Jake Cecil Candidate number 2200

Unit 1, Exploration of Drama: Bedroom Farce

‘Bedroom Farce’ by Alan Ayckbourn, is a play of simplicity. Three beds and four couples line the stage and we can immediately see that one couple flitters in and out of the other couples bedrooms causing chaos where ever they turn. The different visual interpretations are very similar, with the idea of three beds on stage. The main idea of the play is to ask the probing question of ‘what makes a good and successful marriage?’.

Language is used in the play to create differences between the couples, which each represent a different generation or occupation. Ernest and Delia’s (the older couple’s) language is very old and classical, with Earnest showing his background as a public schoolboy with comments such as ‘good lord’ and when he compares Delia and Susannah to ‘sleeping next to a girls dormitory’. Delia obviously has this problem quite a lot with her husband rambling on about the ‘good old days’, but it does not seem to affect her, so their relationship seems unscathed from what we see of their language. This juxtaposes with Nick and Jan for example, as he thinks it is acceptable to ask everything of his wife because of his position as a businessman. She quite obviously gets frustrated much like Trevor and Susannah who cannot stand each other, but cannot be without each other. The odd couple out is Kate and Malcolm, whose language towards each other is very informal and rather child like. ‘you started it, no you started it! And their short and sharp lines (‘Ah!, What is it? Ah!, What?) this shows their childlike antics, much reminding me of the play ‘Blue Remembered Hills’, where adults play children, it seems as if the study of children’s play has come across in the language of this couple. When I explored the language of Trevor, I played him as an eccentric with long rambling sentences fading out, symbolising his lack of understanding of everyone around him and how he just cannot understand half the time, people have not a clue of what he is talking about. The Non-verbal communication of the couples are all very different as well. Malcolm and Kate are very frantic, running around like children, jumping up and down and their facial

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Jake Cecil Candidate number 2200

expressions are very obvious, much in the style of Brecht. This is the opposite to Nick and Jan who are very static due to his bad back and her not really being around in their bedroom, but you get the feeling that Malcolm would also be rather powerful and quick paced due to his tremendous ego. Ernest and Delia are rather slow paced due to their age, so there levels of tension are slow with small but significant movements, and Susannah is somewhere in-between with her outlandish moans for Trevor and her glum stature on stage. They both also used physical business to achieve humour. When I acted Trevor, I made sure that his eccentric personality came over in his physical communication, I used large hand gestures and big movements to show that he is a ‘larger that life’ character. I also rehearsed ‘space’, and made Trevor take over the space of Malcolm and Kate. Some performances stage the beds in different ways, with one on a higher platform over another, but I believe that the simple simultaneous bed formation works better because of its more realistic viewing as well as being a ‘sight gag’.

Different characters in the production we saw had different vocal qualities, this again was determined by which couple the person was in. Bearing in mind pitch pace accent and volume Delia and Earnest were both rather sedate, steriotypicalising the elderly and highlighting the fact that they have a very steady marriage which has been going for quite a while. Malcolm and Kate’s vocals were rather loud and frantic, highlighting their childishness. She also had a strong regional accent. Nick and Jan were both very stern towards each other perhaps symbolising how Nick’s profession is very strict and difficult to achieve success, he is constantly trying to back himself as an important person. Finally Susannah and Trevor, I believe were not vocally interesting and the vocals used when we saw the play did not fit with the characters at all. As hippies or eccentrics, I believed that their voice work should have been rambling but also with a sense of ridiculousness. When I acted Trevor, I tried to bring across how he is naturally not very good at putting across what he is trying to say. The exercises that I used to try and build Trevor’s character were hot seating and monologues

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Jake Cecil Candidate number 2200

and we applied Stanislavski’s ideas of the ‘Magic if’ observations of life and the given circumstances of an eccentric. Hot seating made me realise my character’s mindset and helped me with characterisation. I thought that by using the monologues in particular, I was able to portray how he tries so hard to make what he is saying understandable, even if the words he uses do not make sense (‘giving ness’). The scene I focused on was the one in which Trevor is trying to explain to Malcolm and Kate his situation with Susannah at that moment. When he is trying to explain, he uses words such as ‘Egotistical’, ‘Draining’ and ‘Submerging’, showing how he doesn’t use these words in the correct context, but still tries to use them as he conveys the situation. As he lists these words, I tried to create the effect of Trevor trailing off, and leaving his sentence behind on the search of better words to use. This I believe brought across his hippy aura and also his eccentrically confused mind, which makes him so hard to communicate with. Overall in this scene, it was decided that his objective was to explain the challenging prospect of his relationship with Susannah.

The era of the play makes a huge impact on the play itself in cultural and historical context. Set in the 70’s, the play infuses fashion and the new technology as well as the ways people went about their daily lives in the time. Men’s shirts were tightly fitted with floral patterns and big collars (as shown by Malcolm’s party shirt). The relaxed look is also sported by Malcolm with the jeans and scruffy smart shoes. Susannah’s ‘untamed’ hair was also a fashion of the time. Also linking with Malcolm, the DIY sales rate increased dramatically during the 70’s and new furniture fashions were available, such as the oddly curved sofa’s and chairs. This explains Malcolm’s obsession with DIY. This could explain the hot drink Delia gives to Susannah at night. And lastly home entertainment rather than going out was very popular in the 70’s and became rather iconic. Lager and Wine also became popular in succession. Ayckbourn has taken this into account and therefore incorporated this into his play, the play therefore is a reflection of it’s time.

The fundamental message of the play is quite hard to distinguish because of the play’s uses of social

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Jake Cecil Candidate number 2200

questioning, marriage, parenting sexual equalities and woman’s rights. But for me, it seems like the running theme is that we are all maimed victims of heredity and if Trevor is one of life’s walking wounded, then it is rather clear who is responsible.

The set design used for this play is simple but very effective. The notion of three bedrooms on view simultaneously is both a nice comic sight-gag and the ideal set for exploring private behaviour (where people feel most at ease). lighting was used on the separate bedrooms on the different spaces on the stage. There was also a nice moment when LX was used to give the audience a sort of night time vision for a while, letting us view Ernest and Delia whilst they fall to sleep. The Props were standard but one stood out to me as being quite poor, the table which Malcolm makes collapses too ridiculously as ‘mindless’ Trevor bangs it with a hammer. This was incredibly unrealistic.

The practitioner style used in the play we saw at the theatre was far different to the style I thought the play should have been played in. A sort of Brecht type style was used, focusing on the over exaggeration of the character (especially the mindlessness of Trevor, the wailing Susannah and the immaturity of Malcolm and Kate, much like an exaggerated TV sit com). This made Trevor in particular very unrealistic and rather annoying seeing as he couldn’t get anything right throughout the play. I believed that Trevor should have been played using Stanislavski methods, building the character the audience bit by bit, with hints of natural over exaggeration (because of his eccentricity). This would have made the audience perhaps relate to having friends like him and would make Trevor a more likable character (as he can not help his over the top nature).

1491 words

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