A cream cracker under the settee - Production Analysis
The production is introduced to us at the start with a slow, lonely atmosphere. This is portrayed through the soft music, and the actual layout of the scene. My aim of this coursework is to analyse the production "A cream cracker under the settee" and show how it actions help support the character's words and situation.
The production is based on an old woman named Doris, on the verge of being moved to a nursing home against her own will. She is portrayed to us as a bitter, stubborn old woman who feels her space is being invaded by her carer Zulema. The true context of who she really is, is shown later on in the production, and it is very different from the original view that we are given. The way she truly is, is shown through her past.
The first scene is a shot of a room full of old-fashioned furniture and an old fashioned layout. The camera is in a diagonal shot of the room showing two arm chairs with the crochet rugs draped over the back of them. Behind the far armchair in the background there is a large window with net curtains, this is the only source of light in the room at the beginning of the scene. On the right hand side there is a small fireplace, with ornaments on the mantelpiece. You can also see a small sideboard with objects placed on it and a fallen buffet on the floor, with a smashed photo by the side. There are also other objects in the surroundings. The buffet and smashed photo puts forward to the audience that there has been some sort of accident, this grabs the audiences attention and generally makes them want to continue to watch more.
The scene is opened with a soft gentle piece of music played by a single French horn; this suggests the monologue has a calm atmosphere. Doris is sitting in the far armchair rubbing her leg and looking at the floor. The music fades as the camera cuts to a close up of Doris's face and shoulders as she begins to speak, this is so we are focussing on Doris. Doris is looking directly at the camera as if she is actually talking to us. This maybe trying to show that she is a lonely person, and perhaps has no one else to talk to. Her speech is slow.
The opening of her speech is based on Doris introducing a second character to the monologue, trying to set the scene and produce a background for the production to be based on. She talks of how she shouldn't of tried to dust, if she hadn't to try to dust the buffet would never have fallen and she wouldn't have hurt her leg. The character she introduces is Zulema. When she talks of Zulema, she tends to mimic her and talks in a patronising, sarcastic voice, as if Doris was trying to tell us that she feels Zulema treats in a patronising way. As Doris continues to talk about Zulema her tone of voice changes to somewhat more of an angry manner. This creates tension in the scene and the tension is then increased even more by the camera slowly zooming into a close up of Doris's face, as she gets more and more frustrated. She feels frustrated and angry towards Zulema, as she doesn't like to be told what to do and she feels Zulema is invading her space. Doris is being portrayed in this scene as a stubborn and ungrateful old woman because she is talking in this manner about her home help. This part of the monologue makes you feel very sympathetic towards Doris.
As she talks about the Ewbank, she is once again mimicking Zulema, but as she gets more into this dialogue her speech begins to get strained and she begins to stutter. Her voice tone shows us that she is easily upset and gets tired out very quickly.
She then goes on to introduce a third character. This character is very important as it shows her past and eventually portrays what Doris is really like. At this point the camera changes to a more open diagonal shot of the room, which includes the fallen buffet and a smashed photo frame containing a wedding picture of Doris and her deceased husband, Wilfred (the third character). The fallen buffet and smashed photo frame is in the exact position they were when Doris fell. I think this is trying to show, the audience that Doris was incapable of cleaning up the mess and putting the objects back into their original positions. This dialogue is once again trying to set a scene, it is telling us how Doris ended up hurting her leg and she feels she will be in trouble for it.
The camera then goes back onto a close up shot of Doris; she says, "You fell such a fool" at this point she is rubbing her head in what looks like embarrassment. She begins to tell us how she knows what Zulema will say. "Well, Doris, I did tell you" She is talking in a patronising mimicking way again and she also has a slight smirk on her face. Her facial expression then changes quickly as she touches her leg and says it's a bit numb. She talks of how the fall has shaken her up and she needs to come around, "Shakes you up, a fall" at this point Doris closes her eyes and takes a deep breath and pauses as if she was shaken up and needed to come around.
