Hey Guys, i was just hoping to post up a practice context piece, along with written explanation:
Written Explanation
The topic prompt, namely “It is Easier To Remain Happy in a World of Illusion than it is to Face Reality.” involves the interaction of three key ideas regarding reality – happiness, illusion, and whether reality and happiness can truly be mutually inclusive, or whether illusion is something that we as people flee to in order to escape reality, to seek happiness. In reading this prompt, I interpreted it as being an exploration of essentially this – whether reality allows happiness to thrive more effectively than illusion. What I found was a more interesting question was whether there was a distinction between reality and illusion at all – and whether or not they were simply the same thing.
The notion of reality as explored in this piece, suggests that it is essentially a construct which most effectively assimilates with our view of the world, and our own emotions. Reality is that landscape in which you feel emotion, and where you feel truly happy. Illusion, is simply a way of describing the disparity between the realities of two different individuals. If this definition is taken into account then surely it is easier to remain happy in a reality in which the truth has been significantly warped, than it is to live in a reality in which it has not. This was the key idea to be conveyed in this piece.
The reason that an expository-creative hybrid was used to convey these ideas was that it was most effective at providing me with a voice, as both the interviewer, guiding the discussion, as well as being the interviewee, in voicing my opinions. Furthermore, in choosing a critically acclaimed director, writer, and producer, I aimed to bring two key texts which I was aiming to draw some parallel between, namely Life on Mars, and the set text, Death of a Salesman. Furthermore, in using such a type, as opposed to a more rigid form of writing, such as persuasive, or purely expository, I was able to manipulate the writing more effectively rather than being bound by the yoke of convention, in switching and drawing links between the two texts discussed more effectively.
The characters of Happy and Linda Loman were discussed because these characters both avoided reality throughout the text. Furthermore, the purpose of avoiding reality for these characters was to flee to an illusory reality, which provided them with some form of happiness or solace. As aforementioned, Willy does not always find solace in his illusory reality, but Linda, and Happy both find some form of calm, and allure, in a reality which is distinctly different to the more obvious one. As such, Happy and Linda were used.
“It is Easier To Remain Happy in a World of Illusion than it is to Face Reality.”
Excerpts from an Interview at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) with Critically Acclaimed Director, Writer and Producer Jean Graham On His Past and Present Enterprises in the Movie and Theatre Business
(I Denotes Interviewer, J denotes Jean Graham)
I: With a career spanning over 3 decades, he has been critically acclaimed as one of the foremost directors, actors, and writers of his generation. Jean Graham has repeatedly stunned audiences with his unique and deeply nuanced movies and television series, which often deal with the tumultuous, and intrinsically linked nature of reality, and happiness. So, without further ado, I'd love to welcome to our stage here at WAAPA, Jean Graham!
(Applause)
I: Jean, it's wonderful to have you here.
J: It's wonderful to be here Liz, and thank you for that very flattering introduction.
I: As always, it's my pleasure (Laughs). Alright Jean, if you don't mind I'd like to start off by asking you about some of your more recent work, because we all know you from Life on Mars. Now as I far as I'm aware, you're currently part of a new enterprise?
J: Yes that's right.on a new series, Hyde, which will be premiering, I think, later this year.
I: Of course, of course. Would you be able to tell us a little about that?
J: Well, Liz, I can't tell you everything (laughs), but I can tell you that this will be embodying similar ideas to Life on Mars. I'm to take those same ideas from Life on Mars, and put them in a context which was somewhat simpler, somewhat more raw, and obvious in Hyde, where we'll hopefully be exploring these same ideas intrinsic to the human condition, but with a more raw, mature appeal, through the context of an old age home's psychiatric ward.
I: Mmm... You were just talking about the nature of the human condition. I would you be able to expand on what it is you meant regarding the human condition, and how you explored it in Life on Mars?
J: Well the way some see the whole idea behind Life on Mars, was a search for reality. A longing to be in a world where your actions truly matter. But in the end what we were trying to say with Life on Mars isn't so much that reality is what matters, but more how it is reality makes you feel – I remember writing final episode where the protagonist, Sam Tyler, was distraught, and he was wrestling with a question that nobody has really been able to answer – what is reality? And how do you know what's real?
And when I got to thinking about this, Liz, I realised something really unsettling: we don't know. So wrestling with this problem was difficult. Because the only thing that I could come up with, is “You know your world is real when you feel something”, and decided that this was the key message of Life on Mars. And in the finale, we see that Tyler jumped off a building, and, apparently, committed suicide, because all he wanted was to feel the same happiness he felt, a happiness which was lost in 'reality'. And so we really just wanted to get this idea of happiness as being our only compass to navigate reality – a compass which says guides us to the only that reality which makes us happy.
I: A lot of your other work also deals with the notion of reality, and a search for happiness, such as Death of a Salesman, which had gained huge critical acclaim when it was released, nearly 5 years ago now. How is it that you envisioned Miller's classic when you produced it? Because a search for reality is a key theme in Death of a Salesman as well.
J: No doubt Liz, no doubt. The search for reality is deeply important to the plot of Death of a Salesman. But something that I saw as lacking in Death of a Salesman - and this may be theatrical treachery, to question the works of the great Arthur Miller (laughs) - is the notion of a significant divide in the
depth of minor characters, like Linda and Happy, and major characters like Willy and Biff. I felt that Linda and Happy were in some ways better to describe reality, which is why I rewrote parts of the play to explore their characters further.
I: So what was going through your mind in trying to convey the notion of happiness as the compass for reality in Death of a Salesman? How did you use Linda and Happy to convey this?
J: Well, Liz, I thought that Linda was a deeply important character in understanding happiness and reality, and the discord between the two concepts. For example, Linda and Willy's relationship is so close,. Yet, she is apparently absolutely oblivious to this man's infidelity – a man whose emotions she not only mirrors, as Miller had described her initially, but a man to whom she is entirely devoted. Linda Loman quite simply embodies the notion of giving up reality for a farce, to feel happy, and safe. It's not impossible to suppose that Willy's affair could have quite easily been noticed by Linda, yet she continues to hide the truth, because of the discomfort that it brings.
As for Happy, Liz, it's deeply evident how Happy sacrifices the truth for his own solace, and happiness. In the conclusion of the play, we see that Happy is unable to come to terms with his father's inadequacies. He is unable to realise that to his father was not truly the man of his perception. We come to terms with Willy's life by the end of the play – we realise that as a man,WillyLomanembodiedtragedy.Helivedthelife ofasalesman,“ridingonasmileanda shoeshine”, and when he was given allowances, as with his wife who adored him, he took advantage of it, as evidenced by his womanising. We are not made to hate his man, we are meant to pity Willy Loman. But Happy, on the other hand, is unable to come to terms with the fact that Willy Loman was this kind of man, and so he can do nothing but to blame society – he blames his father's inadequacies on the vicissitudes of life. And this is the only way he can feel happy, or at find solace with his father's failures. In this way, Happy avoids reality, and avoids any form of emotional catharsis – he searches for a world of illusion, to find happiness.
(...)
I: Jean, thank you for coming and talking to us about you professional life. It was a pleasure having you here.
J: Thank you for having me Liz.
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