Momo Resources Pack

Momo Resources Pack
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Momo
Adapted from the novel by Michael Ende
A Filament Theatre/Greenwich Theatre co-production
Devised by
Osnat Schmool and Sabina Netherclift with Annie Siddons
and the company
Lyrics/ Music by
Osnat Schmool
Directed by
Sabina Netherclift
Written by
Annie Siddons
Designed by
Emma Wee
Lighting Design
Charlie Lucas
Pack written by
Sabina Netherclift with Maria Leaf
Polka Theatre 12-22nd March 2014
Stratford Circus 28th -29th March 2014
Greenwich Theatre 2nd-5th April 2014
Full Production details at www.filament-theatre.com
Filament Theatre Company, c/o Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill, London, SE10 8ES
Registered Charity: 1151037
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Who Are We?
Filament is a music theatre
company, whose productions
combine close part harmony
singing with physical
performance.
We make work which tells stories,
performed in both traditional and
non-traditional theatre spaces.
Since our formation we have
created four original pieces:
Drive Ride Walk, which was the winner of The Bridewell/ MMD/ Nitro Writers
Development Fund Award, has toured to theatres in London (Stratford Circus,
Greenwich Theatre, Chelsea Theatre and Jacksons Lane) as well as appearing at over 20
public venues throughout the city, including St Pancras Station, Homerton Hospital,
Lewisham Shopping Centre, Spitalfields Market, The Royal Naval College and the London
Transport Museum. It has been seen by an estimated audience of over 7,000, and was
nominated for a ‘Best Ensemble’ award at the Offies in 2011.
One Dark Night, One Small Step and One or the Other have all been created for Tête à
Tête: The Opera Festival.
One Dark Night tells the story
of one woman’s long dark night
of the soul as she struggles to
cope with loss and loneliness,
looking for any kind of solace in food, television, her
wardrobe, her books and her
memories. It features 8
performers (1 protagonist and
her chorus).
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One Small Step is a promenade piece
which charts the emotional journey of a
couple as they witness their child’s first
faltering steps. A cappella duet, intercut
with a percussive score, charts the highs
and lows of watching a child learn to walk.
We used it as the focus for a workshop for
the Glyndebourne and Welsh National
Opera’s Youth Companies
One or the Other received development support from Barbican/Guildhall Pit Lab,
and a workshop version was performed in August 2013. It is an a cappella trio which
sees two flatmates vying for the attention of their landlady Bella, by means of a cooking
competition. The piece is part slapstick (the relationship of the flatmates was inspired by
the cartoon Tom and Jerry) and part very tight harmony singing.
Filament Theatre Company was awarded charitable status in March 2013
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What is Momo?
Momo is a story, written by German author, Michael Ende. It was first published in
1973, 40 years ago, before we had computers at home and school, mobile phones and
iPads. People didn’t have so many ways to access information or connect to each other.
Although Michael Ende never specifies where exactly the story is set, it imagines a place
which is warm and relaxed. We today might think of Spain, Portugal, Greece or Turkey
having this type of atmosphere. It tells the tale of a young orphaned girl who arrives in a
town and makes friends with the people who live there. She is very good at listening and
the townspeople bring her their problems. Momo is able to give them all the time they
need, she makes people feel better about themselves and life.
However, soon things begin to change. Momo's new home is invaded by a sinister
group, the Men in Grey; their mission - to persuade the townspeople to ‘save time’.
They persuade people that if they stop ‘wasting’ time right now (by spending time
playing, chatting, sitting and dreaming), they could have so much more to spend later
on, ‘time saved is time doubled’. Gradually, Momo’s friends stop visiting her, children
aren’t around to play with her. She is left alone.
However, before the Men in Grey can destroy her, she meets a clairvoyant tortoise and
a Time Lord in the shape of Professor Hora and very soon she is fighting back to rescue
her friends from the domination of the Time Saving Bank and to reinstate the value of
time.
"Time is all you need, right?"
By the author of The Neverending Story, our musical version of Michael Ende's fantasy
novel is a thrilling fusion of dazzling vocals, original songs, puppetry and storytelling.
About Michael Ende
Michael Andreas Helmuth Ende (12 November 1929 – 28 August 1995) was a German
writer, whose books combined fantasy and reality. He wrote for both children and
adults, but his best known works are his children’s books, amongst them, The
Neverending Story, which was turned into a movie in 1984.
