The Director's Intentions

Alexander Zeldin believed 'The Only Place' was a transformation of 'Antigone' by Sophocles instead of an imitation.

• In Greek times, theatre spoke about things that aren't supposed to be spoken about, and he wanted to keep that the same with 'The Only Place', which made him leave his themes uncensored.
• He wanted to play on the theme of 'outsiders' which was rooted in the character of Annie, as well as Chris.
• He let the actors influence his dramatic intentions, asking each actor what they wanted to speak about through their characters.
• Zeldin believed Antigone was a play about aftermath, not someone resisting arrest, it is more about 2 forms of grief.
• Zeldin said it was about one person wanting to erase the past, and one person wanting to preserve it, talking about how different people handle grief "radically" differently.
• Zeldin wanted to laugh during his play, "I like laughing a lot in theatre" so he added Terry to break the tension in some scenes, but also build an extra layer of intensity.
• He wanted to question the audience about "what to do in the face of suffering others", as it is very relevant in our time, as there is suffering everywhere.
• Zeldin wanted to make it political theatre, using ambiguity and mystery, creating an enigmatic atmosphere, until the very last moments, and even afterwards, making the audience question the characters which wouldn't always be answered. "I want to talk about things that people don't want to talk about"

The story

"The Other Place" is an interpretation based on 'Antigone' by Sophocles, on a girl called Annie (Antigone) who is troubled due to the death or her father, who committed suicide, this is a prominent theme in the play as Annie later on goes to commit suicide in the end. Annie is seen to have a bad reputation in the family she is visiting, due to her bad mental health and unordinary personality. Annie visits to go to the memorial of her dad, and finds out his ashes are to be scattered at a bench in a park dedicated to him. She wants his ashes to stay in the house but her uncle, Chris (Creon), says no and says they will be scattered. Her sister, Issy agrees with Chris, and tells Annie to let it go, sending Annie into an emotional spiral. Chris then gives Annie 1/3 of the ashes in a plastic bag and says she can do whatever she wants with it. He then leaves upstairs to get ready for the scattering, Annie then takes all the ashes with Issy watching, whilst she is telling her to stop (similar to the story of Antigone and Ismene) and hides it in her trousers. The family come back down to go scatter the ashes, and Erica (Chris' wife) stays with Annie at home. Annie goes upstairs to go to sleep, and falls asleep in Chris and Erica's bed. The family comes back after the ceremony, and Chris is fuming, he knows Annie has taken it, and gets her to wake up. He then goes to sexually assault her, trying to look in her jeans if the bag of ashes are in there, and they aren't there. Leni (Erica's son) goes and stops him by saying she doesn't have them, and says they're upstairs. There is then a sequence where Chris kicks out Annie and makes her sleep in the tent they used to use in the summer when her dad first died, he closes the sliding door, showing she is an outsider. Terry goes to go buy food, but says to Issy first, "don't leave him (talking about Chris) alone with her, you don't know what he'll do". Afterwards, when there is only Terry and Issy on the stage, Terry is really drunk and tries to make a move on Issy, saying "If you asked me, would I fuck you... Yeah I would" then leans in for a kiss, Issy jumps away, and Terry says "You were the one flirting with me!" and Issy responds with "I only flirt with you because you're boring, you're a boring person." She then lets Annie back in, and starts a percy pigs sequence, saying "Its only a percy pig, it never did anything wrong to you, you can't blame it!" Chris then enters the stage after his drive with the ashes still in the urn, gives it to Annie and tells Issy to go upstairs, who hesitates at first but then follows his orders and goes. There is then a sequence from where Chris puts a red table cloth over his head, and Annie goes under it too, then they share a kiss, they hesitate, then go back in to commit incest, where Erica comes down stairs, with their hands both on each other, and witnesses it, then starts to talk about how she's going to have the curtains infront of the door. The whole family is now downstairs, and Erica asks Issy if she feels left out. Annie then goes outside back into the tent after Chris kicks her out, then Leni goes to get her and comes back, shocked with blood all over his hands, a few awkward seconds later, Erica and Chris notice, and Erica goes to check on Annie. Erica starts yelling "Annie! Annie! Annie!" and then Chris shuts the sliding door locking Leni and Erica outside, and starts shouting at the audience, "Stop looking at me!" as the light above turns to face the audience, and the play is ended there.

Overall dramatic effect (3 moments)

The overall dramatic effect was split into 3 different moments of grief: 

Annie and Chris sexual assault

The total dramatic effect of grief was prominent from the start of the play, with Annie being labelled as crazy from before she is even seen on the stage, as the  effect of grief on her was that she missed her father, and lost part consciousness shown through the lack of emotions played by D'arcy throughout the play, especially when she comes downstairs after putting her father's clothes on after falling asleep, being very oblivious to this being a 'weird' thing. She was looking around, not paying attention to the other characters, and asking "what?" to when Chris asks "are you serious?" to her. She also stood in a default stance, as if she was daydreaming. Tobias Menzies showed his character's grief through a different way, which was short outbursts or annoyance and anger, with his questions aimed at Annie in this part, getting annoyed and frustrated that she was being so weird, as well as showing no sign of knowing what he was mad at her for. Then Chris goes to check inside Annie's jeans which is where she had previously hidden the ashes, fully putting his arms inside her jeans, which carries on playing on the fact that Greek theatre talks about things that aren't spoken about as well as shown. 

Issy and Terry flirting scene

The grief of Terry was shown through his unexpected, and uncalled for actions and words towards Issy, as if his mind is being changed, like Annie's but more in a sexual way, as if all this chaos was making him more confident in this part. He is also doing this scene whilst drunk, and the reason of his drinking could've been from the stress of what's happening in the house, which is a way he's coping with the sort of grief of having everyone's trauma being dumped in a short amount of time, as well as being reminded of Adam's passing. Killick plays this area well as he creates an awkward and serious moment, which completely contrasts his character up to this point, he uses a range of movements, such as taking rhythmic steps towards Issy when trying to make his move, he also changed his voice to be more seductive with elongated vowels and a larger range of pitch when speaking. This makes the image of Terry change completely from being the ice breaker of the tension, to a pervert. Issy's grief is shown as she is becoming a victim of other people's actions once again, similar to the story of Ismene in Antigone, being objectified by Terry. Issy's character has been the victim of selfishness all across the play, as Terry was so selfish to try kiss her, in the circumstances of the recent chaotic moments created by other characters. Oliver uses the increase in volume and the abrupt large steps back to show Issy's shock after Killick says the line "Would i fuck you?... Yes I would." Oliver also uses a tone of disgust, in response to Terry's actions, telling the audience that Issy does not feel remotely the same as Terry and is disgusted at the fact he even tried to do so.

The final scene

Annie's grief is shown in this end scene very vividly as it finishes the whole piece with Annie completely switching up, after committing incest with her uncle. When she is caught by Erica, she gets very quiet, and, in my perspective, has finally accepted her father is not there anymore. The grief of Annie is shown through the stupid decisions she made, for example, choosing to go under the red cloth with Chris. The audience is made to question why she did this, if it was just a feeling that developed during the play, or if it was a prior relationship, that had even developed in the summer Adam died, creating an unknown atmosphere about grooming and maybe even paedophilia, from Chris. The relationship of grief between Annie and Chris are like two opposite poles of two magnets, they are the complete opposite of each other, Annie, trying to keep any essence of remembrance of her father, Chris trying to forget about it, but they attract so well to each other.