The Sound Of Silence Analysis

The stimulus I decided to use is “The Sound of Silence” - Simon and Garfunkel. When listening to the song and reading the lyrics, I thought of people who aren’t heard and are constantly in silence. After doing a bit of research, I decided to make our piece about selective mutism (a severe mental disorder where a person is unable to speak in certain social situations). I decided to choose this as it seemed to relate to the lyrics of the song. You can see the information I have collected and the monologues I wrote on page 3 of my supporting evidence.
I think that selective mutism goes hand in hand with the lyrics of “The Sound of Silence” because the song is about silence and not being heard which is exactly what selective mutism is, as selectively mute people aren’t heard due to their inability to speak with distant people. After coming up with this, I decided my piece should be about the troubles someone with selective mutism faces every day. In “The Sound of Silence”, I found the lines “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again” quite

I used image theatre multiple times throughout the performance, which helped to convey meaning and to spread the message. I repeatedly used image theatre at the end of every monologue, where we came together as a group and did a 'pocket of silence '. This is where the main character from that monologue sits down, while everyone else in the group stands around them and covers the character 's eyes and mouth. I decided to do this in order to remind the audience what people with selective mutism feel like when they try to speak, but they can 't. I believe that image theatre was the best choice for this bit as the still image could show that the person with selective mutism is still in the same position and nothing has changed about their ability to