Our new assessment is Road which is about life on a road in Lancashire in the 1980's. My first response to the play Road after reading the book was that all the character's are very open to each other about their lives and are very flirty. I see most of the women using sex as a tool in the play in able to get what they want from the men. They live in a bad environment in the way that none of them have a lot of money and most of them don't have jobs or have lost them. I feel like the only way they can enjoy their lives is to go out pub crawling and meet most of the people that live on the Road as that's what they all like to do. Even though they live in this poverty area they don't care, they still love the Road they live in and are happy with it.
The major themes throughout the play are sex, politics, alcohol, poverty, family and swearing. Sex is a major one because the women do use it as a tool to get what they want from the men and the men don't mind because they want some. During the play there are many references to sex. Politics is a major theme because this play was set in the 1980's which was when Margret thatcher was in charge and got rid of the union that put a lot of people unemployed. I feel alcohol in the play is used to solve their problems in the way that it makes them forget what's really around them and they can have fun. During the play everyone wants alcohol, for example Brenda who tries to get money of Scullery so she can buy some alcohol. The Road is a place full of poverty but they don't see it as that, they see it as their home. Family is a big theme as they see each other as their family since most of them don't have any family and everyone on Road are really close and they all know each other so it's like they are family. There is a lot of swearing in Road which is showing how uncivilized and how much it's so common in their social community.
My vision of road is that I see it as a very dirty area as in black bags full of rubbish would be on the side walk along with tin bins. The smell of smoke and alcohol would fill the air and you would maybe see the odd splatter of sick on the pavement. If I was going to set the play out I would have it so the audience were standing and all the characters would always be onstage. There would be scenes in chronological order and the audience would follow the scenes as they go on as if they're going down a Road.
I have been casted as Doreen and Mrs Bald which I am very happy about. I'm excited about the character Mrs Bald as she is very comical in every scene she's in. Her and her husband Bald have this kind of relationship where I see it as he's very boring and she loves to joke around with him. For example when Bald says "What do you think this is eh! Keeping decent ones awake likes this. My wife's awake here." and Mrs Bald replies with "I'm not". I think playing Doreen will be fun as she is a very loose character and flirty. She's great friends with Lane and I think it's very important that the bond between them shows. The bug problem for me would be the accent and I'm really bad at them but I'm excited to try and hopefully be okay at it but if not it's something I definitely need to work on.
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