PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

INTRODUCTION 

In 1993 Scottish CCC published a series of Higher Drama background 

information packs about Lovers and eight other prescribed plays. Under 

the impetus of the Higher Still development programme, these packs 

are now supplemented by a series of learning and teaching guides to the 

prescribed plays. The new material has been written both as a resource 

for teachers and as a study aid for students working on Unit 2 (Study of 

a Text in its Theatrical Context) of Higher Drama. 

Section A provides a list of the features of each key scene or episode in 

Lovers which would be important in any production of the play. It also 

provides space for the student to record why each key scene would be 

important in his/her intended production. 

Section B provides a directory of possible acting pieces in terms of 

casting, suitable length and specific challenges to the actor. 

All textual references are to the recommended edition of the text, 

Lovers by Brian Friel, published by The Gallery Press (1984). 

Other resources for teaching this unit include the following: 

• The Arrangements for Drama published in 1997 contains detail of 

content, suggested learning and teaching approaches, guidance on 

assessment and unit descriptors. 

• The Subject Guide for Drama, the first instalment of which was 

published in 1997, includes guidance on learning and teaching in 

general, bi-level teaching, differentiation, workshop approaches to 

the text, health and safety guidelines, and ensuring appropriate 

access for students with special education needs. 

• The National Assessment Bank packages published in 1998 for each 

unit of Drama include all checklists, task sheets, marking instructions 

and guidance necessary to carry out the internal assessment of each 

unit. 

• A video published in 1998 exemplifies standards of practical 

performance for Investigative Drama (Unit 1) and for Acting in both 

Study of a Text in its Theatrical Context (Unit 2) and Contemporary 

Scottish Theatre (Unit 3). 

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Note 

INTRODUCTION 

Winners and Losers by Brian Friel are two short, complementary 

plays contained in Lovers. For the purpose of Higher Drama they 

should be regarded as forming one play with two complementary 

halves. Candidates should take care to consider both halves in 

their responses to exam questions. Failure to do so may penalise 

candidates. 

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OVERALL DIRECTORIAL INTERPRETATION AND DRAMATIC COMMENTARY 

SECTION A 

Winners 

EPISODE ONE 

(pages 11-31) 

Why would Episode One be important in any production of 

the play? 

Provides context of the play and gives background to the action/ 

storyline 

• We note the period – 1967, ‘The present in Ireland’, a place of social 

divisions and changing identity. The play is firmly set in the Republic 

of Ireland. The dominant and almost exclusive faith was and still is 

Catholicism. The Catholic Church exerted powerful control over 

every aspect of Irish life. The Church’s control in rural communities 

would have been even more pronounced. Ireland prohibited divorce, 

abortion and contraception. Sex before marriage was a sin. 

• Lovers is firmly set in the Catholic community. 

• The Commentators are in their late fifties and are used as a symbolic 

juxtaposition when seen against the young protagonists. The fact that 

they give details in the past tense in a formal, unemotional and 

detached manner gives the impression that we are listening to an 

inquest. The Commentators represent the repressive, straight-laced 

community that Mag and Joe both live in. The fact that Friel 

establishes these two characters first suggests that this repression is 

the norm. 

• We learn that Mag lives in an affluent part of Ballymore. 

• We learn that Joe lives in a run-down, working-class area of Ballymore. 

• We learn that Mag is a pupil at a strict Catholic grammar school for 

girls which is run by nuns. 

• We learn that Joe is a pupil at a strict Catholic grammar school for 

boys which is run by priests. 

• We learn that Mag and Joe have to get married as Mag is two months 

pregnant. Mag and Joe are young, their predicament is a metaphor 

and shows how helpless the new generation felt towards the old 

hierarchical order. 

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• We see the influence and controlling effect of the Catholic Church on 

Joe and Mag. This influence permeates every aspect of their lives both 

at school and in the community in which they live. 

• We can clearly see the young lovers’ isolation – isolation from each 

other and isolation from society. 

• Mag and Joe’s alienation is compounded by the delivery of the 

Commentators’ narrations. Friel has been influenced by Brecht’s 

alienation technique here. The Commentator narrations reinforce 

the action of the play and break the illusion of reality as they bring us 

back to the present. They directly address the audience to emphasise 

key points/moments in the action. 

Begins plot 

• Mag and Joe arrive at Ardnageeha to study for their final school 

examinations. 

• They stay at the top of Ardnageeha from 10am to 2pm. 

• The ‘impartial’ Commentators provide detailed information which 

encourages the audience to form opinions. This device is used to 

provide dramatic irony throughout Winners. 

• The dialogue of the young lovers gives us clear impressions of a 

variety of ‘off-stage’ characters who live in Ballymore. Most of these 

characters have antagonised Mag and Joe. 

• We begin to appreciate how Mag and Joe feel about their life in a 

close-knit, repressive, rural, Irish Catholic community. 

• We are immediately introduced to the overbearing attitude of the 

nuns at Mag’s school. 

• It is ironic that the nuns who run Mag’s school are from the Order of 

Mercy – clearly no mercy was shown. This scene introduces a number 

of value judgments on the church. 

• We immediately gain an insight into Mag’s romantic nature and Joe’s 

conformist nature. 

• Mag’s rebellious nature is also revealed. She smokes. She and Joe 

have had sex before marriage. 

• We see the difference in attitude between Mag and Joe with regard to 

their studies: Joe is serious and Mag lacks concentration. 

• We observe mimicry. Their mimicry is used to get back at their 

tormentors. Through mimicry, we see them vent their anger and 

frustration. This allows us to see a different side to Joe’s nature – the 

side of his nature that doesn’t conform to society’s repressive 

expectations. 

• These are carefree, young and rebellious 17-year-olds. Their mimicry 

is also used as a comic device which helps us deal with the more 

serious moments in the play. The mimicry is the first real 

introduction of what caused the sparks of attraction between Mag and 

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Joe. They both have a totally zany sense of humour and together form 

a hysterically comic double act. This is one of the reasons why Mag 

loves Joe. 

• Mag’s dissatisfaction with her parents as role models emerges. 

• We hear about Mag’s parents’ reaction to her pregnancy. ‘My God, the 

things they said to me – they seared my soul forever.’ 

• The Commentators reveal the huge class differences between the 

Brennans and the Enwrights. 

• We discover that Mag’s twin brother Peter died in his cot five days 

after he was born. 

• We learn that Mag’s mother has suffered from clinical depression ever 

since the tragedy of Peter’s death. The revelation of Mrs Enwright’s 

depression and the relationship between Mag and her mother brings 

us naturally to the relationship between Mag and her father. It is 

obvious he wants to help her as much as possible and that she adores 

him. ‘It’s only that Papa’ll be lonely without me.’ ‘. . . the first time 

he’ll ever have been separated from me, even for a night.’ ‘Besides, I 

can wheel the pram over every afternoon.’ 

• We learn that Peter’s death has had consequences for Mag. 

• Mag pretends to go into labour. The false pains are used deliberately 

to control Joe and gain his sympathy. This reveals Mag’s insecurity. 

• We gradually see that Mag is not as confident about the future as her 

early dialogue indicates. 

• By the end of the scene we clearly see the tensions between Mag and 

Joe. Joe feels he has been ‘trapped’. 

• We learn of Mag and Joe’s disappearance. We are encouraged to 

speculate about what happened in the hours after they left 

Ardnageeha. This heightens the dramatic tension of the scene. Mag 

and Joe’s deaths are shrouded in mystery. 

Develops characters and relationships 

Mag 

• Mag is one of the four ‘Lovers’. Friel’s notes at the start of the play 

describe her clearly: ‘Mag is seventeen, bubbling with life, inclined to 

be extreme in her enthusiasms. Although she is not beautiful, her 

vivacity gives her a distinct attraction. Whatever she likes, she loves; 

whatever she dislikes she hates – momentarily. She is either very 

elated or very depressed, but no emotion is ever permanent.’ 

• The scene establishes her flighty, romantic, witty, comical, energetic, 

effervescent, angst-ridden nature. 

• She is full of doubts now that she is pregnant and persona non grata 

in the eyes of the church and the community. 

• She is worried about the future. How will her father cope without 

her? She believes that her marriage will not be like that of her own 

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parents. Her speeches reveal the importance of religion in her life. 

We see that she is deeply in love with Joe. We see her contradictions 

and experience her isolation. 

Joe 

• Joe is used as a contrast to Mag. Friel states the following: ‘Joe is 

seventeen and a half. He is a serious boy, a good student, interested 

in his books. He is at the age when he is earnest about life; and he has 

a total and touching belief in the value and importance of education.’ 

• This scene establishes Joe’s character. He is quiet and reflective in 

comparison to Mag. He shows that he is proud and independent. He 

is conformist. 

• He has started to find practical solutions to their problems. 

• His mimicry reveals the frustration that he feels at living in a 

restrictive environment. 

• We see flashes of rebellious youth in the slaughterhouse sequence 

when he pretends to shoot the pillars of his community. 

Man/Woman 

• The Man/Woman (The Commentators) are used as a catalyst for the 

dramatic irony in Winners. Their formal, unemotional, impersonal, 

impartial style is in complete contrast to Mag and Joe’s lively 

naturalistic interaction. 

