How The Visual Devices Used In The Water Carriers

With backgrounds of blood and violence, refugees have taken drastic measures to escape oppressive and cruel regimes and brutal political circumstances. The characters in The Water Carriers are reminded of where they came from by the memories of their deceased loved ones and relations. To the audience these appear as physical actors. These actors give exposition to the past lives of the main characters and shows us the motivations behind undertaking such a perilous journey in a cargo container to escape their horrific past. Many playwrights have used plays for political commentary throughout time, as Mira Felner states “Playwrights have used theatre for political commentary as far back as the ancient Greek comic Aristophanes (448-c.
For it is this part that the audience has direct contact with. In Think Theatre, when Mira Felner states that, “Our ability to read a set is informed by the general visual culture, the associations we have with certain colors, and how we these make us feel.” (Felner 269), she is saying that the visual elements are said to be effective because they work with our ability to read the set and how these elements make us feel. Mira Felner refers to “Mass” (Felner 270), as the shape of objects on stage, their weight, size and the way they take up space. When it comes to visual analogy to the characters however, the set piece’s mass, in terms of the apparent weight, adds to the oppressive environment the characters are placed in. Adding to this effect is the concept of “texture” (Felner 270). The play utilized harsh metallic and industrial textures giving the appearance of a dystopian environment that also serves to convey the image of the dystopian society that created it. The elements of the set are combined with the use of color, according to Mira Felner a change in color can solicit an alteration of our sense of space and ultimately alter our views in general (Felner 270). The plays used different colors of ambient lighting to evoke a response from the audience. One scene in particular that exhibits this occurs as part of Themba’s story. When the mother of two boys, one of which is prophesized to be a danger to the world, is murdered by her healthy son (the other having disabilities). The color of the lighting changes to red when he summons the creature that kills his mother, this color is associated with violence, anger, and intense emotions. These are all emotions felt by the disabled brother who escapes by throwing himself in river. When taking into consideration that the disabled brother couldn’t speak fluently, the color conveys to the audience the emotions that he