Whilst Edward is saying his speech at the beginning of the scene, from “And if, for once…//…with you on that score” the a dimmed white light is spread throughout the whole stage, with a white spotlight focusing on Edward to show that he is the one speaking. Everybody’s facial expression would be calm in the sense where nobody is rebelling, or not co-operating or negotiating. This would help make the atmosphere more noticeable, also, the sound effects, or the back ground noise should be soft playing music that the counsellors are listening to would create a bigger effect.
As Edward starts off the final sentence before he gets interrupted, the back ground music would slowly rise to a higher volume to create a sense of tension. Another set of white light could flash randomly to create an effect that something bad might happen soon, but, the lights should flash to an extent where it doesn’t blind ones eye, or it’s not too bright either. The flashing lights could also create tension and curiosity too. This should happen whilst Edward is saying “but what would we question…”
As Edward speaks to the end of the sentence in his speech, his voice level would slowly decrease as actors on stage and the audience it self’s facial reaction change dramatically from calm to fear. Only Edward and the two counsellors next to him have no idea what is going to happen next. The stage setting and theme will be as before for this too, except for a slight change that Mickey would soon be standing on the far right side of the stage walking into and interrupting Edward’s speech. At the same time Mickey will also walk up behind Edward slowly, hands nervously shaking, containing a gun in between them, and pointing directly at the back of Edwards head. A spotlight will be concentrated on him to show that he’s incoming and it also shows that he has a gun in his hands more clearly. At this point when everyone reacts to the scene, Edward will turn around. As soon as his head is facing Mickey, the music or sound effects will stop with a ‘bang’ the counsellors will jump but Edward will stay nervously calm, trying not to react as he is trying not to show any fear at all. The lighting at this point will suddenly stop flashing at the ‘bang’ and a very bright white coloured light will show to cause the audience to flinch and turn their heads, this will cause suspense as the audience would not know whether or not Edward has died or not. After the bright light slowly dimmers, there would be a moment of pure silence, making the atmosphere and mood very tense and at the same time causing confusion of why Mickey is there with a gun pointing at Edward.
The atmosphere from this point onwards should be kept tense as Mickey is about to shoot, and obviously, that is not wanted to happen. As Mickey shouts “stay where you are!” everybody will keep by his orders and stay in their positions. Mickey would still be walking up to the counsellors and Edward with his gun up, but should stop a couple or yards from Edward. As he stops he is unsteady and is breathing awkwardly, his hands would also be shaking slightly, but not too much. As Mickey replies Edward with the lines “I stopped taking the pills” he would say it quite calmly, as if nothing is in his hands, as if his hands are raised for no reason, he is saying it proving a point with a certain tone which is sounds friendly almost. Edward will not reply straight away, he will pause before answering; this will make it seem as if Edward is only saying it to break the silence, but then if he looks down slightly and says it before returning his head to its position earlier, this will give a sense that Edward is scared, and is trying to make an effort to save every one’s skin form the gunshot.
Eventually, Mickey will start to say something again, with the lines “I began thinking again. Y’see.” At this point he will turn his head and look at the counsellors and say “Just get out of here, mister, now!” the point he says now, he would snap it and all the counsellors will run of to the right of the stage, Mickey not flinching, still holding his gun directly at Edward. Mickey and Edward would now be left alone in the office scene on the platform. Mickey would carry on with his speech and tension is felt to ease slightly as they speak, even though throughout this, there will be a lot of shouting and screaming. The tension would be lightly released and shown by the sound effects and the background music calm a bit, and the lights would turn yellow slightly but as Mickey starts of his next line with “fiends!” the light would change from yellow to red, the actors on stage would have a completely angered looking face.
From this point onwards, the tension and the anger as well as the fear is obviously high, Mickey would be shouting for the first time and at every point, Edward will be backing himself up, knowing that with one wrong move he could easily get shot. There will be very little sound effects or back ground noise as then the audience would be able to hear everything that is said between Edward and Mickey. When the actors on stage get to the pint where there is a pause after Edward says “no, for god’s sake!” we will hear a police man saying his lines backstage, or in other words, outside the office theme.
As Mrs Johnstone enters the set, by walking slowly down the centre aisle towards the platform, a dimmed spotlight is concentrated on her. When she gets to her position on stage, she will say her lines “Mickey. Mickey. Don’t shoot him, Mickey…” with a very firm voice. Because Mickey continues to hold his gun in position, she stresses slightly but does not refuse to give up. Mickey will then turn his head, looking at Mrs Johnstone, saying the lines “Go away…//…away from here.” And then turn his head straight back to Edward. Mrs Johnstone will refuse and take another step, causing Mickey to shout mam very loudly.
Mrs Johnstone will explain to Mickey why she gave Edward away, which will make him feel very uncomfortable as he wants to be more like Edward. Whilst Mrs Johnstone is saying her lines, from “Mickey. Don’t shoot…//…one of you away!” the spread lighting will change to a dimmed spread light to two spotlights concentrating on Mrs Johnstone and Mickey. Mickey will turn very angry that she gave Edward away and his spot light colour will turn reddish, showing anger and hatred. As he says his next lines “You…//…I could have been him!” he will wave his gun frantically, ending up pulling the trigger by accident, causing another loud ‘bang’. And again, with this load bang, the lights would brighten so it far too bright, and more gunshots are heard, representing the officers gunshots, shooting Mickey.
From this point the lights will slowly dim, and we see Edward and Mickey in the middle of the platform lying there dead. The smoke machine will be turned on so the image of death is given more effect. We also see that the spotlight on Mrs Johnstone will turn blue, representing cold and loneliness. A lot of smoke by now should be produced, again, another spotlight is shown on the narrator on the left side f the stage, and we see the narrator watching the play. He or she will say their speech and Mrs Johnstone will follow on after singing her speech from “tell me its not true…//…on the radio” at this point, the song is not finished, but we see company accompanying her behind her, singing their speech, once Mrs Jonhstone has completely finished her speech to “…//…it’s only a game.”
When the lights will be very dim as the company sing their part “tell me it’s not true…//…Marilyn Monroe” when they finish the lights will be so dim, you can barely see anything on stage, but figures disappearing. The lights will start to glow yellow again, and a blue spotlight will be shown on Mrs Johnstone. She will stand still, looking cold and dead for about ten seconds before she sighs and looks up towards the audience. When she looks up, the curtains will fall. This action will show that this is the end of the play.
In conclusion, I hope that the final effect on the audience is that they are all feeling sorry for Mrs Johnstone. To evaluate, I think that this would be a very effective directing way using lights sound and expressions to create a mood or atmosphere which is noticeable. As the audience leave the theatre, I hope for the to feel how life would have been like in the 1983, and for all of them to change their lives for the good.