• They are used as an alienating device which builds dramatic tension. 

• They are also a symbolic representation of the restrictive, repressive, 

rural Irish society in which Mag and Joe live. We are told that they are 

in their fifties. The fact that they are so much older than Mag and Joe 

is significant. This age gap helps to reinforce their symbolic 

representation. 

Establishes central themes and issues 

• Frustrated love: Mag’s pregnancy has forced the young lovers to 

conform to society’s expectations. Mag’s romantic rhetoric contrasts 

with Joe’s pragmatic attitude towards his studies. Mag has doubts 

about marriage to Joe and her future happiness. She needs 

reassurance. Mag gives an insight into the dysfunctional marriage of 

her parents and is determined not to end up like them. Joe’s angry 

outbursts reveal a deep-rooted resentment at finding himself caught 

in the predicament of having to get married because of Mag’s 

pregnancy. 

• Frustrated Christianity: Mag and Joe live in a Christian community 

and yet the majority of people in this community have shown them 

no benevolence, understanding or sympathy. They get little in the 

way of support outside their families. They are ostracised by their 

schools and by certain factions in their community. 

DRAMA


• The inevitability of repression: Mag and Joe are forced into marriage. 

• Moral responsibility: Joe accepts that it is his duty to look after Mag. 

• Overbearing rigidity and domination of a restrictive environment: 

Mag’s stories of nuns, Joe’s mimicry of Old Kerrigan, the sequence 

with them shooting (the President of St Kevin’s/Sister Paul/Philip 

Moran’s mother/Skinny Skeehan/Mother Dolores) reveal that they live 

in such an environment. Friel paints a highly negative picture of Irish 

society. 

• The influence of the Catholic religion: the nuns at Mag’s school are 

depicted as dogmatic, authoritarian and inflexible. Interestingly the 

priests in Joe’s school are shown in a slightly better light than the 

nuns. His school is run by the clergy of the diocese – not by an order 

– so the implication is that they are marginally more human and open 

minded. 

• Uncertainty about the future: Mag’s doubts. Her need for reassurance 

from Joe. Mag’s concern about her father’s loneliness. Mag’s own 

loneliness comes across in her wild imagination and the ridiculous 

stories she tells for effect. She is desperate for attention. Why? Joe 

indicates that he does not share Mag’s romantic views about a flat 

which looks into the slaughterhouse yard. 

• Hope: Mag’s constant romantic views of married life with Joe. Joe’s 

assertion that he will get a degree and become a teacher. 

• Imposed divisions: Mag goes to a school for girls. Joe goes to a school 

for boys. Mag lives in a better area of Ballymore than Joe. The class 

division between Mag and Joe. The theatrical representation of the 

Commentators compared to the theatrical representation of Mag/Joe. 

Why would Episode One be important in your production of 

the play? 

• As a director, how will you ensure that your audience will understand 

the social and political background to the play? How will you get 

across the notion that the period of the play is significant? 

• How will you bring out the rural Irish Catholic attitude towards Mag’s 

pregnancy? 

• As a director how will you establish the mood you want to create? 

• How will you get across the isolation that the couple feels? 

• How will you communicate the restrictive, repressive, environment 

that they live in? 

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• Will you retain the play’s non-naturalistic setting? What type of staging 

will you use? Why? 

• How will it demonstrate your own directorial concepts? What are 

they? 

• How will you get the actors to portray the Commentators? What do 

you want the audience to think and feel when the Commentators 

speak? Could you use theatrical effects to contribute to these feelings? 

If so, what effects would you use? 

• How do you want the audience to feel towards Mag? How will this 

affect the acting of the character? Is she a complex character? Do you 

want the audience to have any sympathy for her? How will you get the 

actress to deliver the long monologues. How will you try to ensure 

that the audience’s attention does not wander? 

• How do you want the audience to feel towards Joe? How will this 

affect the acting of the character? Is he a complex character? Do you 

want the audience to have any sympathy for him? 

• What kind of relationship between Mag and Joe would you want the 

actors to create? 

• How will you show the contrast between Mag and Joe? 

• How will you convey the imposed divisions between Mag and Joe and 

between Mag/Joe and the Commentators? 

• As a director how will you build and realise the dramatic tension in 

this Episode? 

• How will you show the contrast in the delivery of the Commentators 

with the naturalistic interaction of Mag and Joe? 

• How will you get Mag and Joe to do their mimicry? How will this get 

across the feelings of resentment and unhappiness that they have 

towards some of the people in their community? 

• How will you get across the importance of the Catholic religion in the 

play? 

• How will you bring out the humour of the play? 

DRAMA


Notes 

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Winners 

EPISODE TWO 

(pages 32-49) 

Why would Episode Two be important in any production of 

the play? 

Develops plot 

• June and July 1966 were the warmest and driest on record. Ballymore 

had been suffering from drought conditions. The audience are 

therefore further encouraged to speculate on the mystery of Joe and 

Mag’s deaths. If Loch Gorm was so still how could they have died? 

• We learn that a local boy discovered Mag and Joe’s bodies. They had 

drowned. 

• Joe reveals his strong feelings of love for Mag. 

• Joe expresses his dissatisfaction with his parents as role models. 

• We gain an insight into Joe’s dysfunctional relationship with his 

father. 

• We discover that Mr Brennan secretly idolised his son and was very 

proud of his achievements. 

• The episode shows an increased bickering between Joe and Mag. We 

are increasingly made more aware of the issues that separate rather 

than unite them. We are encouraged to contemplate their future 

married life if they had lived. 

• Joe reveals his touchiness at the social class difference between him 

and the Enwrights. 

• Mag and Joe’s deaths are further shrouded in mystery when the post 

mortem and the inquest confirm that there was no conclusive 

evidence with regard to the circumstances that surrounded their 

deaths. We are told that they both died of asphyxiation and that there 

were no signs of violence. An open verdict was recorded. 

• We are informed that Mag and Joe were buried in separate graves. 

• The structure of this episode is in contrast to the first Episode. Joe 

has three long monologues and Mag has none. The juxtaposition 

between the Commentators and Mag/Joe is more pronounced. 

• We are left to contemplate the irony of the title of the first half of 

Lovers. How could Mag and Joe conceivably be regarded as ‘Winners’ 

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when they died so tragically? Although they promised each other 

happiness, their deaths by drowning save them from a more likely 

destiny. 

• After Joe and Mag’s deaths life in Ballymore carried on as usual. 

Further illustrates central themes of the play 

• Frustrated love: Mag and Joe die. We gain an insight into the 

dysfunctional marriage of the Brennans. Joe indicates that as married 

people get older they hardly love each other, yet stick together out of 

loyalty. We are made increasingly aware of the big differences 

between Mag and Joe. We see flashes of bitterness and doubt between 

them. 

• Uncertainty about the future: We ask ourselves if Mag and Joe would 

have ended up like countless couples before them – couples whose 

love is gradually diluted to the point where they stay together merely 

out of loyalty and propriety? We sense that Mag and Joe would have 

had marriage problems. The decisions that their family, church and 

community forced upon them would have come back to haunt them. 

Joe’s bitterness at the sacrifices he would have had to make coupled 

with his lack of intellectual fulfilment would have been further 

sources of conflict. 

• The inevitability of repression: Joe is forced to leave school by Father 

Kelly. Joe’s mimicry of Father Kelly’s rebuke emphasises the shame 

and dishonour that he and Mag must have endured. However, 

despite the fact that Father Kelly asked Joe to leave school, he was 

still prepared to let Joe sit his exams. The impression is that he was 

very annoyed at Joe for being in this situation. The strength of 

character of Joe’s mother is shown: ‘Because of your mother’s 

pleadings on your behalf we have decided to allow you to return to 

sit for your examinations.’ It must have taken a lot for a woman in her 

position to do that. This dramatic situation emphasises the power of 

the priest in the community. 

• Moral responsibility: Joe forsakes his career and ambitions to stay in 

Ballymore and marry Mag. 


Joe’s stories of Skinny Skeehan, Mr O’Hara and his own parents 

further reveal his frustrations at living in such a restrictive 

environment. 

• The influence of the Catholic religion: Father Kelly is depicted as 

dogmatic, authoritarian and inflexible. 

• Hope: Joe’s ambition is to be a Bachelor of Science. He is determined 

that his ‘daughter’ will be a prodigy. He wants to emulate Mr 

Enwright. Mag’s romantic view of life in their flat also reflects the 

theme of hope. 

DRAMA


• Imposed divisions: The difference in class between the Brennans and 

the Enwrights. Mag and Joe are buried in separate graves, each in a 

family plot. People learn nothing from their deaths. Divisions remain, 

in death as in life. The families stay apart from each other. Not too 

many questions are asked. Why did they die? How did they die? 


Joe 

• We are immediately reminded in Joe’s opening speech that he is a 

hardworking, industrious pupil who takes his studies seriously. He 

actually enjoys preparing for his examinations. His character is in 

direct contrast to Mag’s and this is clearly emphasised in this Episode. 

This Episode also points up fundamental differences between Joe and 

Mag. He has ambitions and wants to leave rural Ballymore. Mag 

doesn’t have the same outlook on life. 

• We sense his resentment at having to settle for a boring job in Skinny 

Skeehan’s office. 

