Impressions: Blackout

Themes / Concepts

Bullying - James is constantly being bullied by a group of people, presumed to be around his age and male. It is constant throughout the play he feels alone and is exploited by this group and frequently extremely damaged by these people violently and mentally. 

Alienation - James, throughout the narrative confirms that is he feels alone and has no friends or "pals." He also addresses his acknowledgement that he is used by his "pals" and states the following "cos, know if it was a pure brilliant sunny day, they would go away and leave you alone. But know if it was raining outside, they would come roon tae your bit and go."

Lack Of Identity - James suffers from a excessive amount of bullying, he is targeted by this group of people because his identity differs from their own. The derogatory insult that the group uses is "gimp" (def) *a derogatory term for someone that is disabled or has a medical problem that results in physical impairment or An insult implying that someone is incompetent, stupid, etc.  The use of this terms undermine James and also forces a false identity. After extreme amounts of bullying he finds himself doubting his value as a person, perhaps even beginning to think that he is in fact a "gimp." 

As a counter attack James creates another false identity, one so extreme that it will "show them no tae mess about wae me." To shock and scare the bullies, make them hesitate before they start to batter him, perhaps even to make them feel bad about what they have done to him. It is because of this, in reality, James doesn't know who he is he feels alone without an identity.

* Definitions from urban dictionary - internet. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gimp

Fascism -  I believe that it is not so much James who is fascist and supports this political belief as he is just putting on a false face to potentially make his life easier. I think that it is more the title of the play that holds some fascist concepts within it. This was mentioned by Olivia and Fenton in class, they suggested as a stage configuration when the line "blackout" is spoken all the black actors could fall down whilst the white remain, a play on words. This represents the racist concepts that has been involved in specifically the German interpretation of fascism during the second world war. 

Impressions

The play is written in a unique style: Stream Of Consciousness, this makes it personal for the reader, immersing them. The use of the word "imagine" makes the audience sympathise with the character, this helps the audience appreciate the situation the character is in by putting the audience in the characters shoes, making them wonder what they would do, how they act in this situation.

The play is written very personally, like a conversation or thought process. Making the audience feel privileged that they are hearing such personal things. 

I enjoyed the play and felt very immersed and involved I sympathised with James and genuinely felt bad for him. I also thought there was so much potential for physical activities, words that had deliberately been picked for physical movements, some of these words also feature onomatopoeia adding extra effect. I am very excited to be studying this play, hoping to use its full potential.