As she comes round she acts as though she has to do to something important. At this point she says, "Shan't let on I was dusting" the camera changes to a diagonal shot of the room showing Doris shoving the duster down the side of the chair this is a real effort for Doris. This reveals a childish side to Doris, trying to conceal something that she shouldn't have done.
She looks down at the picture of Wilfred on the floor the Camera zooms out to a diagonal shot of just the photo frame. This where Doris's past begins to demonstrate itself. The affect of seeing the smashed photo on the floor is that it makes the viewer realise that the photo still being in the same position as it was after she fell, means that she obviously isn't capable of picking it up and putting it back, so she obviously isn't capable of looking after herself.
The camera goes back to a close up of Doris's face, She says, "Cracked the photo" in a soft upset way, then goes on to say in a stronger more louder tone "We're cracked, Wilfred" as if she was trying to be funny. This illustrates to the audience that Doris isn't always grumpy and stubborn, and that she likes to have a joke and a laugh like everyone else. The way she laughs makes the viewer wonder if she is just trying to make herself laugh even though she doesn't actually feel like it. The camera then goes ...
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The camera goes back to a close up of Doris's face, She says, "Cracked the photo" in a soft upset way, then goes on to say in a stronger more louder tone "We're cracked, Wilfred" as if she was trying to be funny. This illustrates to the audience that Doris isn't always grumpy and stubborn, and that she likes to have a joke and a laugh like everyone else. The way she laughs makes the viewer wonder if she is just trying to make herself laugh even though she doesn't actually feel like it. The camera then goes back to a shot of just Doris's shoulders and face, as she talks about the gate banging. This is where his character starts to be introduced properly. Doris also mentions Zulema again; yet again she is criticizing her and blaming her for the gate banging. You can tell from Doris's voice that Zulema easily angers her, and as a result of this Doris takes a dramatic pause at this point where she closes her eyes. This represents and shows how she is so angry that she has to take a minute and take a deep breath to calm herself down.
After Doris recovers she carries on talking about the gate and Wilfred. During this dialogue she seems to be moaning a lot. She talks of how Wilfred used to say he'd fix things and never got round to it, and how he'd say, "When I get a minute Doris". She then tries to add subtle humour to the text by saying with a slight laugh and smile, "Well, he's got a minute now, bless him." She looks at the picture as she is saying this, with a smile; this is trying to show that she loved Wilfred and that she misses him and the time they spent together.
She then pauses again and the camera goes to a diagonal shot of Doris, as she rubs her leg and says, "Feels funny this leg. Not there." She says this with a slight worried expression on her face, as if she'd not liked to admit it but she knows she's done something bad to her leg.
She pauses. The camera then zooms in from the diagonal shot but not a real close up, close enough to focus on Doris but enough to fit a glimpse of the window in. She looks out of the window and once again has something to complain about. As she talks about the leaves in her garden, she ups the tone and speed of her voice as she gets more into the dialogue. As she gets frustrated she becomes breathless and her speech somewhat more intense, this is showing her anger but how, because of her age she is easily tired and can't do anything too strenuous with her voice. She then quickly changes the matter back to her leg. This is done very cleverly with her speech, "I ought to put a note on the gate. 'Not my leaves.' Not my leg either, the way it feels. Gone to sleep." The way Doris keeps bringing the subject of her leg back up shows she is worried about it. The camera is on a diagonal shot of Doris as she talks of her leg, this is to show Doris rubbing her leg and to show her worried and puzzled expressions on her face. Doris then pauses as she rubs and grabs at her leg.