• Joe uses mimicry to avoid facing the uncomfortable truth that he is 

willing to compromise and do what society expects him to do. 

• We see Joe’s naivety and lack of worldly knowledge in his second 

speech when he looks up the definition of ‘Caesarean’. 

• Joe clearly loves Mag. ‘I am crazy about Maggie Enwright . . .’ He feels 

guilty about his outbursts. 

• He also feels guilty about Mag’s predicament. His guilt forces him to 

conform. 

• We see that he is selfish, protective, caring, responsible and 

pragmatic. 

• We see that Mag’s ‘romanticism’ has infected Joe. He begins to fall 

into her trap of painting a rosy picture of his ‘daughter’s’ future.We 

see Joe’s vulnerability and sense of isolation. 

• We gain an insight into the dysfunctional relationship he has with his 

father. He is different from his father. Joe is hardworking and 

ambitious. We can see that he wants to be closer to his father. They 

are unable to communicate with each other. 

• By the end of this episode Joe accepts his fate. ‘A married man with a 

family has more important things to occupy his mind besides books.’ 

Mag 

• Mag is hurt and frightened. She is vulnerable. She loves Joe. She 

needs to know that he loves her. Mag cannot afford to lose Joe. 

She needs him to stand by her. 

• Mag has doubts about her future married life with a husband who 

feels he has been ‘trapped’. 

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• She seeks reassurance. 

• She is not in the same league as Joe intellectually. She reverts to 

attacking Joe’s class as a way of balancing the scales. 

• As in Episode One, Mag goes through the gamut of emotions. In this 

episode she is huffy, resentful, happy, doubtful, angry, spiteful, 

loving, romantic, positive, carefree and elated! 

• At times she feels isolated from Joe. Towards the end of the Episode 

we learn of her isolation from her school mates. 

• Mag ends the Episode in a romantic mood. ‘The flat’ll be lovely and 

cosy at night.’ 

• In our last glimpse of Mag we see her joie de vivre. 

Why might Episode Two be important in your production of 

the play? 

• How does this Episode develop your overall directorial 

interpretation? 

• How will you balance the comedy with the pathos of the play? 

• How will you point up the irony of the play? 

• What does this Episode tell us about Friel’s attitude to love? How is 

this shown in Mag and Joe’s exchanges? 

• What development in his character would you want to show in the 

acting of Joe? How will you show his internal conflict? (His anger and 

frustration, his love for Mag, his ambivalent attitude towards his 

father, the love and respect he has for his mother, his hopes for the 

future, his love of learning, his lack of experience, his vulnerability?) 

• Joe has three monologues in this Episode. How will you get the actor 

to deliver these to maintain the audience’s interest and to enable 

them to gain an insight into the internal conflict mentioned above? 

• What developments in her character would you want to show in the 

acting of Mag? How will you show her increasing sense of isolation? 

Her vulnerability? Her dependency on Joe? Her hopes for a 

successful, married family life? 

• How will you point up the division between Mag and Joe? 

DRAMA


• As a director how will you build and realise the dramatic tension in 

this Episode? 

• How do you want the audience to feel at the end of this Episode? 

Notes 

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DRAMA


Losers 

EXTRACT ONE 

(pages 51-60) 

Why would this Extract be important in any production of 

the play? 

Provides context of the second half of Lovers and gives background 

to the action/storyline 

• We note the period is still 1967. Irish society expected the younger 

generation to look after the elderly. It was quite common for older 

relatives to be living with younger members of their family. 

• The Catholic Church’s views on the sanctity of the family would have 

been ingrained into the conscience of all Catholics. 

• Sex before marriage was regarded as a sin. 

• Andy and Hannah live in the same insular, repressive, rural, Irish 

Catholic community as Joe and Mag. 

• In 1960s Ireland the younger generation wanted to break free from 

the restrictive traditions and the rigid moral codes of past 

generations. They found it difficult to break free, however. What 

could they replace the old order with? The Catholic Church exerted 

such a powerful influence, an influence which permeated every area 

of their lives from the cradle to the grave. There were rituals and 

protocols in abundance. Traditions from the past were strictly 

respected by the older generation. 

• The title of this half of the play, Losers, immediately engages our 

attention and we begin to make direct comparisons with Mag and 

Joe’s predicament in Winners. We question the irony of both titles. 

What is Friel saying about love and marriage? What is he saying about 

these two sets of lovers in particular? What is he saying about the 

kind of community that demands and enforces such high moral 

expectations? In Winners we clearly see the effect this repressive 

community has on Mag and Joe. Right at the start of Losers we learn 

that Andy and Hannah have also suffered from living in a repressive 

environment. 

• Andy’s narration is used to take us backwards in time. Most of the 

story happens in the past. 

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Begins plot 

• Andy opens the play isolated. Isolated from his family and trapped 

into conforming to the ritual acted out by Hannah’s father before 

him. He sits outside in the back yard staring at a wall to escape from 

the women inside. When he takes refuge here he is ‘allowed’ to sit in 

peace and quiet without being disturbed. His environment, the back 

yard, ‘is a grey, grimy, gloomy, sunless place’, a visual reminder of 

Andy’s isolation and an immediate indication to the audience that 

things have not turned out well for him. 

• This half of Lovers is an anecdotal tale. Andy supplies the anecdotes. 

He sets the scene and describes past events. He gently draws the 

audience in and helps them to make sense of the sequence of events 

that are about to unfold. 

• Andy and Hannah have been married for over three years. 

• In describing the character of Hannah’s father, Andy is really giving 

the audience a character description of himself. 

• Mr Wilson worked the night shift as a stoker in the general hospital 

for fifty years. We suspect he did so to avoid spending time with his 

wife and daughter. He only saw Hannah at the weekend. 

• We find out that when Hannah’s father died her mother, Mrs Wilson, 

collapsed with shock and has been bedridden ever since. 

• Andy and Hannah’s courting had been seriously affected by these 

circumstances. They couldn’t have the same kind of courtship as 

other couples. They were expected to look after Mrs Wilson. Mrs 

Wilson’s needs were more important in the eyes of the community. 

• Andy reveals that his early courting days ‘were’ passionate. We note 

that his relationship with Hannah is anything but passionate now. 

• We go back in time to a scene which took place when Andy and 

Hannah were first courting. There is initially a strained formality 

between them. We see the diffidence between the couple and see the 

awkwardness that both Andy and Hannah felt, partly due to the fact 

that they were middle-aged and partly due to the ubiquitous presence 

of Mrs Wilson and St Philomena up above. In this situation, they find 

it difficult to communicate, to interact and to simply be themselves in 

one another’s company. 

• Hannah expresses her resentment at having to look after her invalid 

mother. She has become a martyr to the ‘needs’ of a dependent 

mother. 

• We question the seriousness of Mrs Wilson’s illness. She is bedridden 

yet she has a healthy appetite. She is alert to everything that is going 

on in her house. She rarely saw her husband on a daily basis as he 

worked the night shift for fifty years, yet his death has had a profound 

and lasting effect on her health. 

• We learn that Mrs Wilson is suspicious about what goes on downstairs. 

DRAMA


When there are silences she rings a bell. Andy puts this down to Mrs 

Wilson having a ‘wild dirty imagination’. 

• We learn of Andy and Hannah’s scam for allaying the old woman’s 

suspicious mind. Andy recites a poem, Grey’s ‘Elegy’, all thirty-two 

verses of it! Friel uses this device to heighten the comedy. 

• Hannah takes the initiative in the passionate embrace. She is very 

passionate. Andy is taken aback by the ferocity of her passionate 

kissing. He is however easily drawn in to take part. Hannah throws 

herself at Andy because she needs to reassure herself of the depth of 

their love. 

• By the end of this extract Andy indicates that the passion and 

intensity of his relationship with Hannah did not last. Hannah was 

soon to be ‘turned into the image of her mother’. 

• No other character appears in this scene other than Andy and 

Hannah. Mrs Wilson makes her presence clearly felt however. She 

rings her bell and Hannah jumps to attention. Friel deliberately hides 

Mrs Wilson from view until later in the play. This structural dramatic 

device gets the audience to conjure up an image of Mrs Wilson based 

on Andy’s biased comments. 

• Andy describes the scene reenacted each night in Mrs Wilson’s 

bedroom, the ritual of the Rosary. Andy feels trapped in this situation. 

He doesn’t have the same religious conviction as Mrs Wilson and 

Cissy. He describes how he got caught up in the cloying, feminine 

atmosphere of Mrs Wilson’s household. 

• Andy informs us that he was aware of Mrs Wilson’s ‘ulterior motives’ 

and her ‘plotting’ right from the beginning, yet he felt powerless to 

do anything about his predicament for fear of upsetting Hannah. 

Introduces key characters 

Andy 

• Friel’s notes on Andy are quite specific. ‘He is a man of fifty, a joiner 

by trade, heavily built. His work mates look on him as a solid, decent, 

reliable, slightly dull man. Because his mind is simple, direct, 

unsubtle, he is unaware of the humour in a lot of the things that he 

says.’ 

• He is in essence a likable, if slightly boring man. Andy has conformed 

to society’s expectations. Is he the kind of man that Joe (in Winners) 

might have become if he had lived? 

• He is weak in not standing up to the old woman. 

