Plays Comparison

I am going to be looking at three plays, they are ‘Billy Liar’, ‘Spring and Port Wine’ and, ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’. ‘Billy Liar’ is about a boy with a very vivid imagination. As he tries to live in his fantasy world, he lets go of reality, leading to all sorts of problems. ‘Spring and Port Wine’ is about a Bolton family

The first difference is the style of the plays. ‘Billy Liar’ and ‘Spring and Port Wine’ are both very naturalistic. However, ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’ is surrealistic. The writer intends this. If we look at the plays and try to compare them, we find that the only difference is ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’, which takes an idea of the characters imagination, one step further.

The cultures of the time were evolving, children were trying to voice their views and make a statement about themselves. All the plays have a rogue character, trying to break free from the Victorian vision of a child and the parental grip, which enforces it. Billy experiments with relationships and socialising, Rafe’s children also experiment with new ways of life; Ernie just uses his imagination and creates havoc. Fashion was taking over, so now for the first time children were open to advertisements.

Both ‘Billy Liar’ and ‘Spring and Port Wine’ are interpretations of Middle class family life. ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’ is a lower middle class family. We know that Geoffrey runs his own Garage and that Rafe is a self-educated perfectionist engineer.

I conclude that the three plays contain many similarities and a few very subtle differences. They paint a good picture of the struggles of children in the period between 1958-69. The writers may all have had a common idea but there is a different feel about each play. ‘Billy Liar’ is bright and cheerful, ‘Spring and Port Wine’ is a bit dark and makes the audience think. ‘Ernie’s Incredible Illucinations’ is completely surreal.