23RD April 2002
G.C.S.E DRAMA PORTFOLIO- THE DEVELOPMENT PHASE
THE FIFTEEN STREETS, BY CATHERINE COOKSON.
We looked at two contrasting scenes from The Fifteen Streets and these were Act 2 Scene 1 and Scene 14, page 42. Act 2 Scene 1 was the scene at the Llywellen’s house with James, Beatrice and Mary. This scene took place in their drawing room and the whole scene was about Beatrice’s dislike for Mary’s affair with John O’Brien. Beatrice is very with Mary over her relationship with John and she’s not even disturbed by the presence of James although at the start of the scene, we see that she’s a bit distracted by James. This was when James said; “Beatrice leave this to me” and we see her reply in a very angry tone of voice; “Too much has been left to you and now look at the outcome” but this didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted to do. This particular scene is more or less a quarrel scene as it was an exchange of words or in other words a “word-to-word” scene. We see Beatrice speak and is straight away answered back by Mary. James isn’t heard that much at the beginning but is fully heard towards the end of the scene but Beatrice storming out of the room doesn’t appreciate his immediate interference. In actual fact, we can see that, Beatrice doesn’t like the O’Brien family and this can clearly be seen in her statement; “ I don’t believe that with your liberal tastes you could sink so low associating with a NOTORIOUS-” Scene 14,Page 42 is also the scene at the O’Brien’s’ house with John and Mary-Ellen where Mary-Ellen is asleep in the kitchen and John comes in with a bagful of things which he received from Miss Llywellen after bumping into her in the market and his arrival is known by Mary-Ellen who then wakes from her sleep and calls him and there and then, they start to have a conversation about the things John has brought home. And actually, Mary-Ellen is surprised and shocked about John meeting Miss Llywellen and why she gave him the things and we can see it in her speech; “Miss Llywellen?Did you now?” and also thought John had had a drink; “Oh John,you’ve never had a drink.”
