Blue Remembered Hills is the story of a group of seven, seven year olds on a summer holiday afternoon. They are Angela, Audrey, Peter, Donald (Duck), Willie, Raymond and John. It is set in the west of England in 1943 and at this time Dennis Potter would have been around the same age as his characters, this means the facts, language and storylines in the play could have been based on his experiences as a child. Friends is an American about a group of six friends in the area of , . It was originally broadcast from 1994 to 2004, set in that time.
Blue remembered hills is set in a time when life was hard for the majority of people. In this play, although there is no typical class divides as we know them (e.g. upper class and working class) there is in a way though, we can see this when we look at Donald in the play. Donald is an abused child and the other children pick up on his vulnerability. “I shall tell his mama. Her’ll skin him alive, won’t her, Donald Duck? Won’t her? She hits you with the poker, don’t she!” This shows that Donald is not only being treated badly by his mother but also by his friends.
In our performance of Blue Remembered Hills we all had to play children. I played Willie; to show Willie was seven years old I emphasized a child’s normal behavior and mannerisms. One way I did this was by standing with my toes pointed inwards and my hands left hanging loosely by my sides, or running around aimlessly and making weird noises. I had to make this behavior look natural, as Blue Remembered Hills is a naturalistic play. This is different from Friends, because the characters are playing normal people around their age, in the modern day way of life.
In both Blue Remembered Hills and Friends the actors only play one role, and the only way they could convey their emotions to the audience is through their interaction with the other characters, This also means that the actors have to look more closely at their actions, mannerisms and body language, as the audience will interpret all of these to determine what the character is thinking and feeling. For this reason, when I played Willie I had very obvious signs to show her emotion, when he was angry I would screw up my face, kick the ground or interact with any of the props or my clothing by pulling them around. However when Willie was excited and full of energy, I would run around, making a lot of noise, pushing around the characters and making large gestures.
Both Blue Remembered Hills and Friends use props and costumes. In our performance of Blue Remembered Hills we used a blocks to resemble logs and rocks in some scenes. These were to help show the setting to the audience. We also all wore costume to help the audience distinguish between the different characters and to create a more authentic atmosphere. As Willie, I wore a pair of shirts, a dirty shirt and braces as this was the kind of thing boys wore in 1943, I choose the colour of these to be brown as I felt it would help convey to the audience that Willie is an outdoorsy character. Whereas, in Friends, although props and costumes were used, they didn’t really help to convey characters personalities, and are used more to set the date and time.
In this essay I have looked at the similarities and differences between Blue Remembered Hills and Friends. I have learnt that even though they are very different style pieces they use many of the same techniques. I have also learnt that Dennis Potter does not write simple plays and that although at first they seem to be simple as you look at them more closely you realize that he says a lot about society and human behavior in his plays, all be it indirect in the case of Blue Remembered Hills, all of this is left open for individual interpretation. If I were to approach his work again I would research the society and culture it was set in more thoroughly so I could discover what it was he had been trying to say to the audience through the play, and Friends could touch any part of the audiences emotions, in some cases, playing with two emotions at once, for example, adding comedy to a sad scene. To be able to understand the Concept of Friends and what the scriptwriters are trying to convey you have to be living in modern day, middle class life.
