BLUE REMEMBERED HILLS The play 'Blue Remembered Hills' is set in an almost idyllic locality with the fields of long luscious grass and the surreal forest of Dean nearby. The backdrop to the action is World War Two and there is an undercurrent of violence, the adults in this rural community are focusing on war, so they don't have complete control of their children. It is almost as if conflict and brutality have become an accepted part of everyday life. Ironically the children are engaged in a war of their own and certainly the afternoon degenerates into violence and cruelty. The children's microcosm is almost a mirror of the adult macrocosm, but in their world their morality is not strong enough to guide them, so they lose their innocence, on this tragic day in 1943. Potter has used adults to enhance the parts of children because his dramatic plot requires intense feeling and he does not believe that such young actors would be able to give enough depth and emotion into the play, under the stress of the cameras. Another reason for the adult actors is so that Potter can exaggerate and magnify the mistakes and to reflect the immature behaviour of children. The actors are not allowed reflection or eloquence on their mistakes, it helps the audience to accept and appreciate the true meanings of the play. This climatic piece of writing clearly shows us that not all children are as sweet and innocent as their biased parents may think. The children find death and destruction intriguing, and Dennis Potter emphasises this. He has encrusted the play with examples such as fires, violence, and the instinct to bully and harm. Potter portrays an image of Donald before we have seen his physical form. In scene 2, Peter and Willie talk of him as if they dislike him, but they also show compassion towards him. Potter creates an image of a small thin, abused boy. ‘I saw her hit’n with a shovel. Right round the yud.’ From this single sentence we discover a lot about Donald’s life. Potter reveals that Donald’s mother not only hits for discipline, but she also abuses him, and she does not care what the rest of the community thinks. Ironically even before we’ve met Donald we start to factorise images in our minds. Potter’s use of stage direction is also very important in scene 2. They suggest that the children are not sure about Donald, they understand he’s different, a slight outcast, he is
ostracised, but they only play and talk about him when they are bored. ‘They fall silent. Then as if to break a tension they cannot understand, Peter runs on ahead suddenly, and stoops over.’ This quote also shows how quickly the children move on from one event to another, and it also give a short pause for the audience to reflect on the dramatic conversation that they have just heard. Potter has used Donald to unlock difficult and controversial issues on neglect and child abuse by allowing the audience to see the effects of neglection and by giving them the ...
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ostracised, but they only play and talk about him when they are bored. ‘They fall silent. Then as if to break a tension they cannot understand, Peter runs on ahead suddenly, and stoops over.’ This quote also shows how quickly the children move on from one event to another, and it also give a short pause for the audience to reflect on the dramatic conversation that they have just heard. Potter has used Donald to unlock difficult and controversial issues on neglect and child abuse by allowing the audience to see the effects of neglection and by giving them the opportunity to see the harsh reality that many young children go through. In scene 5 Dennis Potter has Introduced Donald in the stage directions as ‘splay-footed’, ‘anaemic looking’ with ‘nasty scabs around his mouth’ Here Potter has created immediate sympathy for Donald as we read the script. The audience watching the play however, don’t get this ‘second’ introduction and so when they see him they are horrified and the camera close-ups clearly show how abused Donald is. Donald appears to be quite confident amongst the two girls, Angela and Audrey. While playing a game of ‘house’, Donald argues and confronts them by using foul language and strong, almost violent body language. The three children are playing with Dina. A chocolate coloured doll, Audrey tells Angela to ‘smack her one in the chops’ and Donald will not allow smacking in his house. This shows that he is abused at home and won’t let it happen to Dina. Donald appears to be very much in control of the situation and is showing signs of domination, until he acts as if he has cut his thumb off and plain Audrey takes on the role of the nurse, taking the centre of attention away from the pretty Angela. By the end of the scene Angela and Audrey have manipulated each other and Donald, so that a fun game of house has been turned into a frenzied slaughter of Donald’s confidence and trust. The two girls become animals as they herd Donald and close in on him, a very disturbing scene for the watching audience. This is an example of how cruel children can be towards each other when left unsupervised. Donald has only been ‘physically’ in the play for one scene and already his confidence has diminished dramatically. He has been forced into a disturbed mental state, and is now not only a victim to child abuse by his mother but he is also being bullied by the few people who he thought he could trust, his friends. But does Dennis Potter want us to feel sorry for Donald, or does he want to encourage us to think that Donald deserves to be shunned by the girls? Potter has created a negative image of Donald, he swears in front of the girls instead of being a polite gentleman, he shows violence towards them and he is obsessed with blood. This combined with the fact that he is abused, causes the audience to have mixed feelings and to be apprehensive towards Donald. Potter wants the play to be a rollercoaster of emotions for the audience, and his first stage of this is to make the audience to feel both empathy towards and dislike Donald at the same time In the stage directions for scene 7 Potter describes the way in which Donald is sat as ‘huddled up’ and ‘in a foetal position’. This is a visual image as how Donald is a withdrawn and insecure character within the play. This is only a short scene, but one of the most powerful and distressing in the play. This is the first sign that Donald is at the beginning of a mental