Ambassador and the Head of the Armed Forces.  The speech that the Head of the Armed Forces (Sir Christopher) presents in this scene about Nuclear Weapons may relate to what the researchers had found out for this presentation.

Through reading the text in this scene, I feel confident that the topics presented in both the presentation and the play, about the Iranian war, are closely related, much to the point that they may represent the same thing.  Through knowing this, my interpretation of this scene had changed exponentially, I have a much better understanding of what the characters in this scene are talking about and how I can reflect this in my performance.

Presentation 2 - Moral In Politics Within '13':

For this presentation, the pair had posed a question towards the entire audience: Is War the best option?  Much like the previous presentation, this one had discussed more of the political side of the Iranian War and had included some points that show the relation between Ruth and David Cameron, since they are both the British Prime Minister during 2011.

One of the notes that I had taken down, which I thought was interesting, was that David Cameron, had presented this quote in a live speech:

"Under my leadership, the Conservative Party has modernised."

This specific quote has a strong relation to the same quote in '13' that Ruth presents during her speech in Act 1 Scene 13.  This had interested me because it shows another physical influence behind Mike Bartlett's creation of the character Ruth for '13'.

I think it's smart how Mike Bartlett had implemented an almost identical copy of David Cameron into '13', to possibly give his opinions towards her decisions with the other characters in the play.

This can relate to one my characters, Martin, who, at some points, may disagree with what Ruth had announced in this speech through my interpretation of him since he is meant to be showing that he is scared of what's going to happen later on in this war, and Ruth states that everyone shouldn't be afraid.

Presentation 3 - Relationship Towards The Biblical Text:

In this presentation, the pair of researchers had delved into the script of '13' and had explored the possibility of the story of  '13' being linked towards Jesus and the 12 Disciples, which was the question that they had opened with.

The researchers for this presentations had compared a certain number of characters in '13' to some that are in the biblical text, to show their similarities and justify their point.  Below I will list 2 examples:

* John = Jesus:
The researchers had suggested that Jesus, in the biblical text, is strongly related to John in '13' because they both, mysteriously, had come back from the dead due to an event, which in '13' isn't detailed, with a specific purpose that benefits the general public.  For Jesus, it was to spread the word of his return for guidance and to also scare off the Roman Empire; for John, it was to help give the general public a brighter future by protesting against the British Government and their Political opinions.

* Peter = Amir:
The researchers had suggested that Peter, in the biblical story, is strongly related to Amir in '13' because they are both spokesmen for their leader in both stories.  Peter was Jesus' right hand man, and had spread his good word to all of the people in the region; Amir is also, later on in '13', the right hand man for John and had supported alongside him in his public speeches to rally against the British Government.

I strongly agree that '13' has a very strong relationship towards the biblical story of Jesus and the 12 Disciples since the purpose behind both stories is similar, and the characters have a strong familiarity with each other.

When performing as my second character, Paul, I will research into Christian Beliefs, since he is Christian and I think that doing this may benefit my overall performance in the Alpha Session for Act 1 Scene 12.

Presentation 4 - Economic Link Between Reality And '13':

For this presentation, the researchers had delved into the study of economics, and had given their interpretation of the link between reality and '13' with this in mind.

As already stated in another presentation, David Cameron is strongly related to the character of Ruth in '13', since they are both leaders of the Conservative party and the British Prime Ministers during the time of 2010-2011.

During his time as Prime Minister, David Cameron had raised unemployment in the U.K from 7000 to nearly 2.5 Million.  This could also be the case for Ruth, as the protesters that appear throughout '13' may be these unemployed people causing riots, with the help of John, against her political decisions.  Also during this time, the recession was at its peak and it has now been known to be the worst global recession since the second world war.

Presentation 5 - All Aspects Of '13':

For the first presentation, the topic of interest was all the different aspects of '13', and the researchers for this topic had plenty of interesting things to talk about.

They had researched about the author of '13', Mike Bartlett, telling the group of his past life and education and previous stories that he had written.  Mike Bartlett was a student in Creative Writing and English Literature, which had resulted in him to become a brilliant story teller.

The researchers in this group then went to talk about the different people in '13' and the specified religions that they all follow.

They talk about the Alpha Scene in '13', which contains a group of Christian believers, and talked about the conflict between this religion and the Politicians in the play.  They then talked about how Atheism is in the play as well since the character called Stephen is an Atheist.