His books have been translated into more than 40
languages and have sold more than 20 million copies.
Although he wrote for children, he was concerned
with issues that affected the adult world and
addresses complex issues surrounding the nature of
time, friendship and society in Momo
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Themes within Momo
Momo is a book which looks at how society operates, how people spend their time, and
what they choose to do. Ende imagines what would happen if people were convinced
that all the things we might see as a relaxing way to pass our time (chatting, seeing
friends and relatives, playing, watching the world go by) were in fact WASTING it.
He slowly eliminates these things from the lives of his characters.
He forces us to look at the value of time, the value of friendship, what investing time in
people means. He asks us to examine how a community functions, how family
relationships function and what might happen should we no longer spend time
enriching those relationships. He asks us to consider what would be lost in a world
which is looking for ever greater efficiency and whether we think that what would be
lost would outweigh what there is to be gained from a relentless desire to ‘save’ time.
Links to the Curriculum
KS2 Citizenship and PSHE

Realise that their actions affect themselves and others and try to understand
different points of view

Understand why and how rules and laws are made and enforced and why
different rules are needed in different situations

Consider social and moral dilemmas they come across
KS2 English and Drama
 Recognise the choice, use and effect of figurative language, vocabulary and
language patterns
 Identify how character and setting are created, and how plot, narrative
structures and themes are developed.
 Evaluate ideas and themes that broaden perspectives and extend thinking
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KS2 Music
 Explore and explain ideas and feelings using musical vocabulary
 Listen with attention to details and internalise and recall sounds with increasing
aural memory
 Understand how the combined musical elements of pitch, duration, dynamics,
tempo, timbre, texture and silence can be organised within musical structures
Adaptation
Our show is adapted from Michael Ende’s children’s book. We have worked with a
writer to make the book come to life for our audiences, and we have adapted the book
in order to tell the story in the best way we can. This means, there will be some bits of
the book and characters within it that we have missed out and others we have mixed
together to help us to dramatically tell the story in the time we have.
Here are some of the characters:
Momo: the heroine (an orphan), who arrives in the town and is very good at listening.
She makes friends with everyone.
Guido: a friend of Momo’s and a very good story teller, he is also a guide and regularly
leads groups of tourists around the amphitheatre. He loves making up stories about
what used to happen there which he tells the tourists are true!
Figaro: a Barber /hairdresser who is very shy at the beginning of our show, has always
liked Miss Nina but never quite had the nerve to tell her. What he can do however is cut
hair, (which he really enjoys), and talking to his customers (which he also enjoys!)
Nina: the innkeeper has a heart of gold! She loves cooking and looking after everyone.
She doesn’t care how much or how little money people have – but she does wish that
Figaro would pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date!
Professor Hora: the keeper of Time (a bit like Dr Who)
The Men in Grey: shadowy and up to no good baddies! More about them later.
Paulo, Rosa and Maria: children and Momo’s friends
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TIME to begin
‘Long, long ago, when people spoke languages quite different from our own, many fine,
big cities already existed in the sunny lands of the world. There were towering palaces
inhabited by kings and emperors; there were broad streets, narrow alleyways and
winding lanes; there were sumptuous temples filled with idols of gold and marble; there
were busy markets selling wares from all over the world; and there were handsome
spacious squares where people gathered to discuss the latest news and make speeches
or listen to them. Last but not least there were theatres, or more properly,
amphitheatres.
Thousands of years have passed since then. The great cities of long ago lie in ruins
together with their temples and palaces. Wind and rain, heat and cold have worn away
and eaten the stonework. Ruins are all that remains of the amphitheatres too. Crickets
now inhabit their crumbling walls, singing a monotonous song that sounds like the earth
breathing in its sleep. A few of these ancient cities have survived to the present day
however. Life there has changed, of course. People ride around in cars and buses, have
telephones and electric lights. But here and there among the modern buildings, one can
still find a column or two, an archway, a stretch of wall, or even an amphitheatre dating
from olden times.
It was in a city of this kind that the story of Momo took place.’