• He doesn’t rock the boat; instead he accedes to the wishes of Hannah 

and Mrs Wilson as he seeks a quiet life. 

• He has inherited the position previously held by Mr Wilson. ‘And yet 

by all accounts the civilist and decentest wee man you could meet.’ 

DRAMA 19

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Andy has inherited his role in the world from the previous 

generation. He has become the victim of imposed propriety. 

• We clearly see that he is not a passionate man. He is pleasantly 

surprised when Hannah pounces. 

• Right at the start of the play he is unhappy with the way things turned 

out in his relationship with Hannah. Their relationship has become a 

dysfunctional one; as dysfunctional as Mr and Mrs Wilson’s had been. 

• The style of Andy’s narration is direct contrast to the style used by the 

Commentators (in Winners). The function of the narration is similar – 

to provide lots of biographical information and propel the action of 

the play forwards. Andy’s style, however, is informal, intimate and 

anecdotal. His narration is a form of theatrical alienation. By using 

this device Friel breaks away from the convention of traditional 

proscenium arch productions. ‘The fourth wall’ is crossed as Andy 

engages in eye contact with the audience and we (the audience) are 

therefore aware that we are in the theatre watching a story unfold. 

The fact that the story is being told to us in the past tense accentuates 

the alienation effect. This alienation effect doesn’t strictly adhere to 

the model used, for example, by Bertold Brecht. His actors would 

have come out of character to speak to the audience. 

• This extract immediately introduces us to Andy’s predicament. He 

starts the play isolated, isolated from his wife and mother-in-law. He 

is married but not happily so. The failure of Andy and Hannah’s 

relationship is not in doubt right from the beginning. 

Hannah 

• Friel’s notes on Hannah are also quite specific. ‘She is in her late 

forties. She works in a local shirt factory, lives alone with her invalid 

mother, and until Andy came on the scene had not been out with a 

man for over twenty years. And this sudden injection of romance into 

a life that seemed to be rigidly and permanently patterned has 

transformed a plain spinster into an almost attractive woman. With 

Andy she is warm: with her mother she reverts to waspishness.’ 

• Hannah has had little experience of men. She rarely saw her father as 

he worked night shifts. She is uncomfortable with Andy partly because 

she doesn’t know how to cope with being alone with him. 

• Like Andy, Mag and Joe, she too has suffered from being isolated. She 

has dutifully looked after her mother and in the process she has 

sacrificed her independence and personal happiness. 

• Her choices have been restricted due to the expectations of the 

community that she lives in. Her religious upbringing has reinforced 

this expectation. Guilt can be debilitating, and we see the effects it 

has on Hannah. Until Andy came on the scene she must have been a 

very lonely woman. 

DRAMA


• She communicates her frustration in this Extract. She is angry with 

the position she has been forced into, yet she is unwilling to make 

the brave decision to do anything about her predicament. 

• Friel paints a positive, assertive picture of Hannah in this Extract. 

When the audience first meets her she is going through a renaissance 

in her personality. She has made the most of her appearance and in 

this Extract she displays a feisty eagerness to escape her ‘prison’. 

• She is in love. She is very passionate, and we see her take the 

initiative in the kissing sequence. Her approach to the kissing and 

courting comes across as quite comical on the one hand, yet tragic on 

the other. Here is a middle-aged couple who are made to feel guilty 

about kissing and courting in the room below Hannah’s mother’s 

bedroom. Indeed their cunning plan to allay the old woman’s 

suspicious mind emphasises this sense of guilt at doing something as 

innocent as kissing. It is important to note that kissing is all that is 

indicated in the love-making sequences. The script does not indicate 

anything more than kissing. Their sense of propriety would not have 

allowed this particular middle-aged couple to go any further. 

Illustrates central themes and issues 

• Frustrated love: A couple who suffer from the kind of repression that 

Andy and Hannah suffer from cannot have a healthy love. Andy and 

Hannah have a dysfunctional marriage. We discover this in Andy’s 

opening monologue. Andy takes us backwards in time to show us why 

this has happened. Hannah has to look after her invalid mother. She 

has conformed to society’s expectations. If Hannah was to put her 

invalid mother into a home she would suffer from guilt and society’s 

disapproval would compound this feeling. This is a complex 

predicament. Hannah is bound to feel very mixed emotions. This is 

her mother, the woman who gave her life and brought her up in the 

Catholic faith. She would have been all too aware of her 

responsibilities and of the sanctity of the family. She is also bound in 

some ways to be very close to her mother; after all she rarely saw 

much of her father when he was alive. Her mother would have had a 

big influence in her formative years. Indeed you could almost say she 

brought Hannah up single-handedly. Hannah does feel trapped 

however. She has become a martyr to the needs of her mother and is 

weary and tired. We know that she has not had a man in her life for 

over twenty years. She is in love with Andy and doesn’t want to lose 

him. She wants time to be alone with him and to be loved. She is in 

her late forties. There could not have been many eligible bachelors in 

this community and Andy represents a reasonably good catch. He is 

of the same social class as Hannah. He has a job as a joiner. He has his 

own cottage. Andy is pleasantly surprised by Hannah’s strength of 

DRAMA 21

22 


feeling for him. He wants to marry Hannah and settle down in his 

cottage, ‘Riverview’. He doesn’t like Mrs Wilson. She drives a wedge 

between him and Hannah. He reluctantly acquiesces to Mrs Wilson’s 

wishes but is clearly uncomfortable at being made to go through the 

ritual of the Rosary every night. Andy and Hannah are frustrated every 

time Mrs Wilson’s bell rings. They rarely get the opportunity to be 

alone. As soon as they get passionate they are interrupted. This 

happens regularly. 

• Frustrated Christianity: They worship (in Andy’s case he is forced to 

worship) a plaster-cast saint. St Philomena represents the Church. 

The ritual of placing St Philomena at the heart of the proceedings 

when they go through the ritual of the Rosary highlights Cissy and 

Mrs Wilson’s dependency on ‘Churchianity’ 1 . The references to Father 

Payton’s dogmatic maxims further help to point up their dependency 

on Churchianity. Cissy and Mrs Wilson use their Churchianity as a 

powerful weapon to maintain the status quo and keep the moral high 

ground. Andy and Hannah are not shown any kind of warmth, 

understanding or caring Christianity by Cissy or Mrs Wilson. They 

consequently suffer from the harshness of a cold, calculated, brutal, 

dogmatic and inflexible Christianity. 

• Uncertainty about the future: We clearly see as we go back in time 

that Hannah wanted to break free from her mother yet couldn’t find a 

way of achieving this aim. Andy wanted her to break free also. He 

wanted her to be his wife and for them to lead their own life without 

interference. But he lacked the strength of character to give Hannah 

an ultimatum. Andy conformed to society’s mores as much as Hannah 

did. The uncertainty of their future only becomes certainty in 

hindsight. Andy’s narration indicates a bleak future as far as his 

relationship with Hannah is concerned. They will still be married out 

of propriety, but they will not enjoy the passionate relationship they 

once knew. 

• The inevitability of repression: Hannah conforms to society’s 

expectations and is unable to escape her predicament. Andy is unable 

to show Hannah a way out. They are both trapped. They are not in 

control of their destiny. They are obliged to forgo their own 

happiness out of duty. 

• Moral responsibility: Hannah is all too aware of her moral 

responsibilities. Society expects her to put the needs of her widowed, 

invalid mother before her own. 

1 Churchianity is a frustrated view of Christianity as perceived by certain narrowminded 

clergymen and their followers. 

DRAMA



The play opens with Andy sitting in the gloomy back yard. This is an 

immediate indication that he is trying to escape from a restrictive 

environment. The scene in the kitchen, the room which is under Mrs 

Wilson’s bedroom, is a further visual reminder that they are caught 

up in such an environment. This is Mrs Wilson’s house. As long as 

Andy and Hannah live under her roof they have to put up with her 

rules and her sense of propriety. 

• The influence of the Catholic religion: Mrs Wilson is a deeply 

religious, pious, old woman. Andy informs us that she gathers Cissy, 

Hannah and himself around her bed every night at ten to say the 

Rosary. Mrs Wilson’s has her shrine to St Philomena. Her bedroom 

has been turned into a place of worship. There are flowers. There are 

candles which are lit each night when she goes through the Rosary. 

Andy’s portrayal of Mrs Wilson depicts a woman who is dogmatic, 

authoritarian and inflexible. 

• Hope: In this extract we see that Hannah longs to be free from her 

mother. She wants to escape from her ‘prison’. Andy in turn wants to 

be master in his own home. 

• Imposed divisions: Andy is exiled to the back yard. Mrs Wilson has her 

‘centre of operations’ upstairs. Thus Mrs Wilson comes between Andy 

and Hannah. 

Why would this Extract be important in your production of 

the play? 

• Will you retain Friel’s non-naturalistic setting? He recommends that 

the acting area has three equal divisions. Would this work in your 

intended theatre, studio or acting space? If so, how would this work? 

If not, then what type of staging will you use? Why? 

• How will this staging further develop and demonstrate your 

directorial concepts as outlined in Winners? Will your directorial 

concepts be the same or will they be different for Losers? 

• As a director how will you establish the mood of the opening 

sequence with Andy and the binoculars? 

