When it came to leaving Arthur and disturbing Charles, Michaela got into her character straight away and I could see that she was talking to someone and acknowledging Charles next to her.
The tone in her voice changed at the right times…in the script Beryl’s lines seemed to change from various moods and Michaela took that on well by changing the tone of her voice to fit the different moods in the script. I found that very well done as it is hard to be such a different character. On the physical side of things the movement in the piece was overall done well, Michaela added the right movements in at the right times which was hard to do as you need to understand the character before you can interpret the sort of movements she’d do.
Michaela used a hat a scarf and some ruffled gloves. I thought she used the hat in her piece well…there is a line in the script…
“A fracture, you know. It was nearly a compound fracture. That’s what they told me. Right here. You can practically see it to this day.”
Michaela used the hat in her piece, as a way of hiding possible scars and bruises that her husband/boyfriend gave her and the same for the scarf…the way she used these is showing she’s not proud of what had happened to her.
Michaela seemed pretty eager to talk about what had happened to her to a stranger, which, in some way is good because she’s talking to someone she doesn’t know and to someone her husband/boyfriend wouldn’t know. Anything she says won’t get back to him and it’s a way of Beryl saying what she might’ve wanted to say for a long time and not get judged by not doing the right thing.
Overall Michaela put on a good performance the different sorts of costume she wore with a big meaning behind it, the different tones in her voice and the dramatic pauses made it a watchable performance.
Sophie
The next actress I’m evaluating is Sophie, playing the character of Charles/Charlotte. I didn’t really know the character of Charles very well so it was good to see how the other sorts of actors got on with their role.
Sophie got on with the role of Charles very well. I think she tended to speak a bit fast with her lines which I thought at first wasn’t good, but when I listened to what she was saying and how she was saying things, it fitted in very well with her character, for example…
“We’ve all got troubles, no doubt. But we don’t sit on a bench and bore some poor innocent stranger to death, I mean that in my book spells ‘S’ for selfishness.”
Sophie took this line on very well and was quite entertaining the way she said it because a stranger came over and talked to her in the same way and in her speech to Doreen she goes onto say about her life. Sophie spoke quickly in this bit and used facial expressions when complaining about Beryl which made it real for me.
On the physicality side of things Sophie used this in her piece very well she turned to the character she was talking to and made her involved with what she was saying, and pointing out things in her letter which made it more lifelike. I thought this good because sometimes if you say your lines you find it hard to connect to the person sitting next to you but Sophie did this very well and made it clear who she was talking to and what she was talking about. Also when she was complaining about Beryl and also involving bits of her life into the speech very sneakily…she says
“My wife dies suddenly, my children cant stand the place a moment longer and emigrate to Canada so I sell the house and there I am in a flat I can hardly swing a cat in. but I don’t go around boring other people with it”
These were quite good hypocritical lines. When Sophie was talking about Beryl in that way and about family life she turns her nose up about the subject, and uses a disgusted face gesture towards Beryl. Also when Sophie was talking fast in this scene it fitted in well because, she made out she was complaining about Beryl but by talking fast it didn’t make it look like she was actually complaining about her life, which was very sneaky but made it effective to the audience.
Sophie chose quite old looking clothes, which to me seemed that, it didn’t fit in well with how she came across. It looked like in a way that Charles was trying to appear to be younger by talking fast, which I guess still fitted in well with her character because it seemed as though she’d been through a lot. She wore glasses, which came across to me as the sort of person who would look down at you, this was good because, the things she said seemed to be the looking down at people.
I didn’t remember many pauses but I think the way Sophie said things it seemed she didn’t need any pauses although maybe it would’ve been a bigger effect, however I thought it had a big effects without many pauses.
Sophie took on the difficult role of Charles very well and she made an overall great performance.