From Chapter 1 Momo, Michael Ende (Copyright Michael Ende)
This is how Michael Ende introduces the world of Momo. What do you notice about the
way he uses language? How does he build a picture of what the world was like? What
do you think an amphitheatre was for? Can you find out? What sort of things can you
see in modern day amphitheatres? When you have found out, why do you think Michael
Ende makes it a key part of the description at the start of the story?
Momo is found one day, living in the amphitheatre and much of the action of the story
takes place inside its walls. We decided that our set should evoke the feeling of an
amphitheatre – as it is a perfect place for actors to make a play! All of the other places
we visit are made out of different sections of our amphitheatre, Nina’s Inn and Figaro’s
hair salon. We’ll come across them as we continue on our journey with you!
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In the show, we meet the characters spending time doing things they really enjoy children are playing games, Nina is cooking and getting her inn ready for opening time,
Figaro is creating a new haircut!
We’d like the children to consider what they really like doing. Here are some
questions you can ask them to think about:
What do you most like to spend your time doing when you are not in school?
What things do you most like doing with your family?
What things do you most like doing with your friends?
What things do you most enjoy in the time that you are at school?
What makes you forget time?
What do grown-ups think about time?
When does time feel good/bad?
If there was a court to sentence time, what would it be like?
If time was a character how would they look?
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Discussion
In groups of 4 discuss your answers to the above questions. Are there any things in
common? Do any of you like spending your free time doing the same thing? Is eating
and chatting with your family important? Do you spend time playing games by yourself
or with others? What sort of games do you play with your friends?
Are there different objects that are linked to the ways you think about time?
Drama Activity 1
Step 1
In your groups, make a still image for each of the activities you really like doing with
your friends. Think about this like a photograph. Everyone should be in the photo and
should have a role. The person who really enjoys this activity is the photographer and
will arrange the others in the image they want to photograph and will then put
him/herself into the image. If two people enjoy doing the same activity, e.g.
skateboarding or dancing, then there can be two photographs of the same activity but
perhaps showing different things For example:
If your favourite thing to do (when not at school) is to play football, then perhaps set up
the picture of a football game. Think about who is playing, are there 4 players in the
match? Or only 2 and 2 supporters? Which moment is the photograph taken at? The
final moment of the match or half time? Where are the people in the photograph?
Which position should they be in to make it really exciting? Where are you in the photo?
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Step 2
When you have each had a go at being the photographer, can you practice all 4 of your
still photographs?
Step 3
Find a way to move between each of the photographs as smoothly as possible.
Step 4
Find a title for your photograph album, for example ‘Time Well Spent’. You are now
ready to present your photo album to the class. Announce your title and then move into
photo number 1. You can clap after counting to 5 and then move into photo number 2.
Hold this photo for 5 counts, clap and move into photo number 3. Keep going until all
your photos have been shown.
(Note to teachers: To extend this exercise, ask each group to add one word per photo,
then one sound, then one action. You can repeat this exercise to encompass any of the
activities which the group has discussed – time spent at school, time spent with family,
time spent doing things they don’t like!)
Discuss at the end what sometimes stops activities you like taking place. Is lack of time
ever involved?
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Art /Design Activity 1
We are going to think of Time as a character. What would Time look like?
For this exercise you will need to be in groups of 8-10
Materials you will need:
Large sheets of paper (wallpaper lining is ideal)
Coloured pens
Tissue paper/crepe paper/newspaper
Feathers
Felt
Odds and ends!
Step 1
Spread out your sheet of wallpaper paper until it is long enough for one of your group to
lie down on it.
Step 2
One child lies down on the paper whilst the other children draw round their outline.
Step 3
Once the outline has been completed, the child lying down gets up and now all the
children around the outline get to work.
What kind of clothes would Time wear if they were a character?
What kind of hair would Time have?
What kind of face? Old or young?
Draw one object on that Time might have?
You can divide up these tasks amongst the group. You can draw the different additions
to Time or stick them on out of the materials you have to hand – what texture clothing
might Time wear?
Write one phrase that Time might say.
Write down a secret that Time might keep.
Write down Time’s favourite food.
Write down Time’s favourite activity.
Step 4
When your drawing of Time is finished, can you present it to the rest of the class?
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Step 5
Can you now start to become the Time characters you have drawn? How do they walk
and talk? How do they say their phrase? Can you whisper your secret to another Time?
