He said, she said

A "schizo exercise" (or a synchro-related game) for two players. The rules determine that each player can speak freely, but cannot act freely. Each one in turn determines the physical actions of the other player.

This works in that, after every direct speech by A, B "becomes the narrator" for one sentence and tells the audience what the other "did at these words". The other then immediately does what is said.

Example:

• A: "A wonderful good morning!"
• B: ", he said and bowed politely."
• (A bows)
• B: "Where's my coffee?"
• A: ", she asked him irritably and made a sour face."
• (B makes a sour face)
• A: "Oh dear, the coffee…"
• B: ", the butler suddenly remembered, and he clapped his hands, knocking over a vase."
• (A claps the hands and knocks over a vase)
• B: "Yes, has he gone mad!?"
• A: ", the duchess raged angrily, tearing at her hair." (etc.)

Tips

Tip 1: Play out the action instructions nicely (fully) physically.

Tip 2: On the one hand, value should be placed on a certain tempo; on the other, the action that one gives the other player along the way should be big. Statements like "He said and looked funny" should be avoided as far as possible, since they don't move the game forward.

Notes

It gets funny for the audience when the players exploit their special power, which they have over each other in this game, to their own advantage and cheekily give the other action instructions that don't directly contradict the other's words but that the other probably wouldn't have thought of. It also gets funny when the players manoeuvre themselves into an awkward situation through the stage directions for the other.

This exercise is reversed and therefore somewhat more difficult than most other directing games, in which the action is described first by the author/director (which the players carry out simultaneously in pantomime) and the characters then receive the prompt to speak only out of the already established action (Narrator: "Whereupon she raised, in a wild gesture, her threatening index finger and thundered:"…). Here, on the contrary, there are only two players, the speech comes before the action, and each one plays at the same time himself or herself and the narrator (and thereby quasi the other one too) - a particular challenge!

As a game in front of an audience, the exercise is rather less suited.

Sense of the exercise: to separate speech from action, to "play along" mentally not only oneself but also the other person, to give and take stage directions.