breakdown. Donald doesn’t appear again until scene 13. He has remained in the barn since Audrey and Angela’s bullying towards him. This scene clearly shows that Donald is a lot less confident around Peter than he was around the girls at the beginning of scene 5. When Peter initially enters the barn he does not realise that Donald is hiding behind a wooden support beam. Donald coughs nervously to attract Peter’s attention. At the beginning of the scene Donald shows submissive body language and he stutters slightly while he tries to talk to Peter. The two begin to talk about the fight that just happened between Peter and Willie. Donald appears to be extremely cowardly and the stage directions repeatedly say ‘gulping’ or ‘he swallows’. By doing this Potter is controlling the audiences’ feelings and how they react to Donald. During the scene the topics quickly swop and change around. Peter starts to oppress Donald and finally they start to talk about ‘jam-jars’. By doing this Potter has evoked a slight feel of tension within the audience. We are shocked as Peter is to realise Donald is not devious but almost criminal in his activity. Peter You know what'll happen, doosn't?' Donald (anxiously) What? Peter You'll go to gaol, won't you? Oy. That's what'll happen. This realisation, to both Peter and the audience, is reinforced later on in scene 13, when Potter uses strong imagery and stage directions to convey the idea that Donald is deviant and potentially dangerous in his actions and thought of mind. Potter also suggests in his stage direction that Donald is a very disturbed character. ‘Donald doubles up in a paroxysm of strangely frightened giggling. He doesn’t realise that he is doing bad, let alone breaking the laws of society. The audience begins to wonder why no-one is helping Donald and supporting him. By revealing that the local community do not realise or act upon Donald’s problems Potter involves the audience with the play. The community in the forties was very different to todays. There were no child support agencies to help Donald. However Potter includes a contradiction to this. Peter Our mam says her wish as could have you. To stay, and that.' Donald (excitedly) 'Do her? Do her?' This tells us that there are people in the community that do care about and have sympathy for Donald. This stage direction shows us a different side to Donald. He becomes excited with the idea of someone that would welcome him into their home. Donald uses fire and devious behavior to separate himself from the community, almost as a self-defence. Potter is again playing with the audiences emotions. He takes us from feeling horror and fear towards Donald and then we feel instant sympathy towards him. This sympathy is strongly reinforced in scene 14 when Donald, referring to the Italian prisoner of war, says ‘I hope they don't catch him.’ By saying this Donald is showing he doesn't want anyone else to suffer. It gives him hope that his father, who is also a prisoner of war, might one day escape and return home. This hope is also symbolised in the game Donald is playing in scene 23, where he is trying to light a fire. The warmth and flame of the fire are symbolic to the warmth Donald feels towards his father and if the fire does not light then the Japanese have won and his father is dead. Ironically this becomes the fire which kills Donald. In scene 24 Potter foreshadows Donald’s death when Peter (referring to Donald) says, ‘frighten him to death’. If the audience becomes aware of this, the technique can evoke strong imagery and fear for the audience. The last four scenes have been made deliberately short and the dialogue is considerably short this is to add tension and drama. The stage directions are also very important in the build up, as the have strong imagery and descriptive language. ‘The flames seem to swell and belly out suddenly. Donald, in alarm, scurries for the door. And slams shut-bang!’ the fire in which Donald is trapped could be a representative of Donald’s life, out of control. Ironically the following stage directions are the complete opposite. ‘giggling with excitement, the other six have slammed shut the door, putting the stone back against it, and further holding it shut with six pairs of hands.’ As the play develops the audience watch on in despair, as the one character that they can relate to is trapped in a burning barn, by his own friends and his own flames. As the six other children run away the barn implodes, killing Donald. They run back into the tall grass of the field trying to hide themselves. Potter is showing their shame, their personalities are being blanked out and they are torn apart. They have wrecked their lives and their friendships, but even worse they have lost their childhood innocence, they must face reality and life is no longer a game for them. Potter has encouraged the audience to reach out for Donald as the other children don’t try to help him, or to get help. Instead they sink down and tell lies and pass the blame. Peter I byunt going to get the blame for it. I never did anything. I wasn't even holding the door. Audrey you was with me, Peter. Wasn't you with me? Willie we was all together Angela Miles away! The children lie to each other and themselves, they even begin to make up an alibi. This shocks the audience as it is an adult reaction to the situation, we do not expect children to act in this way. It shows the children have lost their childhood innocence and they will never get away from this day, they are mentally scarred. However the children do realise what they have done and they eventually begin 'to cry overwhelmed,' and the play ends on a very sombre note, with Dennis Potter reading a poem written by A. E. Houseman. The poem represents what the children have lost, and not just youth but all that is associated with youth. it kills the idealism and naiveté of youth. It is this naiveté and youth which can appreciate the countryside for what it is, and does not question perception of it. This naiveté of youth is now a ‘lost’ land, implying that age is malcontent and yearning. We are no longer able to behold that ‘land’ with candour, but instead must merely accept that we can no longer return there. Youth has passed, innocence is replaced with cynicism. By reading the poem himself it and the play summarise, for me, the moral Potter has hidden in the play, that ‘our culture has long since acknowledged that childhood is not transparent with innocence.’