(Note to teachers: this exercise can be extended to create a story. What would the
children like to ask Time if they met it? What would they do if they met Time? Can they
construct a story about meeting time that has a beginning, middle and end? Could they
construct a series of images of this meeting, as in drama activity 1)
Drama Activity 2
Becoming other characters!
Now we’d like you to think about other characters from the story. We are going to meet
them before things in the story become difficult for them – so we are going to meet
them whilst they are doing things that they enjoy. We’d like you to create 3
photographs to follow some time spent with each of the characters and their customers
below. Think about the still images you are creating, making a story with a beginning a
middle and an end. Now, as a reminder of who is who and what they do:
Nina runs an inn. She loves cooking, making food and looking after people. She is well
known for being a really good cook. She’d probably win the ‘Great British Bake Off’ if
she entered. Of course this is before she gets visited by the Men in Grey.
Figaro is the local barber. He cuts hair, styles hair and really enjoys doing it. He is
particularly creative once Momo has arrived and spends time getting his creative cuts
just right. Sometimes people are surprised by what he does with their hair – perhaps
even a little bit shocked but one thing’s for sure, it is never dull!
Guido has many jobs in the story, he is a postman, dog walker, witness at weddings,
souvenir seller but most importantly, he takes tourists around the amphitheatre and
tells them about its history. However, he is also a great story teller so there is less fact in
his account of the amphitheatre’s past than fiction. For Guido, the amphitheatre used to
house a great whale that started life as a fish in an empress’s bath, but it was also a
place of battles.
The children in the story are good at making up games, especially when Momo is
around. They didn’t have iPads and IPods when the book was written so games for these
children were about pretending to be different characters. One of the games that takes
place in the story is about a voyage upon a ship called the Argo. The ship enters a
thunderstorm and is blown about and then meets a giant creature. It is only when the
children sing that the danger passes away.
We’re going to think about all of these characters.
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This will work best with groups of 8 – 10 children.
Group 1
Title: It’s dinner time at Nina’s Inn
Characters:
Nina, Waiters, Customers
Create a scene that follows Nina's inn from 6pm to 9pm. You can set these three
different steps up as tableaux first of all, i.e still images and then find a way to move
between them.
These are the three headlines we would like you to use:
Picture 1
Opening time!
Picture 2
Dinner is served!
Picture 3
Time to go home!
Are people excited to get into the Inn at opening time? Hopefully so, Nina is a great
cook! Are they also very hungry? People come to Nina’s inn to relax so what might
people be doing in the inn before dinner comes out? Could they be playing cards?
Talking/laughing? Once they have eaten, are the very full? Very happy? Was it delicious
food and if so do they want to tell Nina how good it was? Do they all want to leave the
inn or do some want to stay?
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Once you have a series of photographs/still images, can you find a way to move
between them?
Then can you think about how to bring some life to each of these photographs so they
stop being frozen images. Can you find 3 lines of dialogue for each scene?
E.g
Scene 1:
Nina: Come on in everyone!
Customer 1: John, here’s a table – let’s play cards!
Customer 2: What are you cooking, Nina?
Scene 2:
Nina: Time to Eat!
Customer 3: Yumm
Customer 4: Can I have seconds?
Scene 3:
Nina: Good night everyone!
Customer: Wake up, Sarah!
Customer: Time to go home!
What music would you use if you wanted to underscore? (There are some suggestions
at the end of this pack)Can you add some props made from paper or card to the scene?
Here are some other scenes and picture titles you might be able to use. You can
construct the scenes in the same way as Nina’s Inn
Title: Figaro’s Hair Salon
Picture 1
Figaro and his customers
Picture 2
Snip, brush, cut!
Picture 3
All done!
How many people is Figaro looking after in his salon? He loves cutting hair so perhaps
he is doing some really wild and creative things. Can you create the tableaux first, then
find really smooth ways to move between them?
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Add dialogue to each tableau as in scene 1. Then find some good music that might be
able to underscore the scene.
In our adaptation Figaro’s more creative haircuts have been made from paper. Can you
design some really wonderful haircuts that are made from paper and card?
Title: Guido – the tourist guide
Picture 1
The amphitheatre
Picture 2
You’ll never guess what happened here!