Doris once again begins to talk of Wilfred, and how it was his idea to get the bush and that she didn't want it. As she talks about Wilfred she looks up as if she was picturing what she was saying. When she is saying what Wilfred used to say to her, she looks at the camera with a smile, "This labour-saving variety is much favoured by retired people." As she says this she tilts her head to the side and slightly shakes it to suggest that when Wilfred spoke to her this is what he did. To us the viewer this suggests that he had to always been right, this is shown by the head tilt, because the action of tilting the head often means upset or feeling sympathy or feeling sorry for someone. In this case it's suggesting that Doris feels sorry for herself. The camera is slowly zooming in on Doris as she talks more and more about Wilfred. Whenever she talks of Wilfred she always has a smile on his face, this shows is that she was happy when Wilfred was alive. This makes the viewer think that now Wilfred has gone Doris feels lonely on her own.
Doris then decides to move, and see if she can put the kettle on. During this final dialogue of this scene the same music from the beginning is played in the background as she speaks, "I'll move in a minute. See if I can't put the kettle on. Come on leg. Wake up." The audience see Doris trying her hardest to lift her self off the chair as she is speaking. The music in this scene is very lonesome and adds feeling to the scene, mainly the feeling of sympathy towards Doris. The camera is on a diagonal shot of Doris during this speech. This is because the audience need to see all the actions of Doris. The scene then goes to a black out. The black is very affective at this point as it is a key time in the play and the lights fading make the viewer want to keep watching to see if Doris made it to the kitchen.
With the music still playing the lights come up in the same room and the viewer sees Doris sitting against a side board looking breathless and struggling to move, there's a tiled fireplace to the left hand side of the shot and you can also see the fallen buffet and smashed photo frame and part of the large window in the background. The only light is the light from the window reflecting on the tiled fireplace. The camera is positioned this way because we need to see that Doris has tried to move (and how far she has moved), and where she is now positioned.
When Doris begins to speak there is still the French horn playing on one constant note. This music is played on a low and depressing note this maybe trying to suggest that this is how Doris is feeling. Doris has her head slightly tilted to the side and resting on the sideboard when she lifts it up in disbelief and starts speaking. She is speaking in disbelief because she noticed a cream cracker under the settee. "Fancy, there's a cream cracker under the settee. How long has that been there? I can't think when I last had cream crackers. She's not half done this place, Zulema." She says this in a tone of disbelief, her eyes are wide at this point and her mouth as she speaks is also wider. Doris is speaking in disbelief as she is a very clean person and likes her house to be clean. The camera goes in to a semi-close up of Doris. Finding the cream cracker angers Doris and you can tell that she is angry by not only what she is saying but also how she is saying it. Her voice level is raised and she begins to shout. Doris is shouting a conversation she believes she will have with Zulema. Doris tends to make up conversations and re-enact conversations that she has had, this is showing that she is lonely and has no one really to talk to. As she is shouting this conversation her voice tone sounds angry and upset as though she was close to tears she also sounds breathless. The conversation is about her on going will not to go to Stafford House (nursing home), and how finding the cream cracker can be used to her advantage as black mail towards Zulema. "I'm going to save this cream cracker and show it to her next time she starts going on about Stafford House. I'll say, 'Don't you Stafford House me, lady. This cream cracker was under the settee. I've only got to send this cream cracker to the director of social services and you'll be on the carpet. Same as the cream cracker. I'll be in Stafford House, Zulema but you'll be in the unemployment exchange." This shows how Doris can be conniving and scheming, a different side to her character.
The camera goes to a more diagonal shot showing Doris and more of the window in the background. Doris looks towards the window as she plans of making her way to it to bang on it and alert someone to help her. But she then realises she doesn't know any body round her neighbourhood any more. She then digresses into remembering who used to live there, as she does this she looks up and smiles as though she was trying to think back, and her age begins to show more because of the types of phrases she uses, "Mr and Mrs Marsden and Yvonne, the funny daughter." By funny, the audience would portray this as Yvonne maybe having Downs syndrome or another illness like that. Nowadays people don't tend to say that, as it can be considered as inconsiderate and rude, whereas back then when Doris was younger, people were never as aware of these things as we are nowadays. Doris then goes on to say, "Then she went and folks started to come and go. You lose track. I don't think they're married half of them. You see all sorts." This is a typical example of her age because as you get older your memory starts to go, and she cant remember who lives opposite her and also she says in a rather disgusted manner that half of them aren't married.