• What do you want the audience to think and feel as they see Andy 

sitting staring at a brick wall? How will you get across Andy’s isolation? 

• How will you want the audience to feel towards Andy? How will this 

affect the acting of this character? Is Andy a complex character? Do 

DRAMA 23

24 


you want the audience to have any sympathy for him and his 

predicament? How will you get your actor to portray the comedic 

elements of this scene? Andy has a number of monologues. How will 

you get the actor who portrays Andy to deliver these? 

• How will you want the audience to feel towards Hannah? How will 

this affect the acting of this character? Is Hannah a complex character? 

Do you want the audience to have any sympathy for Hannah’s 

predicament? If so, how will you elicit this sympathy from the 

audience? How will you get the actress to portray the comedic 

elements of this scene? How will you get the actress to communicate 

Hannah’s frustration and resentment at being a skivvy to her mother? 

• What kind of relationship between Andy and Hannah would you want 

the actors to create? 

• How will you show the contrast between Andy and Hannah? 

• How will you get across the theme of frustrated love? 

• How will you get across the ubiquitous ‘presence’ of Mrs Wilson even 

though she is not in the scene? 

• How will you create the imposed divisions between Mrs Wilson 

upstairs and Andy and Hannah downstairs? 

• How will you communicate the restrictive, repressive, environment of 

Mrs Wilson’s house and back yard? 

• How will you get across the changing moods in this Extract? 

• How will you build and realise the dramatic tension in this Extract? 

• How will you get across the importance of the Catholic religion in the 

play? 

• How will you convey the warped nature of Christianity as portrayed in 

Losers? 

DRAMA


Notes 

DRAMA 25

26 


DRAMA


Losers 

Extract Two 

(pages 61-67) 

Why would this Extract be important in any production of 

the play? 

Develops plot 

• Cissy makes an entrance. She has a ‘proprietary air’ in Mrs Wilson’s 

house. 

• Cissy has arrived to go through the nightly ritual of the Rosary. 

• Hannah is despondent about being trapped and having to look after 

her mother. 

• Andy offers to let Mrs Wilson live with him and Hannah in his cottage 

when they get married. 

• Hannah rejects his offer. She indicates that she wants to be free from 

the burden of caring for her mother. 

• Andy’s suggestions of ‘hospitalisation’ for Mrs Wilson and ‘residency 

in a home run by the Nazareth nuns’ are both rejected by Hannah. 

Hannah reveals that her mother is ‘. . . not sick enough for hospital’ 

and that Mrs Wilson would be unhappy at being looked after by this 

particular order of nuns. 

• Hannah hints to Andy that he should live under Mrs Wilson’s roof. 

• Andy completely rejects this suggestion. Their situation seems futile. 

• Andy consoles Hannah as she dissolves into tears. This leads to a 

passionate courting session which is interrupted once more by Mrs 

Wilson’s bell. Both of them air their anger and frustration at this 

untimely intrusion. 

• We are introduced to Mrs Wilson. She is not quite what we expected. 

She is ‘a tiny woman’; ‘She looks angelic’. 

• We soak in the atmosphere of Mrs Wilson’s bedroom. The bedroom 

has been turned into a place of worship. There is a make-shift altar, 

there is a statue of St Philomena and the candles get lit. 

• We see Mrs Wilson take charge of the ritual of the Rosary. 

• We see Andy’s discomfiture at having to go through with the pretence 

that this is a meaningful and spiritual ritual. 

DRAMA 27

28 


Further illustrates central themes and issues 

• Frustrated love: Hannah and Andy get little opportunity to be alone 

or to have the same kind of romantic courtship as any other couple. 

Their time together is constantly interrupted by Cissy’s nightly visits 

and Mrs Wilson’s bell whenever she wants attention or if she is 

suspicious of what Andy and Hannah are up to downstairs. Hannah 

doesn’t want to take up Andy’s offer of having Mrs Wilson to live in 

his cottage because she knows that her mother will not settle for 

anything less than being the head of the house in her own home. But 

this in turn gives Mrs Wilson continued influence and power over 

Andy and Hannah. Andy doesn’t want to be caught in this particular 

trap. A future in Mrs Wilson’s household would be one of servitude 

and strict adherence to Mrs Wilson’s social and religious doctrines. 

• Frustrated Christianity: Mrs Wilson uses the ritual of the Rosary to 

extend her control and dominance over Andy and Hannah. We see 

her manipulate Andy and Hannah. We don’t see any real comforting 

communion or fellowship between caring Christians. We do see Andy 

being forced to take part in the Rosary. We witness a lack of truthful 

spirituality. The proceedings are a sham. 

• Uncertainty about the future: If Hannah won’t live at ‘Riverview’ and 

Andy won’t live at Mrs Wilson’s, this raises the question, ‘What kind of 

future do they have?’ Until Andy arrived on the scene Hannah’s future 

was one of drudgery. Now she has a golden opportunity to escape 

this sort of life, but she is not able to see a way forward out of her 

predicament. 

• The inevitability of repression: Andy and Hannah are forced to go 

through the ritual of the Rosary. Although Andy isn’t happy at 

participating in this particular charade each night, he does so for a 

quiet life. His rhetoric downstairs does not match his actions once he 

is in Mrs Wilson’s lair. We see the influence that Mrs Wilson exerts. 

Mrs Wilson is depicted as dogmatic and authoritarian. We begin to 

appreciate the kind of hold that Mrs Wilson has over her daughter 

when we see how she treats her in this particular scene. 

• Moral responsibility: Although Hannah ‘. . . clumps around the room, 

doing her chores with an ungracious vigour and with obvious ill-will’, 

she does do them. Hannah has been aware of her moral 

responsibilities ever since she was born. She hasn’t abandoned her 

mother although she does have good reason to. She is trapped. 

• Over-bearing rigidity and domination of a restrictive environment: 

Mrs Wilson’s bedroom is representative of this kind of environment. 

Andy is very uncomfortable at being in this room. He is forced to 

accept Mrs Wilson’s dictates and must go through the Rosary ritual. 

He feels hemmed in by the two old women. Hannah likewise is 

affected by this environment. She waits on her mother and is forced 

DRAMA


to set the room up as a place of worship and ‘fellowship’. Mrs Wilson 

insists that there is an order for everything that happens in her house 

and in her bedroom in particular. 

• The influence of the Catholic religion: Mrs Wilson insists on the 

nightly ritual of the Rosary. She has created a place of worship with 

visual reminders of her faith. Mrs Wilson blindly follows her faith and 

continually expresses her devotion to St Philomena. She has latched 

on to the teachings of Father Peyton and recites his maxims ad 

nauseam. Her mantra – ‘The family that prays together stays together’ 

– is a constant reminder to Hannah of her duty in the eyes of the 

Church. 

• Imposed divisions: Mrs Wilson as matriarch continually works at 

driving a wedge between Andy and Hannah. She has imposed her 

own exile to the inner sanctum of her bedroom. Her bedroom is 

above the kitchen and its position in the house has symbolic religious 

overtones – up above is the kingdom of heaven. Throughout their 

exchanges Andy and Hannah physically have to look up above. This 

reinforces Mrs Wilson’s status as well as her apparent ‘goodness’. Mrs 

Wilson has the moral high ground in the eyes of the community and 

the Church. 


Cissy 

• Friel’s notes on Cissy are clearly stated just before her entrance: ‘Cissy 

is a small, frail wisp of a woman in her late sixties. She lives next door, 

is a daily visitor, and because of the close friendship between herself 

and Mrs Wilson she has a proprietary air in the house. A lifetime spent 

lisping pious platitudes has robbed them of all meaning. The sickly 

piousity she exudes is patently false.’ 

• Cissy is obviously an unlikable, cold, waspish character. We are not 

meant to like her or empathise with her position. 

• She is most certainly a symbolic representation of the restrictive, 

repressive, rural Irish society in which Andy and Hannah both live. 

• She is supposedly a devout Christian yet she shows no warmth or 

kindness towards Andy or Hannah. On the contrary, she compounds 

the guilt that Hannah feels as she reminds Hannah of the needs of her 

poor, sickly mother who is all alone in the world. Cissy doesn’t offer 

any moral support to Hannah and her role emphasises the irony that 

Hannah lives in a devout Catholic community which has condemned 

her to a lonely, empty life. 

• Friel points out that Cissy is a shallow character. Here is a woman 

who constantly gives her thanks to God yet has forgotten the basic 

lessons of the Bible. She shows no Christianity in her relationship 

DRAMA 29

30 


with Andy and Hannah. She does, however, conform to a narrow view 

of Christianity. She visits Mrs Wilson every night at 10 o’clock for the 

Rosary. This has become a routine. She is expected to do this out of 

propriety. She doesn’t cheer Mrs Wilson up or try to confront Mrs 

Wilson’s unreasonable behaviour. 

• She adds to the gloom of the repressive environment of Mrs Wilson’s 

bedroom. 

• She blindly supports Mrs Wilson, and Friel uses her to point up the 

hierarchy of the status of each of the women. Mrs Wilson has the 

highest status, then Cissy as an elderly friend and neighbour, then 

Hannah. Andy as the outsider (and a man) has the lowest status in 

this female-dominated environment. 