Picture 3
That was the best tour ever!
Title: The Voyage of the Argo
Picture 1
All aboard!
Picture 2
Danger on the High Seas!
Picture 3
The creature is defeated!
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Storytelling/Drama Activity 3
Guido Guide – the story teller!
As mentioned above, Guido is very good at telling stories. He is very good at making
them up. We are now going to make up some stories!
Divide the class into four groups.
Each group can stand in a circle. You are going to tell a whole story one word at a time.
You must listen very carefully to what word the person before you says. The story can
be as imaginative as you like but when you listen to it, it has to make sense by having
nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns in all the right places.
How difficult is it to tell a story like this? How bizarre did the story become? Did it make
sense? Can one person from each group tell the other groups what happened in their
stories?
Let’s now change the word count, so that each person in the group can say one
sentence and then the story passes on. Does this make telling the story any easier? Are
the stories interesting or dull?
Now, you can pick any of the story titles below – and we’d like you to tell a story as one
big group. One person will start telling the story and will continue until the teacher says
‘TIME’ when the story passes to the person next to them who carries on telling the
story. At any point, the teacher can say the words, ‘and then suddenly’ when the person
speaking at that point must make up a dramatic event that changes the feel of the story.
What did you enjoy about this supersize storytelling? What happened to the stories
when the ‘and then suddenly’ came in?
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Drama Activity 4
The Men in Grey
In Momo, time is at first abundant but then as the book progresses, Momo realises that
her friends have less and less of it to spend with her. What can be behind this? It seems
to be a mystery until Momo discovers the activities of the Men in Grey (MIG). The Men
in Grey could well have been dreamt up by Dr Who – they are the enemy of children
and adults, they seem to come from somewhere quite alien to earth – they are a little
bit like dementors who are very good at maths.
Here is an extract from the show’s script which will give you a feel for them and how
they work. Figaro is a barber and he spends lots of time cutting hair. He likes it and
enjoys talking to the customers but on one particular day, he feels a little discontented.
In our adaptation this is linked to how he feels about Miss Nina who runs the inn. Into
his shop walks a shadowy figure all dressed in grey.
Cast one Figaro and one Man in Grey (who could well be a girl!) and read the following
passage out to your class mates:
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FIGARO
What’s it to be a shave or a haircut?
MIG
Neither. I’m from the time-saving bank. Allow me to introduce
myself. Agent no XYQ/384/b. We hear you wish to open an account
with us.
FIGARO
That’s news to me. I didn’t even know such a bank existed.
MIG
Well you know now. Your name is Figaro isn’t it?
FIGARO
Yes
MIG
Then I’ve come to the right address. You’re on our list of applicants
FIGARO
I’m sorry?
MIG
It’s like this my dear sir. You’re wasting your life cutting hair,
lathering faces and swapping idle chit chat. When you’re dead it will
be as if you never existed. If only you had the time to lead the right
kind of life, you’d be quite a different person. Time is all you need,
right?
FIGARO
That’s just what I was thinking a moment ago
MIG
You need more time, but how are you going to find it? By saving it
of course. You, Mr Figaro, are wasting time in a completely
irresponsible way. Let me prove it to you by simple arithmetic.
There are sixty seconds in a minute, and sixty minutes in an hourare you with me so far?
FIGARO
Of course
MIG
(Produces a piece of chalk and writes figures…)
Sixty times sixty is three thousand six hundred, which makes three
thousand six hundred seconds in an hour. There are twenty four
hours in a day, so multiply three thousand six hundred by twenty
four and you arrive at a figure of eighty six thousand four hundred.
There are three hundred and sixty five days in a year, as you know
which makes, thirty one million five hundred and thirty six thousand
seconds in a year, or three hundred and fifteen million three
hundred and sixty thousand seconds in ten years.
How long do you reckon you’ll live Mr Figaro?
FIGARO
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Well…uh…I hope to live to seventy or eighty…
MIG
Very well let us call it seventy, to be on the safe side. Multiply this
figure by seven and you get a grand total of two billion two hundred
and seven million five hundred and twenty thousand seconds. That
Mr Figaro is the extent of capital at your disposal. Impressive isn’t
it. How old are you now?
FIGARO
Forty two
MIG
And how long do you sleep at night…on average?
