Our director had already researched surrealism and knew what she wanted to do it. Others hadn’t and so hopes of devising a surrealist piece were low. So we decided to use our workshops to look at surrealist theatre and films. When watching these, we found that they were more interpretative than we wanted. We then began to watch clips of film, TV and theatre that we had seen that we thought had the same sort of atmosphere that we were hoping to create. This ranged from ‘Tellitubbies bear and lion sketch’ to ‘return to Oz’ Wheeler scenes and ‘American Horror story’ clown scenes. These clips had the aesthetics of surrealism in that the images were illogical and contradictory. Watching these and discussing ideas made us realise that what were after was in fact the surrealist aesthetic, rather than the style, meaning we wanted a series of scenarios and images that only made sense in terms of the whole piece, rather than as individual items.
Taking this into account, we then started some exercises based on the surrealist notion of random, illogical combinations. One of these that stood out in particular involved us writing three lists- one for actions, one for an animal and one for an object. We then picked one of each out at random and used them to improvise a short sequence. Although some members were willing to try this out, others were more reserved and questioned its usefulness. We decided that without a plot or a reason, we had returned to just surrealism, rather than surrealist aesthetic.

What better than a mixed cat pancake made by a mouse at the hands of a heavy vehicle?

In the story, Cinderella yearns to go to the ball and meet the prince while having one night of luxury and fun away from her life as a servant. As we wanted to portray a more objective fuelled Cinderella, we decided that the ball would be a good point to start off our newly styled improvising and devising process. With idea of contrasting images in mind, we thought of having a buffet with meals cooked by Cinderella, which ranged from meat balls made from eyes to real life gummy worms. Known for their greed, the sisters could probably be found at the buffet, stuffing their faces on the lavish food prepared for them, so it only made sense for them to be at the buffet, gorging on the foods without realising until the final dish what was really being served. As with the list exercise, it was met with a mixed response. Some liked the way it brought out a new, more sinister side to Cinderella, others felt that the idea of a creepy feast was overdone and others felt, although it worked in terms of the plot of the increasingly abusive Cinderella, the staging and props needed would become the driving force behind our performance, rather than our ideas.
So far, we had come up with ideas that either didn’t suit the story or that others didn’t understand. This only led to confusion and to meaningless ideas being tossed around. We began stressing about how little work we had and how lose our next work in progress was, leading to more panicked ideas which, in turn, led to stress. It was clear that we needed to return to basics if we were to get anywhere with our style or even piece. We had to ask ourselves ‘What was it that we wanted to convey and how could we do this?’
We left our first work in progress meeting with the advice to ‘experiment and discard’ and not to hold onto ideas for the sake of having ideas in our minds. Although it was hard at the time to admit defeat for that rehearsal and idea, we agreed to come back with a clear head and new ideas.
As much as we liked the dark twist on the ball, we felt that it was out of place and needed to be contextualised. Although we had agreed against it, we kept finding our way back to surrealism. So maybe the key was not to ignore surrealist style in favour of its aesthetics, but to take an idea of surrealism, namely, dreams.