By the end of the production you start to have feelings for Eliza (Reece Witherspoon) These feeling are loving ones and you care about her more than you really thought but you never confess it. However, the audience must be made to understand this.
During the story Eliza seems to fall in love with a young man named Freddie who is a middle class gentleman although you consider him a fool beneath her so you have an argument about this. Your character does not like the thought of someone else better than you.
That was a short description of what the play is about. I know for a fact this classic story will be a success, and you will enjoy playing the part, just as the audience will to watch the production.
As I said earlier in my letter, England at this time had a class system which America did not. A perfect example of this is the film Titanic, where the upper class had ¾ of the boat, whereas the lower class were crammed in the lowest decks of the boat. They were fed poorly and were looked down upon by the upper and middle class.
Most of the lower class died in this tragedy because the lifeboats could only hold the upper class passengers, because they were counted as having more importance. The class system then began to change. People started to accept that everyone was human and should be treated equally.
Ladies in those days had no rights “how can this be?” I hear you thinking. It was their duty to stay at home, attend formal dinners and be a show piece for men to show off to other Gentlemen, if they were privileged.
Suffragettes campaigned for votes for women. "One woman, one vote” was their slogan, and to have a right for women to be treated fairly. This happened in 1918 when they finally had the right to vote.
In England today there still is a class system but it isnot as obvious as it was in 1914. The upper classes were lords and ladies living on large estates with their own servants, cooks and butlers. The middle classes were landowners or people who had inherited their wealth from ancestors. The lower classes were those who worked for upper and middle class people as servants, cooks and farm labourers. Eliza came from a lower class background as she was a flower seller on street corners
In 1914 you were in a class whether you liked it or not. Take Eliza’s father he was in the lower class until an American Professor took him from the background he knew, and introduced him into the middle class. This then made this man into a gentleman with a lot of money and a false personality.
Language was as important then as it is now. Anyone using slang is thought to be disgusting. An example of this is in the play when Higgins shows off his new toy, Eliza, to his mother at her tea party. Eliza uses some slang when talking about a relative who had died when she said “they all thought he got dun over”. The lack of understanding on Mrs Higgins’s face, but the other ladies who attended the tea party was quite obvious.
This play is cleverly written because in depth it is describing the rights women can have and how a dirty flower girl can be transformed into a beautiful well-spoken young lady.
You have to make the audience get into your character as well. This is very important. Professor Higgins is an anthropologist and is therefore interested in the behaviour of humans. He is very well spoken and well dressed he is an upper middle class man which has been well educated but needing to earn a living. He has a male friend called Pickering who he confides in.
In the beginning you are first seen as a note taker, which in a market area is not common and you are suspected of being a detective. You are very interested in what the lower class people are saying. In particular, the language they all are using. On your first encounter with Eliza you call her a “silly girl”, which makes her feel very small and makes the audience accused by your outragous bad manners you need to act like a large child so that the audience still likes you. You then ask her the question “what’s a copper’s Nark?” You, of course, find this natural to be listening into someone else’s conversation, while others find it rude and they all think you are a policeman because of this behaviour. This behaviour also continues throughout the play.
Your character stays the same throughout the play. The process of her change begins very slowly concentrating mainly on her poor accent. You try to alter this by making Eliza repeat sayings like “ The rain in spain falls mainly on the plane. You treat Eliza as a worthless thing most of the time and you don’t see any harm in that. You feel you are doing her a tremendous favour, whether she wants to change or not. Your treatment of Eliza is poor and at times you get very cross with her. This behaviour continues throughout the whole production. Even at the very end of the play you say
“Eliza you’re a fool”.
You are a rude and hard-hearted man. However, the things you say to people aren’t meant in the offensive way they come out.
“Eliza you’re an idiot!”.
The odd thing is you don’t act as if speaking down to her, you’re doing it in such a way that your expression is never aggressive.
You say everything naturally you should try to rehearse it. For example, you need to say this in a jokey expression “I never liked you “. This is how he acts.
Higgins never likes to think he is wrong or not good enough that’s why he thinks Freddie is a “fool” even through he’s never really Known him before. He doesn’t like the fact that Freddie is distracting Eliza away from his experiment. He is jealous that Eliza likes Freddie and not him, but Higgins never confesses to this.
He never shows that he thinks Eliza is important, other than that she was used for a winning bet. So this makes Eliza think she is not Capable of being a middle class women.
At the end of the ball they all go home. Higgins and Pickering, (Higgins’s friend), asses how well she has done and what it was like, but they do this as if she is not even in the room, as if she has played no part in the evening at all. Just as if she is a show-piece.
Then Higgins explains: “thank god it’s all over”, as he is really pleased that the whole ordeal has come to an end.
Eliza was sitting in the room when all of this was said. Higgins talks freely apparently not even noticing she is there. This is hurtful to Eliza realising now she was nothing more than the subject of an experiment and a bet.
You are an excellent character to take the part of Professor Henry Higgins just keep in mind that he doesn’t want to get involved with Eliza as he thinks women upset and ruin everything. Remember, he has had a bet with Pickering that he can remodel Eliza into an upper class lady. He is a very arrogant character but eventually Eliza gets under his skin and it becomes more than just a bet.
He would like to see the improved flower girl accompanying him at other high society occasions.
As a director I am using the 1938 film version of Pygmalion as opposed to Shaw’s book version as it provides a far more romantic ending for our audience. Higgins thinks he has lost Eliza to Freddie. He sits alone, going over the tapes of Eliza learning to speak properly. He is thinking of what he has lost and how wonderful she was, when Eliza comes into the room and they both realise the attraction between them.
Contented, but in his usual arrogant way says “where are my slippers ?“
This version gives the audience the satisfactory conclusion they are looking for as they will have seen many other plays were romatic couples argueing rather than realising they love each other. It also fits in with the idea of the relationship in the myth of pygmailion.
Thank you for taking the part and I assure that you will enjoy it as I have already said if any more questions please get in touch.
You sincerely
Louise Coles
