Whilst reading this play as a whole class, I happened to read one role in particular, and that was Kav. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this role as his grammar and language was particularly humorous, with his comments about Billy’s pictures specifically. If I had a choice as to which role I could read and write about, I would have to choose Robbie, as his complaints throughout brought a great deal of mirth into an already funny play.
My main likes about this play are that, firstly, this is an extremely humorous play, is a joy to read and is thoroughly entertaining to all who read it. Secondly, the characters are portrayed in such a way that it makes them seem as if there are pairs of opposites in there, meaning that there are some characters who are almost completely the opposite to other characters, such as, Frankie, being all sarcastic and happy throughout most of the play, and Maureen being emotional and sad throughout most of the play. Also, the play is such that it becomes almost addictive, so that if you pick it up and start reading it, then you are not likely to stop reading until you have overcome the next cliff-hanger, which, ultimately, leads to the end of the play in a relatively short period of time.
There are not many criticisms that I can make about this play, but, if I had to, I would say that one is the length. In my opinion, this play was too short to be enjoyed fully, as, as I mentioned earlier, once you pick it up, and start reading, the reader will not stop until the end. Also, the ending is not to my satisfaction, as it is too unlikely that a situation such as that would occur. Lastly, I would have to say that I, as a member of the audience, would have liked to seen a scene such as the day of the wedding, or a scene from a period of time in the future, so to see how the events unfolded after the conclusion of the play.
If I was to describe one character in detail, I would choose Dave, the husband-to-be. When we first join the play, we hear that he is feeling the impact of having drink before going to the club, and we hear of him vomiting violently. After this, he drifts in and out of consciousness. In his lucid moments, it became apparent from his repartee that he has a thorough command of the English language.
If I was to write a piece of in-role writing about Dave, I would probably compose a letter of his to Linda, and it would be as follows:
“Dear Linda, I’m so sorry for ruining our marriage, I didn’t mean to. I was pissed. You know that, don’t ya? What has that tart got that I don’t? And why did you do it on the night before our big day? I’m so sorry. Please forgive me, I can change, you know that, don’t ya? I can give you everything he’s got and more. I love you Linda, more than anything in the world, and all I want is your love. If you come back to me, I’ll make it all better. Please Linda, I need you. I love you. I’ll keep writing to you, I need your love.
Always beloved,
Dave”
As for our actual drama pieces based on the play, we created a number of different pieces. To begin with, we produced still images of the day before the night the play was based on. My part in this was to be Kav, and our pieces were consecutively placed to give the impression of time passing, and of a certain ‘ritual’ between the men. The first still image made was where I was washing myself, my face, and my hands. The second was where I was shaving, imitating the foam and the razor. The third was where I was styling my hair, with hair gel, and shaping it in front of the “4th wall”, that is, directed at the audience. The final image was where I was urinating with my back to the audience in an imaginary toilet, to give the impression of hiding the modesty of the character.
After this, we had to summarise the first two acts in 30 seconds, which meant that we had to bring out the main points of the acts. This was an activity that was particularly strenuous because it took a great deal of thought to summarise the main points and compress them into a 30 second time period. The main points included the fact that Dave was being sick all the time, and that the majority of the girls were out dancing and enjoying themselves.
We incorporated our earlier still image pieces into a larger action piece, based on the same topic, but with a great deal more movement involved this time. This was not as taxing as the last piece as we already had the main basis of the piece; we just had to elaborate on it slightly.
After this, we had to perform our own version of the opening scene, based on our combined impressions. In this, I was Kav, and had to be supporting Dave into the toilet, and then frantically try to clean the chicken curry, that Dave has just vomited onto my trousers, off.
There are many themes in this play, but a number can be singled out. Humour is a major recurring theme in this play, as is the relationship between characters. Also, swearing appears regularly.
