Comparing and Contrasting 'Billy Liar' and our own production.

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Adeel Ahmed   11.1

Comparing and Contrasting ‘Billy Liar’ and our own production

        In this comparative piece of coursework I will compare and contrast the 1960’s comedy classic ‘Billy Liar’, written by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall with our Theatre In Education (T.I.E) piece. I will compare and contrast the two plays between societies, style, history and culture between the two time zones the plays were first performed. ‘Billy Liar’ was written and performed in 1960 whereas our production was performed in 2002. I will note on the differences and similarities in the performances and how this reflected the times in which they were performed.

        Both plays were based upon the issue of lying and the impact this has upon the person. As our performance was trying to show the consequences of lying to 7 – 11 year olds, we had to make sure the content of the play was suitable for the audience. On the other hand, ‘Billy Liar’ was an adult comedy purely for entertainment and the language used contrasts greatly with that of our play.

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        There were also similarities and differences between the characters in both plays. The main thing both main characters shared in the two performances was that both were lying to others. In our play, the father lies to his son to stay out of trouble, but ends up getting himself into more trouble than before. This compares similarly with ‘Billy Liar’ in which Billy lies to get out trouble from the lie before. This also seems to get Billy to get tied into an even bigger hole. The difference, however, between the two characters is that the father in our performance ...

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