Absent Friends: Act One

The stage directions for the first part of Absent Friends tell us a lot about the house and the two other characters in the first act. It shows that Diana’s house is modern and therefore Diana must be Modern and with the style. It shows that she must be quite wealthy with the styles of furniture and other objects within the house. It also mentions that the house costs a great deal of money. The house seems quite fashionable and up to date with artistic frosted glass, wrought iron and archways. Diana also seems as though she spends a lot of money on her appearance and how she is judged and strikes me as an upper-class snob. This is backed by how Alan Aykbourn describes her directly:

“Impression of being slightly fraught”

So she seems “paranoid” and quite unsociable. She seems to have an unhappy life and has had bad experiences in the past as she is “suspicious” and is perhaps hiding behind her fashions and money a nervous, shaking individual.

Evelyn the other person in the scene is much younger than Diana, has a baby who is and inconvenience she doesn’t give much attention to. She also seems dreamy and again unhappy. It describes her as:

“a heavily ...