The camera changes to a shot of all of Doris as she picks up the photo frame and says, "Now, Wilfred" It's as though Doris actually believes that Wilfred is still with her in that picture and that she believes that he can her what she is saying. She then goes on to say that she can nip her leg and nothing. The camera shows her doing this and Doris's facial expression is that of worry. She then pauses.
Doris then starts to look up again with a happy smirk on her face as she starts to remember things about Wilfred again. She talks of all Wilfred's inventions, that never really got past the thinking stage. She talks about them in a joking way, and also once again includes in her dialogue what 'Wilfred' used to say. She says how Wilfred wanted a dog, but she didn't because she didn't want all the little hairs everywhere. She eventually agreed though, but she goes on to say that it never happened just like all Wilfred's ideas, "Never materialised."
The camera suddenly zooms out to a shot of Doris, the fireplace and part of the window, as she hears someone enter the garden. She begins to shout "Hello. Somebody coming. Salvation." She tries to lift her self up a bit so maybe they would see her and help her, but it's to hard. She Begins to wave as she realises it's a young lad. Suddenly she stops waving, the camera zooms in then back out and she looks away from the window then looks back in disbelief as she realises the young lad is using her garden as a toilet. She says in a disbelief manner, "The cheeky monkey. He's spending a penny." She starts to shout in a strained voice "Hey. Hey. Get out. Clear off. You little demon." Doris is so shocked by this act that she looks about in astonishment. She then starts to slowly life her head, and the music from before starts up again in the background, she looks out the window as she realises what she has done, she tries to make her self feel better by saying that her wouldn't have known what to do.
Doris then decides to see if she can get to the front door and open it and wait till someone walks past. A full camera shot of Doris shows her struggling to lift her self up so she can move to the front door, she then says, "This must be what they give them frame things for." With the music still playing the lights fade as Doris is still helplessly struggling to move her self. The music in this scene portrays a dramatic theme to the viewer, it also seems to follow the actions that Doris is making e.g. Struggling. Blackout. The blackout at this point is yet again happening on a high point in the monologue, trying to capture the audiences attention.
With the music still playing the lights fade back in to a dark hallway at the bottom of some stairs. The camera is on a diagonal shot of the room with a front door straight ahead, the door is very large and the catch is very high up on the door, with a window to the right of the shot with a slight light seeping through. The audience can see the bottom part of the stairs to the left, and a door way to the right. Doris slumped up against the door, with the letterbox above her head looking very tired and worn out.
The music begins to fade as Doris begins to speak; the light from the window is on one side of her face. Doris begins to bring more of her past into the monologue; she talks about a pram that used to be in the hallway. The camera slowly zooms in as she talks about the pram and Wilfred. She says, "You couldn't get past it. Proper prams then, springs and hoods. Big wheels. More like cars than prams. Not theses fold-up jobs. You were proud of your pram." This shows the audience her age, because of the way she talks about the prams that are around nowadays. She then begins to talk with her eyes closed as she remembers; she has a smile on her face. She pauses with a slight smile on her face, looking at the floor.
The camera zooms out (to the same open shot from the beginning of the scene) as Doris changes the subject. She talks about how 'Zulema's regime' "Lock it and put on the chain, Doris. You never know who comes. It may not be a bona fide caller." She then goes on to say that she never gets a bona fide caller, and how she had a couple come round braying on the door. "They weren't bona fide callers, they had a bible. I didn't go. Only they opened the letter-box and started shouting. 'Good news'" She begins to moan about them even more because they left the gate open, and she calls it hypocrisy because they say they love god and therefore care about everyone but they left her gate open. This shows the audience that she is very set in her ways and believes that you should treat people with respect.
