Although the idea of Baby Jane- a bomb in baby clothes- going around to the bully’s house is ridiculous, to Mark that is how he would be protective. Mark is very a ‘I’m telling my big brother’ type of person, whereas Mark’s brother -Lawrence- will just bottle up any feelings and just feebly fight back without thinking, Lawrence would rather yell insults than fight someone by hand. I think this is reflecting on the sexual abuse that he gets from his step-dad –Barry- because he doesn’t know how to react to things, as he is getting confusing signals from everyone. His Dad went off with a gay partner; his step-dad is sexually abusing him & now he must surely be wondering if he is gay, the bully puts words into his head
“Like it like that? Eh? Like your dad? Up the a***?”
The bully is used to explain what has happened to their Dad, but also I think to show Lawrence’s insecurities about what is going on. She is very aggressive and use language aimed at shocking the audience, she creates pressure within the boys, when Mark is confused & wants to know why no one told him. The bully doesn’t seem to understand what she’s says and often refers to her Dad as part of the insult;
“My dad’s seen them at it.”
Baby Jane is treated at times as a baby, like when Lawrence is talking to Mark about how to hold her and Mark think he will drop her;
“No you won’t. Hold under her head like this. And under her bottom. Now just rock her gently.”
But also she is treated as a bomb; when Mark hits the bully with Baby Jane. I think this shows how insecure the boys felt at home; they couldn’t seem to distinguish between real-life and play-life. There was a new baby at home, but the boys weren’t allowed to look after it and even when the were playing games Mark gets confused;
“Lawrence: Do you want to hold her?
Mark: I can’t.
Lawrence: Mum isn’t here now.”
This all shows how at home there is no motherly figure for either of the boys and so Lawrence has taken to looking after Mark as well as being his brother.
Lawrence is very protective over his brother, but at the same time aggressive, like after Lawrence has come downstairs he roughly pushes Mark out the way, before drag him out of the house away from their Step-Dad. When they are playing Lawrence is easily excited and talks with a high pitch voice, he plays with Mark, despite the age gap.
Mark seem unable to deal with any of his problems, he never moved on from his childhood when he grew up, if fact he never seemed to had grown up inside at all. When his brother died he had no one left to follow and he is still the little boy standing outside of the church holding an empty pram.
When he is talking to Sarah at the beginning his past comes rushing back at him and he becomes very confused and almost ‘drunk’ in reaction. Sarah tries to hug him, but as he has never had any motherly love from anyone he doesn’t react to this at all.
Sarah is a strong and caring character, we can tell that she would make a very good mother, but she is unsure of this herself. This is shown in the hairdresser’s scene when she gets upset about not knowing what to call the baby and feels that naming the baby is her job and she can’t do it:
“Its up to me to come up with a name or it’ll just be another pink sausage out of the sausage machine”
In this scene a man pushing a pram goes pass the window handing out “Stop the snow March” leaflets, the wind blow the prams cover away and while the man is running after it Sarah runs out the cover the baby, this shows the audience her motherly instinct.
In the “ice baby” scene, where Sarah goes to sleep after listening to a radio program on pregnancy she gives birth to a baby made of ice and when she holds it, it hurts because it is so cold and she has to give it away. This shows how she feels that -physically- she is ready to be a mother, but mentally she is frozen and can’t handle looking after a baby.
Later we see her at the “Stop The Snow March” where yet again her motherly side is shown when a policeman -who falls down during the riot- starts getting attacked, Sarah immediately covers him and starts to comfort him. He asks her to tell him about her childhood, as this ironically makes him feel safe, this is a turning point for Sarah as this is when she starts to ‘thaw’. At the end of the play we find out that she calls her baby Rosa, this reinforces the fact that this is a turning point for Sarah.
In the last scene with Sarah, Mark and the baby, Mark brings out Baby Jane’s water blue baby-gro wrings it out and hands it to Sarah, this is saying ‘this is my past and I want to live with you now, not in the past’, Sarah then tells him to push the pram home as if to say ‘Ok, but you are going to have to work at it too’ I feel this is a good summing up point and you never really find out what really happens at the end.
The other characters in the play: Priest, Arsonist and Mrs Mack (Church keeper) are used to give us information or are used as a connection to the past.
The scenery is very effective even though it is never changed through out the whole play. Different places are shown by adding a chair, toilet or by changing the lighting colour, for example- the disco bar has some stools and flashing lights, but the church has a ‘window’ projected on the wall and the statue of Jesus and the Tabernacle are placed at the top of the ramp.
The main set is completely white with an open ramp at the back of centre stage leading up to a platform. On either side of the platform there are walls covering two side entrances from where props can be pushed on and off the stage.
The actors never leave the stage, but go around behind the back of the main set where they will change costume. Although many costume changes, as they are so small, happen on stage. Also running around the back of the stage is used to show time or distance. Also there were no scene changes, the actors would sometimes change their role and the time setting while standing on stage, props would change there meaning while on stage.
The lighting was used very effectively to represent fire and water, along with the use of sound. The hairdressers, church and many of the brothers’ scenes together were done in yellow to show a happy and safe environment. The bar scene was done primarily in red to show anger and danger, whereas the narrator was always shown in a cool blue light to show indifference and separation from the play. The colour blue was also used to show the cold outside. Also sound was used for showing wind and for providing extra information via the radio which was done using mime.
Sound was also used in symbolisms, for example in the first scene they are a bar with loud noises and distractions-which make it hard to communicate- which reflected the inner struggle Sarah and Mark were experiencing when trying to talk to each other. Also the quiet safety of the church reflected the loud danger of the fire and bomb.
Drama Evaluation Essay Eva Blake 11W
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