They then finally talked about all the riots that had occurred in 2011, which is when '13' is set.  The riot that they specifically talked about is one called the 'Blackberry Riot', which is a riot that was heavily connected with social media devices such as Mobiles and Tablets and was spread on social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

I'll be using both my Mobile Phone and I-Pad during my performance as Martin in '13' to coincide with the social media aspect within it.

Presentation 6 - The Religons and Political Issues In '13':

For this presentation, the topic was to talk about all the religions within '13' and to also talk about the Political problems that would of occurred at the time of the play.

They had researched that during 2011, there were a bunch of riots, especially in London, which was caused by problems such as Economic Crisis's, and disagreement with Political matters, even the Royal Family had risen a bunch of tension which caused a great concern for the people of England.

I also took note that David Cameron was elected as the British Prime Minister at this time so, as something I don't really follow to often, this has to have been a very grim time in terms of Political matters.

The Political and Religious points that were presented in the researchers slideshow is, they claimed, to have been intertwined within '13', and the lines that each character presents with relation to these two topics is over-exaggerated throughout the whole duration of the play.

Presentation 7 - The General Themes Of '13':

For this presentation, the general topic of interest was about the war which took place in Iran in 2011, and also how the British and American Government were in an economic crisis and had Political disagreements which had resulted in each of the individual countries leaders to become hated by their people and this caused riots to occur.

Within '13', the British Prime Minister, Ruth, had supported in the invasion against Iran, which did bring all of the riots that occurs within some of the scenes throughout the whole play.  These riots were happening because people were dying and families were becoming very angry with their Political leader, being Ruth.

Since Ruth is a leader of the Conservative Party, an interesting point was brought up being that the Conservative Party's real name, from it's creation in 1912, is the Conservative and Unionist Party, but due to this name never being used by the general public, this is not known by many people.

There were also topics that were being brought up within the presentation which were about the development of nuclear weapons, the Government and the individual Political powers, British Youth and Economic Problems.

They had concluded their presentation by saying that the themes of '13' are mainly based on real events used with fictional facts to further exaggerate the problems occurring within 2011, the time in which '13' takes place.

Presentation 10 - A Review From Dan Hutton:

For this presentation, the lone researcher had delved into the themes within a review of '13' given by a critic named Dan Hutton.

She had expressed his opinions on the conflict between some of the characters in '13', especially Ruth and John, and had explored and presented the points of:

* Prime Minister VS The Modern Messiah
* Female VS Male Characters
* The Rise To Power - How Did They Get To Power?
* Why Do People Disagree?

Presentation 11 - The Relevance To Contemporary Society Within '13':

This was the presentation that me and my partner had researched for, and our main topic of discussion was to show the plays relevance to contemporary society.

We had both researched from reviews given by critics towards the performance of '13' from the National Theatre in London, and had also looked at their website to find any more information that relates to the topic at hand.

The two different areas that me and my partner had covered for this presentation was the impact of social media and each of the individual characters links towards modern society.  By researching this, we had come to the conclusion that the characters within '13' give a realistic representation of the people within our modern society.  This presented us the question as to how all of this could possibly impact each actors representation of their own character and how we could tell the story of '13' overall to an audience.

Within our presentation, we had shown to the group that the fiction of Mike Bartlett's play collides with modern reality and this may have been an intention for Mike Bartlett's creation of '13'.

These were mine and my partners research areas for this presentation:

* ‘13’ Review by Aleks Sierz - http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/33998/1

* The National Theatre Website - http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/13

Conclusion:

To conclude the presentations, we presented any concerns/questions about the topics to each group of presenters and our teacher had given them feedback about how they could improve the presentation for next time. These improvements were things like including short, detailed bullet points and having Que cards so they aren't reading off of a script and it would actually look like they had learnt something from doing the research for the presentation. Pretty much all of the groups have had this happen, but I still think they all made a good effort and produced a decent piece of work to present to an audience.

All of these power points that have been presented have helped me in my research process for '13' and I feel that I have an even more increased knowledge in the various context's behind Mike Bartlett's play.  When it comes to completing my Character Profile for '13', I'll use the information I had gained from this lesson, in note form, to give further detail into both of my characters in '13', Martin and Paul, and I can talk about all of the different topics and present my own interpretation for their own opinion towards them.