A small and brave group met up this week in what was one of the first unsupervised sessions of the Hamlet Project.
We may have been small in number, but we came armed. We had big sticks!? (At least Alex and Tim did) Having not been present at the workshop where the group were introduced to the sticks I had no idea what purpose they were going to serve. I had seen them being used by some of the factory members in a warm up before a sunday performance. From what I could make out the idea is to throw them vertically to another person in the circle, who then catches it and throws it on to someone else.
To my uninformed eye this looked a little dangerous and seemed to be the same sort of game that we played with a tennis ball. So why play it with sticks?
Well, it turns out that these are not just any run-of-the-mill sticks. These sticks are weighted, cut, and bound precisely for the very purpose of throwing. From what I can grasp, this makes the stick perfect for a transferance of energy between the thrower and the catcher.
Now I could open a whole can of worms on the 'what is energy?' debate, but I think its probably wise not to pigeon hole it. It has different meanings to different people.
However after a couple of minutes of throwing and catching and some lightly bruised palms, you do start to get a 'feeling' for these sticks.
For example in order to propel the stick across a large distance it is unnecessary, nay foolhardy, to use power. A powerful throw with lead to the stick flying more like a javelin and you lose the accuracy. It's more about the intention behind the throw, that should be harnessed. When catching the stick, the idea is to receive the energy of the throw, to absorb it. This can be seen clearly. If the stick end wobbles when caught, then your energy has barred it. If it doesn't wobble, you have accepted the energy. It was noted that when someone caught it the correct way, their ensuing throw, would more often than not be a good one. What this means....I have no idea, but its pretty cool.
When we added text to the throwing everything became a lot clearer for me. It was fascinating to watch the stick thrown between characters in a scene. At points it became a physical metaphor for characters subtext, at others a tool for the words and sometimes it became the pointer for where that particular character's attention lay, which I know is sometimes overlooked.
This truly was an eye opener for me. I have to admit I was critical of the whole business of sticks at the start of the session, and although I can't claim to fully understand every facet of the stick and its uses, I can say that I am keen to find out more.

Jack Whitam