Lesson Plan One
Music in the Play
Starter Activity
Go through the play and list the occasions when Fugard introduces musical accompaniment to the action and which of the characters does so. Re-read the passages and research the detail of the different types of music we hear: for example Afrikaans folksong, Name songs, Mariachi music and Hebrew songs of praise. This might well be done as preparation for the Main Activity.
Main Activity
There are four musical strands, essentially: split the class into four groups to work on each of them. You should work towards the answers to the following questions:-
- What is the musical genre of each?
- How is it presented in the play?
- What does it tell us about the character who sings the song/s?
- What is the effect on the other characters?
Some points to start your deliberations:-
- The prologue, spoken by Henry, is accompanied by the Christmas song ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. It fits with his description of the shops in the Mall which have made cheap and tawdry attempts to attract customers with images of ‘Christmas’. Find some of the specific ways the sentimental and childishly anthropomorphic lyrics reflect Henry’s attitudes (as stated later) to Christianity, Christmas, and religious belief at this stage of the play.
- Henry’s Afrikaans folksong. It is plainly in a tradition which he has learnt and perhaps ‘been brought up with’. It refers to his time at Stellenbosch University, many years previously and suggests a very different person from the one we see here, at 63 years old and adrift in a foreign land. He…