Mrs Wilson 

• Friel’s notes on Mrs Wilson are also clearly stated: ‘Like Cissy, she is a 

tiny woman, with a sweet, patient, invalid’s smile. Her voice is soft 

and commanding. Her silver hair is drawn back from her face and tied 

with a blue ribbon behind her head. She looks angelic.’ 

• This is not quite the vision that we expect. The impression we get of 

this formidable woman right from the beginning of Losers is supplied 

by Andy. He informs us that Mrs Wilson ‘keeps Hannah on the hop’ 

for little reason other than to exert her authority and position. Andy 

paints a cynical picture of a pious old woman who is suspicious and 

manipulative. This description is confirmed once we eventually see 

Mrs Wilson and watch her interact with the other characters. 

• In truth Mrs Wilson is frightened of losing Hannah and of being left 

an isolated, lonely old woman. She doesn’t want Andy to take Hannah 

away from her. She doesn’t want to leave the home that she has lived 

in all her married life. Her house is her power base. She is 

comfortable there and can do as she pleases. As long as she lives 

there she is the one who is in control and can thus exert power over 

Andy and Hannah. Morally they have to conform to her wishes. This 

is perhaps why she feigns illness. As long as she overplays her ‘illness’ 

she has a stronger hold on Hannah. 

• Mrs Wilson is a symbolic representation of the Catholic church. She is 

the embodiment of Mother Church. Friel uses this character to 

convey the influence that the Catholic church has in this religious 

community. We also see the blind obedience that Mother Church 

commands from her followers. Mrs Wilson’s demanding illness is an 

indication of the unbearable weight of responsibility that the Church 

can put on people in the name of religion. 

• Mrs Wilson echoes the guilt feelings the Church can elicit from each 

individual conscience, the restrictions these impose, the rituals, the 

unquestioning belief that all true followers of the Catholic faith 

DRAMA


should have, the rigid adherence to church laws and papal edicts, the 

obligations, devotions and traditions. 

• Mrs Wilson selects the elements of her faith that she needs to assert 

her dominance. She hides behind the platitudes of righteous and 

saintly living. 

• She deliberately and powerfully suppresses Hannah and Andy as they 

threaten her comfortable status quo. 

• Her chief ally is Cissy. Cissy is subservient to Mrs Wilson. This 

reinforces what one would expect from the older generation, blind 

obedience to the Catholic faith. Remember Cissy symbolises a pious, 

repressive community and her relationship with Mrs Wilson (who 

symbolises the power and influence of the Church) has wider 

significance than that of two lonely, cynical and bitter old women. 

The combined force and influence of these two women proves too 

much for Andy and Hannah to overcome. 

• It is ironic that this embodiment of Christianity shows so little charity, 

mercy or Christianity towards Hannah or Andy. Mrs Wilson is utterly 

selfish and self-centred. 

Andy 

• This Extract emphasises the futility of Andy’s position. 

• His solutions to Hannah’s problems with her mother are rejected. 

• He lacks the strength of character to give Hannah any kind of 

ultimatum. 

• He doesn’t stand up to Cissy or Mrs Wilson. 

• He conforms to society’s expectations. 

• He knows that he has to keep on the right side of Mrs Wilson as he is 

not a match for her; he is not brave enough, he is not energetic 

enough and he is not articulate enough. 

Hannah 

• This Extract also emphasises the futility of Hannah’s position. 

• She is at a low ebb and clearly worn out from all the running around 

that she has to do. 

• She rejects Andy’s solutions to her predicament as she cannot ignore 

her mother’s needs. 

• She is unable to rise above society’s expectations of a loving 

daughter. 

• She wants to be free from the drudgery of her life in her mother’s 

house, yet she is unable to make the difficult decision to abandon her 

mother. 

DRAMA 31

32 


Why would this Extract be important in your production of 

the play? 

• How does this key Extract develop your overall directorial 

interpretation? 

• As a director how do you feel Cissy should be portrayed? Is she a 

complex character or a caricature? How will she make her entrance? 

How will you want the audience to feel towards her? How will all 

these aspects affect the acting of this character? 

• How will you establish Cissy’s status in this Extract? 

• Who is made to feel an outsider? Why? How will you show this? 

• How will you build the tension between Cissy and Andy? 

• How will you show Hannah’s frustration in this Extract? 

• As a director, how do you want Andy and Hannah to relate to each 

other in this Extract? 

• How will you handle the passionate embrace between Andy and 

Hannah this time? What do you want the audience to feel by the end 

of this sequence? 

• As a director how do you feel Mrs Wilson should be portrayed? Is she 

a complex character or a caricature? How will you want the audience 

to feel towards her? How will these aspects affect the acting of this 

character? 

• What kind of relationship does Hannah have with her mother? How 

will you get your actors to communicate this relationship to the 

audience? 

• What kind of relationship does Andy have with Mrs Wilson? How will 

you get your actor to communicate this? 

• What kind of atmosphere will you create in Mrs Wilson’s bedroom? 

How will you achieve this? 

• How will you show the dominance and status of the different 

characters? 

DRAMA


• What design elements would help you highlight the moods and 

tensions within this Extract? 

• What design elements will you use to show that this bedroom has 

been transformed into a sacred place of worship? 

• How will you show Andy’s discomfiture in this Extract? 

Notes 

DRAMA 33

34 


DRAMA


Losers 

Extract Three 

(pages 68-77) 

Why might this Extract be important in your production of 

the play? 

Develops plot 

• We have returned to Andy in his sanctuary in the back yard. He has 

brought us back to the present to give us further anecdotes and he 

prepares us for the climax of the play. He gives us a blow-by-blow 

account of his downfall. He reveals that things started to go wrong for 

him as soon as he got married. For starters he was hoodwinked into 

moving into Mrs Wilson’s house after his honeymoon was over. 

• Andy reveals that one of the reasons that he got married was to 

dodge being sent to Northern Ireland by his firm. 

• Andy reveals that he noticed a big change in his relationship with 

Hannah as soon as they got married. ‘The spirit seemed to drain out 

of her from the very beginning.’ 

• Andy gives an insight into his married life and we cannot help but 

compare this to the earlier passionate courting sequences. It is ironic 

that once they get married Mrs Wilson only rings her bell when Andy 

and Hannah start to speak. When they were courting she would ring 

her bell if there was a long silence! We get the impression that Andy 

and Hannah’s marriage has become one of long silences. 

• Andy reveals that when he initially moved into Mrs Wilson’s house he 

refused to join in the nightly ritual of the Rosary. This was his protest 

at not being in his rightful place, in his own home, ‘Riverview’. He 

reveals that Mrs Wilson is not happy with this protest. 

• Andy reveals that he made a mess of exacting his revenge on Mrs 

Wilson once he discovered that the Vatican proclaimed that there 

should be no further devotions to St Philomena. He got drunk and 

‘bollixed it’. This sets us up for the big confrontation between Andy 

and the women. The fact that he has warned us about what is about to 

be shown increases the dramatic tension and provides further 

dramatic irony. 

DRAMA 35

36 


• We go back in time to the moment just before Andy returns home. It 

is 10.30pm and a late time of the night for Andy to be out. This in 

itself is uncharacteristic of Andy. Hannah is very worried about Andy. 

‘She has been crying for some time.’ 

• Cissy and Mrs Wilson try to comfort Hannah. They start the Rosary. 

• We hear Andy before he makes his drunken entrance into Mrs 

Wilson’s bedroom. The women are horrified by this lapse of character 

and by Andy’s transformation. 

• The alcohol has freed Andy from his inhibitions. He is rude and 

offensive. He confronts his tormentors and desecrates Mrs Wilson’s 

place of worship. We have reached the hilariously comical climax of 

the play and revel in Andy’s bluntness, his rudeness and his vulgarity. 

• The women escape to Cissy’s house. Hannah’s parting words sound 

very ominous. ‘You’ll regret this day as long as you live!’ ‘By God, 

he’ll pay for this!’ 

• Andy takes us back to the point in time that the play started. He hints 

at what could have been when he informs us that he has tenants in his 

cottage, a retired accountant and his wife. He paints a romantic 

picture of this couple who have ‘rose trees in the front and vegetables 

in the back’. He on the other hand sits in a gloomy back yard and 

‘kills an hour or two’. He has lots of time to kill. He has been 

ostracised by the three women, they have not forgiven him his past 

sins. Andy reveals that he once more takes part in the nightly ritual of 

the Rosary. There is no likelihood that things will change in the 

foreseeable future. 

• Andy reveals that Hannah no longer sleeps with him. She sleeps in 

Mrs Wilson’s bedroom in case her mother takes ill during the night. 

Andy and Hannah’s marriage has become a dysfunctional one. 

• Andy’s life has become one of passive acceptance. 

• Mrs Wilson has managed to stay in her own house with her daughter 

still waiting on her hand and foot. Her son-in-law is kept in his place 

and she is in overall control. ‘The family that prays together stays 

together.’ 

• As the play comes to an end we once again question the irony of the 

title of each half. All four lovers have the will to live and love, but all 

of them are set against circumstances that frustrate them. These 

circumstances are all representations of everyday repression and it is 

the individual who suffers. Do Mag and Joe escape the fate of Andy 

and Hannah? 

