Comparison of 'The Bells' a melodrama written by Neoplod Lewis in the 19th century with the medieval morality play 'Everyman'.

        The characters in ‘The Bells’ are all very stereotypical such as the slightly mad doctor and the old drunken villagers and the notoriously evil genius villain. In ‘Everyman’ the characters are personified, such as all of man’s characteristics are put onto characters on stage, an example of this is how there are characters called Strength, Good, Good Deeds, etc.

        Everyman helped with my style of props in the way that it showed you don’t necessarily have to be in your face with your props any subtle props can have a huge effect on an actors performance, so when I did the jewellery box that Matthias uses to store gold in, I made sure that all my research had been concise and as prefect as possible. Some comparisons between characters that I noticed in the two plays were that in The Bell’s Matthias was like Everyman’s main character Everyman. As they both try to pretend to be something they aren’t like Matthias tries to be an innocent untroubled man but in the end this is his own demise and Everyman tries to pretend he is innocent in the eyes of g-d but has really lived a life of sin and in the end has no one to be his witness in the front of g-d and must face him alone. When making the props for ‘The Bells’ I have a more wider understanding of how to do research and make things with a greater degree of depth and detail for instance while making the spinning wheel I found out there were over five different types of wheel and so I had to then research which would be being used in Germany at the time the play was set.