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 finally gives into lying and vows never to lie to his son again, whereas in ‘Billy Liar’ Billy keeps on lying to try and get out of trouble. Billy’s lies are revealed when his father opens the cabinet in which his lies are revealed. On the contrary the father’s lies in our play are revealed personally by himself to stop him getting into more trouble.
Both plays were set in a northern industrial town but the cultures between the two times differed greatly. In the 60s there were not as many ethnic minorities as today. The only ethnic minorities would have been Caribbean and African as they were invited after the war in order to increase the population. Today there are many ethnic minorities in the country such as Pakistani, Indian, Chinese, etc. Also, Billy was brought up in a working class family, and through hard work by his father they had become a lower middle class family. Now in 21st century there are many classes which are divided into sub-classes depending on the type of work you do. Society is also a major difference between the two times. In 1960 Britain was still suffering from the effects of the war; this was a grey time for the British. The British dreamed of being like Americans, who lived comfortably and new technology was being introduced as televisions entered homes and radios disappeared. However, Britain did not have enough money or choices available to them and poverty loomed. This is relevant to ‘Billy Liar’ and shows how it reflects its time as we know Billy has a vivid imagination and spends a lot of time daydreaming and often gets carried away with it.
The style in the 1960s is shown in ‘Billy Liar’. The furniture used reflects the time and age of the play as the furniture was traditional, wooden and finely made. Today we tend to use a lot of plastics in our surroundings, and our play shows this by the plastic chairs used. The clothing worn by children and students consisted of short pant suits worn with high knee socks. This contrasts greatly with the style of clothing worn today. Our play was performed in school uniform to show young children that we were representatives of the school to help teach a lesson. Billy wore sixties’ style clothing such as long pants, white socks and suits.
Over time, people’s views on human rights and segregation changed too. I found that it was only after the 1960s that women were treated more fairly, equal rights were taken more seriously and segregation ended.