FIGARO
Around eight hours
MIG
Forty two years at eight hours a night makes four hundred and forty
one million, five hundred and four thousand seconds…we’ll have to
write that off I’m afraid.
FIGARO
Oh dear
MIG
How much of the day do you devote to work, Mr Figaro?
FIG
Another eight hours or so
MIG
Then we’ll have to write the same amount off again. You also
spend a certain portion of the day eating, you spend an hour or so
talking to your mother each day, despite the fact she’s deaf and
can’t hear you – that counts as more time wasted- and you also
keep a budgerigar, a needless extravagance who costs you fifteen
minutes a day
FIGARO
But..
MIG
Don’t interrupt. Your mother’s arthritic as well as deaf so you have
to do most of the housework…how much time does that consume
daily?
FIGARO
An hour maybe…
MIG
So you’ve already squandered another fifty five million one hundred
and eighty thousand seconds, Mr Figaro. You go to the cinema
once a week, sing with a social club, go drinking twice a week, and
spend the rest of the evenings reading or gossiping with
friends…what’s the matter Mr Figaro aren’t you feeling well?
FIGARO
No, yes, I mean
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What other characters (from books or TV programmes that you know) do the Men in
Grey remind you of? What do you notice about the language they use? What do you
notice about the way they categorise Figaro’s time/ what do you notice about what the
Men in Grey think of as time wasted?
After the Men in Grey have visited the different characters in the town, life begins to
change. Nina gives up the easy life of the inn in order to open a fast food cafe. Instead of
cooking all her food from scratch, she puts things in her microwave and is able to serve
people in a quarter of the time. She redesigns her inn to make more efficient use of the
space. She replaces the comfy chairs so that people will want to spend less time on
them.
Figaro the barber speeds up his service, spending less time on talking to customers and
more time on giving straight forward haircuts. He has a digital clock installed so that he
can time his hair cutting to the second.
Guido Guide (who has always wanted to be famous) finds that with the help of the Men
in Grey he is! He doesn’t have time to spend with his friends in the amphitheatre
anymore because he has planes to catch, people to see, programmes to make. He has
no time to chat.
The children (although the last ones to feel the effect of the Men in Grey) are however
put into child depots from morning to evening where they play at ‘data retrieval’. Does
that sound good fun, or not?
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Art and Design Activity 2
For this exercise, we would like you to think about an activity that you would like to do
in half the time it currently takes you to do it e.g. tidying your bedroom or doing your
homework. You can do this exercise individually or in groups of 8-10
Materials you will need:
Paper
Coloured pens
Cardboard
Foil
Tissue paper/crepe paper/newspaper
Feathers
Felt
Odds and ends!
Step 1
Design and draw on paper a machine that would help you do this activity. What would
the machine need to have? Don’t, for the moment, worry about practicalities. If you
know a certain thing is impossible, don’t let that stop you putting it on
E.g. a machine that has different parts to help you do different sorts of homework, one
area for spellings, one for times tables, one for reading.
Step 2
Using card and other materials, can you make a model of this machine?
Step 3
Present your model to the rest of your class, explaining what its purpose is and how it
works!
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Drama Activity 5
As we saw earlier, the Men in Grey are very good at persuading people that they need
to save time. They are also very good at blending in, and going about their business
without being noticed or making a fuss.
Stand in a circle with your eyes closed. Your teacher will walk around the circle and will
place their hands on the shoulders of one child. That child is going to be Agent ABC.
Now everyone in the class must walk around as though they are walking around the
amphitheatre. It is up to Agent ABC to try and turn everyone into a Man in Grey like
themselves. The way that Agent ABC is going to do this is by winking at the other
children. Once you have been winked at, then you can count up to ten on your fingers.
Keep doing this whilst walking around. Agent ABC doesn’t want to get seen. Once
winked at, you must start counting – no cheating! If you have guessed who it is you can
say!
Did anyone guess who Agent ABC was?
(Teachers note: You may want to play the game with half the class watching and half
playing. What reaction does the audience have to the gradual change from people
walking around not doing anything to people counting up on their fingers? What would
be the adjectives to describe this change? You could move this game on by giving the
Man in Grey a word or a phrase which they say to the people they encounter. Once
being told the phrase and becoming a Man in Grey, the children can then turn and say
the phrase to someone else, so that the Men in Grey spread even more quickly.)
