Interview analysis.

For the interview I ended up doing two, one involving my grandpa who was born in 1939 and
another with both my parents including my mother, who was born in 1970 and my father, who was
born in 1967.

Interview one – Grandpa

C-Well, no because it's filming the ceiling so...tadaa. Right. First question.

What do you think absurdism is?

G - Pretending something which appears to the ordinary man to be silly.

C-mmhm?....Nice. Okay Number two. These are very like. Deep questions. No they’re not. What do
you think(mumbling)

What do you think the most important part of life is?

G – Breathing. (Laughing) If you ask a doctor these things, you’ll get a medical answer

C-I love it.Oh. The next one, the next question is so deep I'm so sorry.

Is death a daunting topic for you?

G-No

C-Why?

G -Why is it not?

C- Yeah

G- Because... I have lived a long time and I'm not going to do anything from now on which is going to
change the world.

C- yeah that’s quite nice actually

Did you have a life goal when you were younger and has it changed?

G - No.

C- To which question?

G-You only need one answer.

C- do you just kinda take it as it goes then?

G- hm?

C- like life in general. Did you just kind of go with the flow?

G- mainly.

(Laughing)

C- is there anything you particularly wanted to do or is it genuinely just like. Meh.

G-Not going. Not going back from then no. The thing that I really wanted to do these things came to
me much later in life. And nothing to do with my...professional...work. I would like to have been a
sculptor.

C- But you can still sculpt now.

G- Yes so, the early half from 0-30 doesn't count. So, the way you say has it changed? It changed
from non-existence to existence.

C- yeah. That’s nice. That’s all my questions

G- that’s all your questions

C- that’s it.

Interview two - Parents

-What do you think absurdism is?(cut off)

M – I'd say absurdism is thinking out of the box and unpredictability

C –mmhm. Yeah. Cool. And What do you think the most important part of life is mother?

M – umm an equilibrium

C- okay.

Father, Is death a daunting topic for you?

F - Yes, but less so than it was ten years ago

C-Why?

F- Because I really enjoy what's going on and I don’t want it to stop anytime soon

C- boom..badoom. And the last one. Could be for both of you.

-Did you have a life goal when you were younger? Has it changed?

F - Yes, I did and no it hasn't.

C- what was the life goal?

F- you didn’t ask me.

C- what is it?

F-My life goal was actually this

C- oh that’s nice.

F- and that’s it, so it hasn’t changed.

C- No. You’ve just reached it.

M - Yes, I'd say my life goal was this but there wasn’t a single life goal, for me there was a lot of little
ones most of which I've achieved or succeeded and some which I didn’t or haven't yet reached or
done but I'd say life’s train tracks led me a different way.
C- mm. Beautiful. Alright thank youu.

Analysis - Grandpa
What has surprised you.

Some things that surprised me in the interview with my grandpa was how little he had thought about these
questions because I believe at his age, that he spends a lot of his time thinking about things, but he wasn’t
quite sure how to answer questions like this causing a kind of comedic approach to the answers.

What reaffirms what you already knew about the play

Particularly the answer of ‘breathing’ to the second question shows how naturally gallows humour comes
to humans when talking about heavy topics and having difficult conversations. It shows that using gallows
humour largely in this play is a good idea especially with its sometimes-tough topics.

How can you use this to deepen the work you are doing in the rehearsal room and performance.

This information can be used to help strengthen the humour in the play and also to focus on the kind of
language someone older would use in general conversation as seen in my grandpa he uses particular
wording such as ‘the ordinary man’ when talking about humans.

Analysis - Parents

What has surprised you.

What surprised me in the interview with my parents was my father life goal and the fact that it was
reached. The fact that he wanted a family a house and a stable job. I think that might also be partly because
it's quite different from my goals in life and I expected his to be more similar to mine considering we are
closer in age than me and my grandpa.

My mothers answer of an equilibrium surprised me because it was so different to the answer I got from my
grandpa. I don’t think she actually meant that in a ‘me or you’ type of situation we see in films, I think she
meant that life is about options, opinions and choice and that’s what makes it fun and interesting.

What reaffirms what you already knew about the play

Having this conversation has affirmed my ideas that there is quite a stark difference between generations in
what they want in life. For example, my grandpa didn’t have a goal until later in life which makes sense
when you think about the early part of his life was focused on coming out of the war and in those times
getting married. It was only when the war and conflicts wasn’t at the forefront of his mind did he start to
find what he had passion for.

How can you use this to deepen the work you are doing in the rehearsal room and performance.

I think this information can be used in the rehearsal room with really exploring that generational gap
between those young those middle age and those old. Looking at the difference in views of life and their
goals and how they would interact with each other depending on their relationship with each other. Also,
by looking at what kind of prejudice they would have for each other if they were strangers.