The camera zooms out and we see Doris leaning against the door with her eyes shut, we hear some footsteps up the path and a leaflet drops through the letterbox onto Doris who is sitting directly below it. The footsteps then quickly disappear again. Doris opens her and eyes and sees the leaflet and begins to bang on the door, "Hello, hello. Help. Help. Oh stink." She reaches for the leaflet with a struggle; she is trying to guess what it says. She reads it "Grand carpet sale."
Doris looks at the place where the pram used to be, the camera zooms in slowly to a close up of Doris as she begins to talk about her baby boy, John, whom died. As she talks about what happened, the camera slowly gets closer and closer to Doris to show how she gets upset and finds it hard to speak and she begins to cry as she talks about it. Doris also feels hurt because of the way the midwife and Wilfred were talking when she is talking about it, her speech is slow and full of lots of tiny pauses, "I wanted to call him John. The midwife said he wasn't fit to be called anything and had we any newspapers?" Wilfred said "Oh yes, she saves newspaper. She saves shoe boxes as well." This upset Doris we can tell this by the speech she makes, "Wrapping him in newspaper as if he was dirty. He wasn't dirty, little thing." At this point Doris's voice is slightly shaky and very upset. She goes on to say that Wilfred wasn't bothered because he just said "We're better off, Doris, just the two of us." She then told the audience that it was then he started on about getting a dog. From this you can see that Doris obviously wanted children, and it upsets to think about the baby she lost, she goes on to say that she would have had grandchildren by now, and she wouldn't be in this mess because her children would look after her. I think in some way she blames Wilfred for never having any children, she doesn't really blame him she just suggests it, I think maybe she does this to try and get some of built up emotions across. She then pauses and decides she has to move because she's getting to cold. This is a way to cover up that she gets upset, she doesn't want people to know she gets upset, she doesn't want sympathy because she's a very stubborn old woman. The camera goes to a shot of the hallway from the left showing Doris pinching and lifting both legs because the other one has gone numb. Her facial expression is anxious. Doris picks up the photo of Wilfred and the music starts up again, she then says, "Come on Dad. Come on, numby leg." And attempts to move again, in a struggling manner as the lights fade to black out. The music in this scene is low and depressing as before, but creates more emotion than before, because the words Doris is speaking are very sad and with the sad music playing emotions tend to fly. This is why a black out is added here.
The lights slowly fade in with the music. Doris is now back in the living room, but now perched up against the sofa she found the cracker under. The camera is on a diagonal shot from the left of just the upper body of Doris, the lighting is dark; the only light source is that seeping through the window from the streetlights. The music fades out as Doris begins to speak.
Doris talks about her dress that she had made for her and then talks about all the knick-knacks she had for the baby, and what she had given to her for her wedding. Doris places her hand on the floor and feels something she lifts it up and it was the cream cracker she had found earlier. She rubs it off says, "Naught wrong with it" and eats it. After eating most of it she realises she's made lots of crumbs, she says, "Have to go with the Ewbank. 'Doris. The Ewbank is out of bounds' A cream cracker under the settee. She wants reporting." At this point she lifts her head as if she'd figured out something when she realises that she can't report Zulema, she had just destroyed the evidence by eating it. She pauses and looks as though she is thinking of a plan. Doris then suggests that she put another cracker there in its place, but then she decides not to because if they find out, she'd be straight to Stafford House.
She pauses again, and then starts to talk about Wilfred and how they were always on their own. At this point the camera is slowly zooming in on Doris, who is sitting smiling and talking about how she self and Wilfred used to be. She talks about how they didn't seem to mix with people, as they weren't gregarious people. So that's why she doesn't want to move to Stafford House with "old lasses. And they all smell of pee. And daft half of them, banging tambourines. You go daft there, there's nowhere else for you to go but daft. Wearing somebody else's frock. They even mess up your teeth. I am (Doris begins to move her head and sing with a smile until she says I'm un-H.A.P.P.Y.) H.A.P.P.Y. I am not H.A.P.P.Y. I am un-H.A.P.P.Y. Or I would be." That was Doris's opinion of Stafford House, Zulema called her prejudiced; Doris said, "I am, where hygiene's concerned."