DRAMA


Further illustrates central themes and issues 

• Frustrated love: We know that Andy and Hannah’s relationship is 

doomed as soon as Andy reveals that he was persuaded to live in Mrs 

Wilson’s house. We question the true depth of Andy’s love when he 

reveals that a big reason for marrying Hannah was to avoid being sent 

to Belfast. His relationship with Hannah changed as soon as they got 

married. ‘But somehow the spirit seemed to drain out of her from the 

very beginning.’ This is an ominous sign and indicates that the 

passion they had was to disappear. Once they were married Hannah 

did not show the same intensity of anger towards her mother. 

• Frustrated Christianity: The fallibility of the Catholic church, as 

exemplified in the relegation of St Philomena, highlights the 

pointlessness of some of the outdated rituals. Mrs Wilson and Cissy’s 

strict adherence to their very narrow view of Christianity conjures up 

the medieval view of ‘Heaven and Hell’. Their Christianity has been 

made a thing of drudgery not love. 

• Uncertainty about the future: Uncertainty has become certainty. We 

know that there is little likelihood of any significant change in Andy’s 

circumstances. Mrs Wilson could go on for many years. So Andy 

returns to his refuge and stares at a brick wall to kill time. He doesn’t 

even share the same bed as Hannah. This is a bleak future for both 

Andy and Hannah. 

• The inevitability of repression: As soon as Andy disgraces himself he 

contributes to his own demise and his repression is complete. 

Hannah has the justification that she needs to side with her mother 

and conform to the loving daughter role that is demanded of her. She 

has the moral high ground. She is disgusted by Andy’s crass, vulgar 

behaviour. She returns to her mother with a clear and righteous 

conscience. The irony of course is that she has played into the hands 

of her mother. Hannah’s repression is complete. She continues her 

life of servitude. 

• Moral responsibility: Divorce is not an option for Andy. He conforms 

to the role of a supportive husband. His life has become one of quiet 

acceptance. Hannah continues with her obligation to look after her 

mother. 


Andy has no chance of being freed from Mrs Wilson’s house as long as 

she lives. He no longer has Hannah as an ally. She has sided with her 

mother and Cissy. Hannah now helps Mrs Wilson to impose her rigid 

and restrictive regime. Andy will follow the example of Mr Wilson 

before him. 

• The influence of the Catholic religion: The devotion to St Philomena 

stops, Father Peyton no longer gets mentioned by name, but Mrs 

Wilson ‘still has the altar and she still lights the candles and has the 

DRAMA 37

38 


flowers in the middle’. We end the play with the clear affirmation that 

the enduring and pervading influence of the Catholic church 

continues to have a firm grip on Andy. 

• Hope: Andy has his dreams. The cosy picture that he paints of the 

accountant and his wife reflects what he wants for himself. 

• Imposed divisions: Hannah now sleeps in her mother’s bedroom. 

Andy sleeps alone. 


Andy 

• Andy reveals that he is a pragmatist rather than a romantic when he 

informs us that one of the reasons he married Hannah was to avoid 

being sent to Belfast. 

• Andy is easily duped by Hannah and her mother. He doesn’t take a 

stand against going back to Mrs Wilson’s house after his honeymoon. 

• His monologue at the beginning of this Extract consolidates his role 

as the outsider. 

• His relationship with Hannah has changed. He is now a lonely, 

ostracised middle-aged man who would have been happier remaining 

a bachelor and living in his own cottage. 

• Andy manages to have one chance to get back at his mother-in-law. 

He is given the ideal ammunition to use. He lacks the moral fibre to 

reveal his devastating news about St Philomena in a sober state. His 

glorious drunken attack provides the climax of the play and proves to 

be his undoing. 

Hannah 

• We see Hannah in a state of distress at the beginning of this Extract. 

She is worried about her husband. She is given moral support by her 

mother and Cissy. ‘Trite words of consolation are being spoken. And 

one gets the sense of feminine solidarity and of suffering 

womanhood.’ 

• Once she realises that Andy is drunk she is devastated. In her eyes 

Andy has descended to the depths of depravity and his moral decay 

has an instant effect. 

• She sides with her mother against Andy. She can now justifiably do 

this with a clear and righteous conscience. 

• Our final stage picture of Hannah is one of an unattractive, cold 

woman who has lost any passionate interest in her husband. ‘Her 

coldness is withering.’ 

• We are reminded of her earlier courtship when Andy offered her the 

clove rock. Her rejection of his peace offering is symbolic of the 

emptiness of their married life. 

DRAMA


Mrs Wilson 

• Whilst Hannah is in despair over Andy’s lateness and subsequent 

drunken behaviour, Mrs Wilson takes control of the situation. 

• She momentarily loses her composure when Andy utters his tirade 

against her. This is a big shift in power and control. The alcohol has 

liberated Andy and we are delighted at the effect that his home truths 

have on the tyrant who has repressed and dominated him. Now it is 

Mrs Wilson’s turn to be dominated and feel helpless. 

• The balance of power soon shifts however, and by the end of the play 

the status quo has been restored. Mrs Wilson has managed to secure 

her dominance once more. Andy can no longer avoid going upstairs 

to go over the Rosary and this reasserts Mrs Wilson’s position as the 

head of the house. ‘By God you’ve got to admire the aul’ bitch. She 

could handle a regiment.’ 

Cissy 

• Cissy is initially in her element when she supports Hannah through 

her crisis. 

• She is shocked to the core when Andy comes home drunk. Andy’s 

attack on Cissy is an attack on the sensibilities of the repressive 

community that has helped to keep him trapped in Mrs Wilson’s 

house. She is shown up and put in her place. She cannot cope with 

Andy’s lapse in character. His attack confirms her very dim view of 

men. 

• We delight in her discomfiture. She has no defence against Andy’s 

brutal and vulgar attack; her only recourse is to flee to her own house 

with Mrs Wilson and Hannah. 

• By the end of the play she has regained her composure. She will 

never let Andy forget his degenerate behaviour. She forcibly asserts 

her dominance and status when she confronts Andy, ‘You robbed us 

of Saint Philomena but you’ll never rob us of this one, you’ll never be 

told who it is!’ 

DRAMA 39

40 


Why might this Extract be important in your production of 

the play? 

• How does this Extract conclude your overall directorial 

interpretation of the play? 

• How will you build the dramatic tension prior to Andy’s drunken 

entrance? What is the mood that you want to create at this point? 

How does the mood change throughout the rest of this sequence? 

How will this affect the pace and delivery of the lines that each 

character speaks? 

• How will you direct the uproariously funny climax of the play? 

• How will you show Andy’s temporary domination of the women? 

• How will you want the audience to react to Andy’s drunken tirade 

against ‘The Dolly Sisters’? 

• What message do you want the audience to take away? How do you 

want them to feel at the end of the play? How will you achieve this? 

• What mood will you want to create in Andy’s final monologue? How 

will you achieve it? 

DRAMA


Notes 

DRAMA 41

42 


DRAMA


Note on the Rosary 

There are many references to the Rosary in Losers. The following 

explanatory notes are given to enable you to appreciate the significance 

this ritual has in the context of the play. 

The Rosary is a form of religious meditation in which a sequence of 

prayers is recited using a string of beads or a knotted cord, each bead or 

knot representing one prayer in the sequence. The sequence of one Our 

Father, ten Hail Marys and one Glory be to the Father constitutes a 

decade of the Rosary repeated fifteen times in the full version or five 

times in the shorter version. Each decade is associated with a particular 

‘Mystery’ or meditation on an aspect of the life of Christ or the Virgin 

Mary. The prayer sequence dates from the fifteenth century. The fifteen 

mysteries are: 

Five Joyful Mysteries 

- the Annunciation 

- the Visitation 

- the Nativity 

- the Presentation 

- finding the child Jesus in the Temple 

Five Sorrowful Mysteries 

- the Agony in the Garden 

- the Scourging at the Pillar 

- the Crown of Thorns 

- the Carrying of the Cross 

- the Crucifixion 

Five Glorious Mysteries 

- the Resurrection 

- the Ascension 

- Pentecost 

- the Assumption 

- the Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven 

DRAMA 43

44 

DIRECTORY OF ACTING PIECES 

Acting roles 

DRAMA 

SECTION B 

Mag 

A strong female role well suited to a young actress. The danger with the 

portrayal of this character is that it is all too easy to show her mood 

swings and fall into the trap of presenting a two-dimensional character 

by over-acting. Mag is a complex character. The actress should 

endeavour to show her hidden depths. Mag is a lively, vibrant character 

and there is plenty of opportunity to use movement to get across her 

changing moods. Movement could also be used to good effect in the 

sequences where she uses mimicry to get back at her oppressors. 

Ideally, Mag should have an Irish accent. The language Mag uses in the 

play adds to her appeal as it is full of romantic imagery and has a likable, 

Irish quality to it.There is a great deal of humour in the lines that Mag 

delivers. Mag’s lines also demonstrate her maddening contradictions as 

well as her insecurity. Her assertions may well be irksome at times, and 

there is evidence of an immature Mag. However, we do also gain a 

sympathetic view of her when she reveals her naive, fretful, innermost 

thoughts. Mag and Joe are in love. The actress has to be able to convey 

this powerful emotion. There are many occasions in the play where this 

could be demonstrated through close physical contact. The actress has 

to feel comfortable with this and not show any kind of embarrassment. 

