“Do we have to do it all mum?” I asked. “Couldn’t we just leave it and see how it goes at Monday rehearsal?”
“Darling,” mum said patiently, “we open next Friday and we don’t want Lionel having any more tantrums, and we’ve got the other actors to think of. Lionel is quite right; the success of the play depends on that last scene, so we’ve got to get it right.”
“Now if it was Sadie Hodge playing my part you wouldn’t be having these problems would you, you’d have her bras undone in a flash and…”
“Mum,” I protested, “it’s nothing to with Sadie Hodge she’s…”
“Don’t think I haven’t seen the way you look at her,” mum said brusquely. “You’d like her to play the role, I know.”
“No mum…no…she’s too young anyway.”
“Oh, so I’m and old woman now, am I?”
“I didn’t say that mum, you’re not old, it’s just that…”
I couldn’t tell her why I found that scene so difficult to I gave up and said, “All right, all right we’ll rehearse.”
“Fine,” mum said hotly, “and if it’ll help you can pretend I’m Sadie.”
“I don’t want to pretend you’re Sadie, and it wouldn’t help if I did,” I said vehemently.
“All right David, let’s calm down shall we. We can take our time; work out the moves bit by bit. Now eat your breakfast and then go and get changed.”
Developing the Character
After breakfast I returned to my bedroom. For the play I was wearing a pair of my own shorts and so I put them on and went to the lounge where we were to rehearse. Mother was waiting for me, sitting on the divan.
She patted the seat beside her and said, “Come and sit down darling; I think before we actually start the scene we’d better have a talk about it.”
“Talk about what?” I asked.
“The characters sweetheart, we need to work ourselves into the characters. Of course, as you know an actor always begins by drawing on his or her own life experience, and if you are called on to portray things that go beyond your own experience, you try to draw on your observation of others.”
“It’s also a good idea to try and visualize what went on before the beginning of the play in the lives of its characters. For example, Myrtle the maid gives us a clue when she says to the butchers boy in the first act, ‘It’s so sad that someone as lovely as her ladyship shuts herself away in this great house and never sees anyone.'”
“Now that tells us that since the death of Lord Grantly, Lady Primrose has become something of a recluse. Then the maid goes on and says, ‘It’s a pity her ladyship has no children, she loves children and I’m sure she wants to have some of her own.'”
“So Lady Primrose lives an isolated existence and would love to have children. We know of course that she is drawn to the new, young and handsome gardener. At first she denies her feelings for Garth but in the last scene it is a warm day; Garth has taken off his shirt and Lady Primrose sees his young lithe body, and as we know she finally succumbs to her hunger for him.”
“Yes, I said, we’ve already worked that out in rehearsal.”
“Yes,” mother replied, “but what happens after that blackout ends the play?”