Drama Activity 6
You will need chairs for every child taking part
Rules: No running ever (the Men in Grey can ONLY walk, otherwise they evaporate) no
pushing anyone to stop them sitting in a seat, no returning to a seat you have just left.
Step 1
Place chairs around the room, enough for everyone. They should all be facing in
different directions and spread apart. 1 person is going to play Momo, everyone else is
going to be a Man in Grey. Everyone should sit in a seat until Momo is chosen. When
Momo is chosen she gets up and moves as far away from her chair as possible.
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Step 2
When the teacher says go, Momo sets off to walk back to her empty seat (figure 1) She
can only walk using pigeon steps. Everyone else, (the Men in Grey) must work together
to stop her sitting back down by one of them sitting in Momo’s empty seat. Once her
original seat is taken, Momo must look for the next empty seat (just vacated by a MIG)
Figure 2) and make her way towards that one. Before she is able to sit down, another
Man in Grey must fill the seat. Momo must then aim for his last seat and that again
must be filled by another MIG. If the MIG do not work together, then Momo will
manage to sit down and a new Momo will be chosen.
Chair game: Figure 1
Child A
Momo’s empty seat
X (Momo)
Figure 2
Empty Seat
X (Momo)
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Momo’s seat taken by child
A during game. Momo
heads for empty seat
Drama Activity 7
Whilst devising ‘Momo’ the company of actors have to work hard to become the ‘Men
in Grey’, to find a common rhythm of movement which allows them to operate like one
organism rather than lots of individuals. This work is often known as ‘chorus’ work and it
originated in Greek theatre where the chorus were narrators of stories and were able to
become different groups of people as needed by the play.
Below is an exercise which we use when building up the chorus.
Step 1
A group of three children stand in a triangle with one child at the front (A)and two
behind (B) and (C). Everyone must face the same direction. The child in the front of the
triangle is the leader(A). When the teacher says go, the leader walks forward in a
straight line. When the leader wants or needs to stop (because they have run out of
space for example), they then turn on the spot to either the right or left as do the other
two, until the triangle has a new point and a new leader. In figure 2, A turned to the
right so the new leader is child C. In figure 3, Child C also turned to the right, so the new
leader is Child B
Figure 1
Figure 2
X (A)
X(B) X (C)
X (A)
X (B)X (C)
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Figure 3
X (A)
X(B) X (C)
Step 2
Once the children are happy handing over leadership, ask each leader to change the
rhythm with which they walk. If child A walks fast, child B walks slowly, child c, a rhythm
in between. Then ask them if they can change their walks, with really big strides, or on
tip toes. Every time there is a change of leader, there is a change of walk.
Step 3
Add 2 more children to the group. The shape they should think of is a bunch of grapes or
a shoal of fish, with 1 grape/fish always at the front. Go through the first stages again.
The children being close together and walking together until the leader stops and turns
to their right and left, and the group follow. Whoever is most in the front when the
turning stops becomes the new leader and starts to walk. Build up slowly adding 2
children at a time until you have a chorus of 9 -11children. You can have several
choruses working at the same time
Step 4
Ask the leader to introduce a gesture. It can be one long gesture which the rest of the
chorus copy or a repeated gesture e.g. arm raised slowly towards the ceiling as the
chorus walks, or arms being raised and lowered continually.
Step 5
Introduce the idea of the chorus becoming different things, all of which will follow from
what the leaders do: e.g., a chorus of rabbits, a chorus of dogs, a chorus of fish, a chorus
of mums, a chorus of teachers, a chorus of children at playtime, a chorus of Men in
Grey.
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From what you have found out so far, what do you think the Men in Grey would walk
like? What would their gesture be?
The Men in Grey are continually talking in numbers.
Listen to Figaro’s application to the Time Saving Bank to see what Osnat thinks the Men
in Grey sound like. The first voice you hear is Figaro the barber who is thinking about his
life. Then he begins talking to the Men in Grey – the second voice you hear is him. Listen
to all the different figures he lists!
https://soundcloud.com/filament-theatre/figaros-application-to-the
Men in Grey Drama/Music/Maths Activity
Divide the class into 3 choruses of Men in Grey. Chorus A, B and C
Step 1
Allow each chorus to find their way of moving as the Men in Grey.
