MCM Workshops

"It's not about a game. It's about the cost of genius"

WORKSHOP FOCUS: Analysing Beth Harmon in the Queens Gambit

In this workshop we trace Beth’s inclination to spiral down into a dark place of isolation and addiction is a stepping stone to personal transformation. We come to understand that it is necessary to her journey as a character. It is part of her hero’s journey. It is only when she takes a good, hard look at what her life has become (with Jolene’s help) that she is able to expand as a character and reach her full potential.

The Netflix series is an interpretation of the novel by Walter Tevis and although the character Beth Harmon is fictional, and, as is the case with so many fictional characters, parts of her journey are drawn from the lives of real people. One of these is the world-renowned chess champion Bobby Fischer. Beth wins the 1967 U.S. championship in the same year that Fischer won his final American title. Fischer first became a chess champion at the age of 14 — Beth does the same at the age of 16. Fischer taught himself Russian to better prepare for competitions, Beth does too. Beth beats Vasily Borgov in Moscow. Fischer beat Russia’s Boris Spassky.

Type 4s most meaningful relationships often happen in their heads. Sometimes the other person doesn't even have a clue. With a 4 wing, Beth's relationship with Townes has something of that in it. Read more about this tomorrow

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THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT: ANGER
People like you have a hard time. Two sides of the same coin, you’ve got your gift and you’ve got what it costs. (It’s) hard to say what that will be for you. You’ll have your time in the sun but for how long? You’ve got so much anger in you. You have to be careful. – William Shaibel
As writers and storytellers we need to be tuned in to the underlying emotions driving our characters.
All the Enneagram Types are interconnected, but we tend to have a predominant way of being. For Beth, Type 5 seems to be the closest overall match. The Enneagram associates an underlying emotional energy driving clusters of Enneagram Types. For Types 8, 9 and 1 it is ANGER; for Types 2, 3 and 4 it is SHAME, and for Types 5, 6 and 7, it is FEAR.
Type 5 is directly connected (by the Enneagram lines) to Types 7 and 8. As a Type 5, Beth’s motivating emotion is FEAR, but she also expresses the ANGER of Type 8. We first see her anger in the scene with Mr Shaibel, when he tells her she has lost the game and must resign

FACILITATORS
Melody Emmett is an accredited Enneagram Coach and Logotherapy facilitator with a particular interest in how literature and film can be used as a springboard to personal transformation and meaning. She is an executive member of the Southern African Freelancer Association (Safrea) and works as an independent researcher, writer, editor and workshop facilitator. Her experience as a writer spans journalistic writing, fiction and non-fiction writing, screenplay writing and report writing. Melody began her career in the film industry in the 1980s. Moving up the ranks to become a scriptwriter, she wrote an award-winning 13-episode series, based on the life and death of Henry Nxumalo, a pioneering South African investigative journalist under apartheid, which was screened on SABC TV annually for approximately 14 years. In the 1990s she co-produced and directed two documentary films.

Dimitri Martinis is a sociologist with a specialisation in communications, media and cultural studies. He has worked in the broadcasting industry for over thirty years in various roles, spanning business, creative and operations. His first love was always film and he began his career as a production assistant, then as an assistant film-editor. This love for film has seen him become involved in the development of policy, and working with local and international film makers to put in place four film co-production treaties as well as a raft of government support measures for film development. His writing journey began more recently, moving from feature articles into the more creative sphere of poetry and his lifelong dream of writing a screenplay. He has attended numerous courses and workshops to develop his skills, and he brings many of these insights to this workshop for both professionals in the field and those with a love for film.