The background Original production (what we know, and
to the why you think it was done that way)
production
When, where, Vinegar Tom was created by Caryl Churchill
who, why what whilst working with a theatre group called
did the monstrous regiment, a feminist theatre
production hope company. They produced the piece in 1976,
to achieve? in a bid to express the inequalities presented
to women and the lack of power they have.
Amidst protests and strikes for women's
equality Caryl Churchill created a piece of
epic theatre that addressed inequality to all
types of women. We can assume that their
audience would've consisted of; politically
inclined women, feminists and everyday
theatre goers and that Churchills aim was to
make people think and acknowledge the
sexism that persisted to degrade women in
their society. In the end of their piece they
had two men called Kramer and Sprenger
talking about witches but they were played
by the women who played Joan and Ellen,
this was a very Brecht way of ending the
play. Their company only had 2 men so by
doing vinegar tom one of the men played
Jack and the other man multiroled the other
males in the performance, the created a
vison to the audience that generalised the
actions at the time as if all men are the
same.
Our interpretation
In our version of Vinegar Tom we tried to find the
similarities from then and emphasise them or
contextualise them to be relevant to our audience. For
instance "Alice" is our main character, back then the
emphasis may have been on the fact she is an un-
married women with a child out of wedlock. Today single
mothers still don't have the same respect but we also
focused on how women today are shunned for wanting
sex whereas males are praised for it. In "something to
burn" the line of the song originally said "its blacks and
its women and Jews" however although the segregation
and discrimination of black people then would've been a
lot worse we still have issues with racism in today's
society. Although we changed the part about Jews to
immigrants as today the blame is now pointed to
immigrants that come to Britain who "take our jobs" or
are "terrorists. We also changed the ending by having
the four women accused or killed for witchcraft having
bags over their heads instead of physically being hung
before us 4 witches standing up and being dressed as 4
women who are disrespected in today's society such as;
women in power, single mothers, immigrants and
Muslims. This was our way of making our modern day
audience think about who's the scapegoat into days
society, whilst the song "who are the witches now" We
also had modern songs at the beginning whilst the
audience entered hat showed disrespect to women or
degraded them such as; female if the species, the
wanderer and devil women. This was to introduce the
audience to the performance and straight away they get
a feel of what the play is about in a music form that

Layout of stage Original production
and audience (What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
From the layout of scum we can assume that
it was an end on staging. I think they did this
as a way of confronting the audience head
on with one direction to direct their anger
and feelings on the events of society at the
time. Their audience wouldve consisted of;
politically inclined women, feminists and
other theatre goers. From my perspective
you can assume that elements of the play
wouldve rallied and the female audience
would have a strong connection with
elements of the play.
Set /Props Original production
(What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
We can assume from images of a production
called Scum by monstrous regiment, that
they'll understand.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
For our interpretation we decided to have our audience
in the round, this maximises our potential ways to
creatively change scenes as the audience can always
see everything on stage. By making it in the round its
also another way for us to take the audience away from
the story for if at any point they can see the rest of the
audience opposite instead of blending into a group all
experiencing the magic of the show that you may get
from having an end on staging. The staging did present a
challenge to us as actors as we had to constantly ensure
that each section of staging could hear us if we had our
backs to them, we also had to be careful about blocking
so that you dont stop people from being to see people in
the scenes or that all seating areas can see your
expressions as often as possible during scenes. We had
to contextualise parts of it to help them understand as
some of our audience were 15/16.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
We had various props however none of it was too
extravagant and the set essentially consisted of 4 hay
bales that in some scenes were moved around. However
 was also performed in 1976, that the set was
fairly minimalistic due to being public funded
and that some of the set from scum
couldve been re-used for cost efficiency for
Vinegar Tom. Also the minimalistic set
wouldve made it a lot easier for them to
tour with.
Costume Original production
(What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
From images for the performance scum, we
can assume they used costumes from the
time vinegar Tom was set in. They may have
again used costumes from scum as this
would've been cost effective and I believe
that in that society that they were in if they
had tried to use modern day costumes( for
1976) it would've caused an uproar and they
may not have been able to reach a further
audience.
Lighting Original production
(What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
We can assume that it wouldve been simple
limelights and maybe a follow spot as most
theatres had them around the time. The
lighting wouldnt have been as complicated
as it is today but they wouldve had the
some scenes would only have 1 prop involved so we
managed to keep the whole piece fairly minimalistic as
we in some way only had one set of hay bales and our
surrounding audience.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
We generally had 17th century costumes however for
elements such as the rap we introduced modern day
society accessories. This was to confuse the audience
expectations and worked as a big reminder that were
just actors in costume and instead of removing our
costumes to detach them from the story by adding
modern garb it changes the feel of it because it makes
them laugh and takes them away from what they may
believe is 17th century issues but also resonates to their
modern day relation to the situations.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
For our performance we generally stuck to a full cover or
a centre spot, in the towns people scene we
experimented by using blue and pink when everyone
apart from centre stage went into slow motion to
distinguish the difference between the reality and slowed
 basics at the Humberside theatre where they
performed. In Brecht performances stark
white light is normally used as to not over
complicate and distract them from the true
meaning of the piece.
Acting style Original production
(What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
We can assume from the writing style of the
play that it was a very Brechtian piece as
one of their main intention when creating the
piece was not only for it to be about women
but to also convey the mistreatment of
women at the time.
Sound Original production
(What you know through research, and why
you think it was done that way)
Wireless un held microphones didnt come
down reality before sharp snap back into full cover.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
For our piece we make the entire performance Brecht but
tried to include various elements of his tools such as
placards to introduce scenes. For my character it was
clear as in one scene Joan is attacked by Margery but
straight away after that I left my character and started
doing the beat to the rap towards the audience. Also
after the towns people scene Joan and Susan are
dragged off crying and screaming and we immediately
went in shouting bravo and applauding in front of the
audience, this reminds them at various intervals
subconsciously not to attach to the characters or the
scene.
Our interpretation
(What was it like and why was it chosen?)
For our songs we produced them in a variety of ways
 into theatre till after the production so we
can assume they didnt use microphones.
Also theatres mainly had a pit for an
orchestras but given that this was public
funded we can only assume they sang the
songs accapella or were maybe
accompanied by a guitar due to cost
efficiency and this also allows the audience
to listen to the words of the piece more than
if there were music just enjoying it as a song.
such as rap, accapella, accompanied by guitar and with
people creating a beat to follow. By using a variety of
different ways to present the songs it kept the audience
on their toes (an expression) by allowing them to absorb
the information in different ways. We also added in a
mannequin challenge which had a song where we
depicted our characters key elements in the play,
Margery and I decided to recreate the attack in the prior
scene as to mew it depicts not only our characters
relationship but also her being the cause of my downfall.

Special effects Original production Our interpretation

(What you know through research, and why (What was it like and why was it chosen?)
you think it was done that way)

Any moments or By contextualising our piece we took a more comedic approach rather than an angry approach that
particular monstrous regiment wouldve felt/taken. Their audience wouldve certainly responded to the material in
directorial a way we cant begin to imagine, however by modernising elements or changing the perspective, e.g.
decisions you Having Trump quotes in a scene change it allows the meaning to resonate more with our audience so
want to highlight they can reflect and interpretate only some of what those women felt and how some elements about the
from our treatment of women is still relevant to them.
production to
demonstrate
your
understanding of
how work is
contextualised?