Step 2
Chorus A will start counting from 1 to 5. They will continually repeat the count so that it
becomes a cycle. They have to keep moving as a chorus as they count. After they have
set this up, ask them to make the number 1 stand out. They might sing the number 1,
they might turn on the number 1. They might do a particular gesture on the number 1.
Chorus B will start counting from 1 to 6. Ask them to do the same for the number 1
Chorus C will count from 1 to 7. Again ask them to do the same for the number 1.
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Step 3
Find a common sound and gesture for number 1 but keep each chorus to its own
counting structure. Notice when all the number 1s line up.
To push this exercise further, allow individual children to come out of their choruses and
experience being in amongst the three bands of Men in Grey. Start a discussion
afterwards about what it was like to be an individual watching the three groups. What
did they feel? What did the choruses feel like? Did they want to re-join their chorus, or
were they happy being apart from it?
Dance Activity 1
Professor Hora and The Hour Lily
In Momo, Michael Ende imagines that the
hours of people’s lives are guarded by a
time keeper called Professor Hora. He lives
in a house that is full of clocks and
passages. He offers to take Momo to see
her own time passing. He leads her to a
great big room and Michael Ende
describes how Momo watches the cycle of
an enormous flower bud and then bloom,
fade and then die again and again. It is
beautiful and magical and Momo can hear
a wonderful music accompanying the sight.
Step 1
Please use either the pictures within this
pack or from the internet/Books to show
the children the life cycle of a flower
The children can work individually in this exercise. Here are the steps:
Curl yourself in to the smallest space you can. Very slowly (as slowly as you can) allow
yourself to uncurl and stretch out until you make a star shape. How slowly can you do
it? Move from the star shape back into the curled up ball. Now try the exercise again,
but imagine instead of moving from a curled up ball to a star shape, you are moving
from a bud to a flower. What sort of shape does a bud have and what sort of lovely
shape does the flower have? Can you move from the flower back into the bud?
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Step 2
Find a partner. Try the same exercise, but now you are working together to make a
much bigger flower which can blossom and then fade.
Step 3
Move from working with a partner, to groups of 4, 6 and then finally 8. Can you make 1
flower bud which then expands to one beautiful flower, and then fades? Repeat the
movement sequence.
Step 4
All the flower groups within the classroom can work together to music (please see
suggestions at the end of the pack) to create a room of blooming and fading flowers.
One group at a time can stop and wander around the room to watch the other groups at
work.
Discuss what watching the blooming and fading flowers made the children feel.
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Drama Activity 8
This activity can be done as a whole class activity or in four groups. Ask the children to
pick a character they have liked during the afternoon.
Set out a seat in front of your class/group, and ask one child to sit in it. This is the ‘hot
seat’. As soon as the child is in it, they are no longer themselves but are the character
they are playing.
The rest of the class or group can ask the character questions, in order to find out how
the character feels about other characters or the story.
Example questions might be:
What is your favourite food?
Who is your best friend?
What is your favourite way to spend your time?
What do you worry about?
You could use the questions at the start of this pack.
The characters answers might be different depending on whether they have had a visit
from the Men in Grey or not!
Once all children have been hot seated, ask all the children playing Nina to stand
together, all those playing Guido to stand together until you have all the children playing
the same character in a group together.
Ask the children to retell their character’s story. They can do this individually, or as a
group using the exercises in drama activity 3.
We hope you enjoy the exercises within this resources pack – they are to be adapted
and used as you wish. Please note all photos of the company are copyright Matt Rozier
The photo of Michael Ende is copyright Caio Garrubba.
Music Suggestions: Erik Satie’s works, Gymnopedie no. 1 and Gnossienne 1,2 and 3.
Yann Tiersen’s fabulous soundtrack to ‘Amelie’, particularly Track 4, ‘Comptine d'un
autre été - L'après midi’, and Rachel Portman’s wonderful soundtrack to‘Chocolat’ in
particular ‘The Story of Grandmere’. The BBC has a wonderful music clips service which
gives the flavour of music from different countries, including Spain and Greece. Use this
link http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/schoolradio/subjects/music/clipslibrary
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