The camera zooms out and the music starts up as Doris talks about her past with Wilfred, how she used to go out then come home and have tea with Wilfred, just after she was married and going to have a baby. The music stops and Doris looks upset now as she talks about names of older people and how her name was a museum name nowadays. She starts to get upset again and begins to raise her voice when she thinks about how she might end up at Stafford House. She gets very upset and then closes her eyes and pauses to keep her self calm.
The camera is focussing on Doris with her eyes closed, when the audience hear a voice off stage suggesting that its coming from the front door you can just see in the background. The camera goes back on to a diagonal shot showing the whole of Doris and part of the front door in the background with the image of a policeman through the glass of the front door with the light reflecting off him. Doris opens her eyes but doesn't speak she just looks forward as though she is hoping that if she doesn't move he'll go away. The police shouts, "Are you alright?" Doris pauses and then eventually says;
Doris: No. I'm all right.
Policeman: Are you sure?
Doris: Yes.
Policeman: Your light was off.
Doris was looking worried now, looking around as she was thinking of an excuse when she says: I was having a nap.
Policeman. Sorry. Take care.
The policeman then leaves, the music starts up, Doris says thank you very quietly as she slumps down then realising he wouldn't of heard that and she didn't want to seem rude, shouted thank you again.
Doris pauses, she looks as though she is regretting something or worrying about something. The music stops when she says how she wishes she was ready for bed, "all, sweet and crisp and clean like when I was little on Baking night, sat in front of the fire with my long hair still." She closes her eyes and sings to herself, a song which she doesn't remember all the words to, My Alice Blue Gown. Doris then pauses before saying, "Never mind. It's done with now, anyway. The lights fade for the last time until the scene is blackout.
After analysing the production "A cream cracker under the settee" my results were that the portrayal of the character Doris was very well constructed but was at times over acted.
The situation of Doris was shown to the audience that Doris was a very independent elderly woman, whom despite the fact that she has home help, refuses to believe that she is getting old. Doris is portrayed to us from the beginning as a very stubborn woman who is set in her ways. She isn't old fashioned in every sense but certain things to her are important, such as Marriage before living together.
The actual production and the performance and layout was all relevant to how the character Doris was portrayed to us. The layout of the room was very neat and old fashioned, this showed us that Doris is an old person and likes to keep things clean. We could tell this before even seeing Doris. The buffet and smashed photo frame on the floor show us that an accident had happened and Doris was obviously incapable of clearing the disarray up. All these things begin to tell us a bit about Doris and what she is like.
The soft gentle French horn music played at the beginning and end of scenes suggests that Doris is a calm woman, who isn't one for socialising. It also maybe trying to suggest that the type of music that is being played (sad and depressing), maybe trying to symbolise Doris's character.
The way the camera focuses on Doris, makes the audience concentrate just on her and not her surroundings. The way Doris talks to the camera put forwards to the audience that she may be a lonely person and has no one else to talk to.
The way the camera is constantly changing shots of Doris the production more interesting. The zooming in and out makes you aware of Doris but also has you take in her surroundings building up more of a picture of Doris and what she is really like.
The way the actress playing Doris imitates Zulema is in a very patronising manner, and the actions she does with them are also helping structure a picture of Doris. The tones of her voice is always changing, this at times shows her age.
The camera moves to focus on different objects and areas when they are spoken in the monologue. This creates affect and adds more excitement to the production. Also how the camera zooms in slowly in on Doris creates tension. The facial expressions of Doris are very important, the sum up what sort of character Doris really is. The actress portrays this very well. She smirks a lot, which suggests to the audience that she has a wicked and childish side to her.
The dramatic pauses Doris makes with her eyes closed, also shows us her age. The fact that she is getting old and can't take things as much as she used to.
The overall production was well produced and showed us, the audience many different aspects of Doris, through many different techniques.