Abigail’s Party cast blog 2
Getting in Character
We had an interesting discussion at Saturdays rehearsal about our characters and how they felt about being at this awful drinks party.
What was probably most interesting was the influence of the era on the characters lives and how that differs so much from what is expected of men and women today. Laurence is under pressure to provide for his social climbing wife who doesn’t work any more, while Tony won’t let his working wife learn to drive because ‘he doesn’t think she will be any good at it’. My character Sue, stays at home to look after the children (11 & 15), and is dependant on the financial support of her ex-husband.
How different from the world in which we live today where couples routinely share financial responsibility and it is unheard of for a woman to give up work just because she got married. Would Tony be considered controlling, or a bully for not allowing his wife to learn to drive? And would Sue head back to work in today’s word where both her kids are of secondary school age and she is in need of further income.
It certainly made for a very thought-provoking debate and opened all our eyes to how our characters would behave in this claustrophobic setting.
Next time: Finding Costumes