As Mrs Lyons has had no children of her own she does not quite understand what she is asking of them mother and it is this which gives her the passion to persuade the mother.
Even though the mother has agreed to Mrs Lyons bargain Mrs Lyons it not convinced she will keep to the promise thus she uses the mothers superstition to make her keep her word and makes her swear on the boys lives that she will keep their deal.
In this scene Mrs Lyons is very desperate to get her own way, she is persistent and persuasive towards the mother and does not give up till the mothers agrees to her idea. When the mother does agree Mrs Lyons is extremely happy and pleased yet she secretly fears the mother will go back on their bargain.
In order to show Mrs Lyons wealth the actress should be very smartly dressed for instance a business suit, as this would also show her authority. She should have her hair in a tight bun or down and sleek to show that she is a smart woman who values appearance this would also make her look wealthy. After her ‘great idea’ part of her hair should fall down her face as this would help show the audience her eccentricity and that she has come undone, as it were, and forgotten about all other things e.g. her appearance; she is solely thinking of what she wants, a child. The actress in the beginning of this scene, should hold her posture and make small hand movements to emphasise what she is saying, later on though, once she is getting her own way, these should change into large over exaggerated movements to show her extreme happiness and her falseness as she is luring the mother into a false sense of security. I.e. she makes the mother believe she is a nice woman, and that the mother will still be allowed to see her child whenever she wants, when secretly she doesn’t intend to do this at all! In this scene Mrs Lyons is slightly eccentric and her actress should therefore aim to make this eccentricity the key part of her character in this play. The lighting on the actresses face should cast shadows to make her seem scary as this can be associated with craziness.
After the mother has achieved her goal she should straighten her appearance and brush her hair back to show her calmness now she has gotten her own way.
In act 5 scene 5 Mickey goes up to Eddies house because he believes that Eddie has been having an affair with Linda, Mickey has also just found out that the only reason he has both a job and a house is down to Eddie, understandably he is angry that Eddie has never told any of this to him.
When Eddie arrives at the house he begins to shout at Eddie and accuses him of trying to control his house, “Is there anything I have that you don’t own?” says Mickey to Eddie. Eddie is obviously very surprised by this as he didn’t do any of it on purpose he was after all just trying to help his friend. Eddie decides he has had enough and brandishes a gun, Eddie is very scared and tries talking Mickey out of whatever he is going to do with the gun, he tries to explain what he was trying to do, help. Whilst this has been going on Linda has told the mother what Eddie has done, and that Mickey went out in a rage to talk to him. The mother is very scared of what Mickey mite so thus she goes up to the house as fast as she can. She bursts in on the boys and sees Mickey pointing a gun at Eddie. Little does she know that it is only a replica gun, and couldn’t actually kill Eddie. The mother immediately tells the boys what happened with her and Mrs Lyons, how she gave one twin away, and that they are actually brothers, ironic as when they were young they swore to be blood brothers. After this Mrs Lyons bursts in bearing a real gun, she screams in anger at what she has just heard; the secret is out and Eddie now knows he is not her real son! Mrs Lyons turns to shoot Mickey in her anger but accidentally hits Eddie, in her bitterness she turns the gun on Mickey and shoots!
In this scene Mrs Lyons is clearly in a state of madness. She goes through many emotions such as pain, anger and worry when she hears the mother tell Eddie the truth, sorrow, sadness and anger when she accidentally shoots Eddie; and bitterness when she sees the other twin still alive.
In order to show just how obsessed Mrs Lyons has been to keep the truth from Eddie and how worried she has been that he would find out for himself, the actress playing her should be dressed in nice clothes that were obviously expensive a time ago but are old and ragged now, she should look unkempt and her hair should not be smooth and sleek as it was in act 1 but should be over the place and frizzy, this would show that she has forgotten everything and the one thing she is worrying about is that the truth escape! In order to show her madness the actress’s movements should be fast and large to show herself as jumpy this will help the audience understand how she is feeling. There should be a shadow cast across the actresses face to give her the appearance of a skull as this will help the audience see how evil she is. The speech of the actress should be short and sharp and whilst she speaks she should not look at the person she is talking but all around her, she should wave her body about almost provocatively as this would show her madness.
In conclusion I would say that Mrs Lyons has changed drastically from act 1 scene 5 to act 5 scene 5. In act 1 scene 5 she could seem quite normal maybe a little eccentric for thinking of the idea in the first place but just a little desperate. Whereas in the later act 5 scene 5 she is genuinely crazy she has lost the plot and is thinking of just one thing and nothing else how to keep the secret from Eddie. This change is definitely down to her adopting Eddie, as the play goes on and Eddie gets older Mrs Lyons becomes increasingly crazy, this is due to her becoming increasingly worried that Eddie will find the truth.