Mag wants to be loved and cared for by Joe and to know that he will not 

abandon her but stick by her. 

Joe 

A strong male role well suited to a young actor. The danger for the actor 

here is to underplay the part to the point that Joe is overshadowed by 

Mag. This appears to happen to a certain extent in the script. However, 

Joe does have plenty of opportunities to make his presence felt. Joe is a 

big contrast to Mag. He too is a complex character. The actor has to 

show his quiet bookish nature, his conformist side, his vulnerability, his 

insecurity; and yet the actor must also deliver the histrionic sequences 

where he uses mimicry to get back at his oppressors. (Joe can be as 

much of a madcap as Mag. This is one of the reasons why she has fallen 

in love with him.) The mimicry sequences are the ideal places for the 

actor to use a range of movement skills to create the caricatures of Mr 

Kerrigan, Father Kelly et al. Ideally, Joe should have an Irish accent. 

There are a number of very tense, angry exchanges between Joe and


Mag. The actor needs to convey his frustration at not being able to fulfil 

his ambitions. Joe loves Mag dearly and this serves as a counterbalance 

to the angry exchanges. The actor should be able to show the 

tenderness and gentleness of Joe’s feelings for Mag. The actor needs to 

feel comfortable with these very romantic moments in the play. 

Andy 

Comedy can look easy to pull off, but in practice it requires a delicate 

balance of performance skills. This role is very easily over-acted. The 

actor must avoid merely presenting Andy as a comical buffoon. 

Remember Friel states that Andy is regarded as ‘a slightly dull man’ and 

that he is ‘unaware of the humour in a lot of the things that he says’. If 

you play the role of Andy for laughs and deliver his lines as rehearsed 

‘gags’, then you are missing the point. In many ways Andy is quite a 

gentle character. He is gauche and inexperienced. He is uncomfortable 

in the company of women. The strained conversation between Andy and 

Hannah gives a clear insight into this aspect of his character. Ideally, 

Andy should have an Irish accent. His lines give the actor plenty of 

scope to use a variety of voice techniques. The actor must not overplay 

the comedy of his lines and ensure that due attention is given to comic 

timing. The difficulty for a young actor is getting across that Andy is 

middle-aged. This is particularly pertinent when it comes to portraying 

Andy in movement terms. Fifty is not old. But, it is Andy’s age that helps 

to work the comedy of the courting sequences. The audience is shocked 

and embarrassed as they don’t expect to see this middle-aged couple 

courting in the way that they do in the play. These sequences are 

certainly farcical, yet they should get the audience to consider the 

sadness of the ridiculous ploy that two middle-aged lovers have to use. 

Remember their ploy is used in order to do something as innocent as 

kissing. The difficulty for a young actor is to be able to deliver the 

balance of comedy and pathos. He needs to avoid presenting Andy as a 

ridiculous caricature. Andy is concerned about what others in his strict 

Catholic community think of him. He is a conformist. He needs these 

people to see him as a ‘decent’ and ‘civil’ man. 

Hannah 

A challenging female role. We have to see the change in Hannah’s 

character from passionate middle-aged lover and begrudging house 

servant to the devoted daughter, ‘the image of her mother’, who spurns 

her husband due to his drunken outburst. Hannah is uncomfortable in 

the company of men. We know in part that this is because she has had 

little contact with men, including her own father. We sense that her 

mother is suspicious of men. Ipso facto Hannah is suspicious of men. 

After all she has not had the attentions of a man for over twenty years. 

DRAMA 45

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(This helps to explain her awkwardness and diffident relationship with 

Andy near the beginning of Losers.) In all this time she has been ‘forced’ 

to look after her invalid mother. Having met Andy she has grabbed what 

is possibly her last chance of romance. She is the one who takes the 

initiative in the courting sequences. She is desperate for love and 

affection. She is eager to escape her life of loneliness and daily 

drudgery. When we first see Hannah she sides with Andy against her 

mother. We see her attend her mother ‘with an ungracious vigour and 

obvious ill-will’. The actress playing this role has to create a believable 

character. This is not a two-dimensional comedy part. Hannah is of 

course integral to the comic action. It is the ferocity of her passionate 

embraces with Andy, coupled with the comic device of reciting the 

poem, that fuels a large chunk of the comedy in Losers. The actress 

must also deliver Hannah’s anger and frustration at being forced to look 

after her mother. Towards the end of Losers we see that passionate 

relationship with Andy has vanished and that ‘her coldness to him is 

withering’. Hannah should have an Irish accent. The exchanges between 

Andy and Hannah need a careful balance of timing for maximum comic 

effect. 

Mrs Wilson 

A very dominant female character part. She is a heightened caricature. 

She has an Irish accent. We start to get an impression of Mrs Wilson 

before we even see her. She is manipulative and has managed to have 

things her own way until Andy arrives on the scene and threatens her 

comfortable position. She uses her ‘illness’ as a weapon against Andy. 

The actress has to be able to portray the transparency of Mrs Wilson’s 

‘suffering’ as well as her steely determination to continue to have things 

her own way. Mrs Wilson uses religion to assert her position and 

dominance. She represents Mother Church. Friel paints a negative 

picture of Mrs Wilson, as she does with Cissy. ‘Like Cissy, she is a tiny 

woman, with a sweet, patient, invalid’s smile’. She is a stereotypical old 

widow who is frightened of being left on her own. She is in her early 

seventies and bedridden. She is harsh and unfeeling. Like Cissy she 

offers no benevolence to Andy and Hannah. This is a very good part 

offering humorous opportunities. 

Cissy 

A highly comic female character part. Cissy is a heightened caricature. 

She is a blatantly false character who exudes false piousness. Friel paints 

a very negative picture of Cissy. She is the symbolic representation of 

the straightlaced society that Andy and Hannah live in. Cissy also 

personifies a certain type of religious person who shows no benevolence 

towards her fellow men and women, especially in the case of Andy and 

DRAMA


Hannah. This is a gift of a role to an actress who can get across Cissy’s 

waspish, interfering nature. Cissy is a stereotypical old spinster, ‘a small, 

frail wisp of a woman’. She has an Irish accent. We sense that she is 

afraid of men and doesn’t like being in their company. She is a woman 

in her late sixties, close to Mrs Wilson, her chief ally. There is plenty of 

opportunity in this role for comic interaction with the other characters 

in the play. The audience relishes her reaction to Andy’s verbal attack in 

the drunken climax to Losers. 

DRAMA 47

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Recommended acting pieces 

Winners, Episode One 

Page reference: 14-18 

Opening line: JOE: ‘Come on! Cut it out, will you! That’ll do!’ 

Closing line: MAG: ‘A holy-cost, by God.’ 

Casting: 1 male and 1 female 

Characters: Mag and Joe 

Approximate length: 8 minutes 

Comments: A good scene for two actors. It offers the opportunity 

to use accent, movement and mimicry. This scene establishes the 

relationship between the young lovers, Mag and Joe. We see the 

contrast in their personalities and gain an insight into their 

predicament. Mag is pregnant. Both she and Joe have been 

expelled from school. They meet on the top of Ardnageeha to 

study for their final exams which they have been allowed to sit 

despite the disgrace that they have brought upon themselves. We 

are introduced to their oppressors: the Church, their teachers, 

their parents, and the people who live in their straightlaced 

community. 

DRAMA

Winners, Episode One 


Opening line: MAG: ‘Joe, d’you think my legs have got thick, my 

body gross, my facial expression passive to dull, 

and my eyes lack-lustre?’ 

Closing line: JOE: ‘What in the name of God does it mean?’ 


Characters: Mag and Joe 



Comments: Mag’s prattle is indicative of her insecurity. We clearly 

see her vulnerability as well as the love that she feels for Joe. Joe 

on the other hand lashes out at Mag and challenges her romantic 

view of the future. This reveals his confusion and anger at the 

prospect of being forced into marriage and becoming a father at 

the age of 17 when he has aspirations to do something more with 

his life. We see his vulnerability. Their argument is quickly curtailed 

as Mag pretends to go into labour. We see Mag use her false labour 

pains to manipulate Joe in order to exert control over him. Once 

Joe recovers from his shock he buries himself in his books. Mag 

goes back to her melodramatic tales. We finish this Episode with a 

picture of Joe’s conformity and Mag’s romanticism. 

DRAMA 49

50 


Losers, Extract One 


Opening line: ANDY: ‘Well, Hannah.’ 

Closing line: HANNAH: ‘Shut up, will you.’ 


Characters: Andy and Hannah 


Comments: This is a good comic scene for two able actors. The 

important thing in this Extract is to convey the diffident, awkward 

relationship between the middle-aged lovers. There is plenty of 

scope for comic action with the formality at the start contrasting 

with the antics on the couch. The secret in playing this scene well 

is to slightly underplay the comedy at the start. The timing of the 

lines is crucial. There is a stilted, strained quality to the dialogue to 

begin with, which gives way to a fast and furious pace when Andy 

starts to recite the poem. This sequence conveys the couple’s 

uncertain approach to lovemaking. They are both very 

uncomfortable in each other’s company. They don’t know how to 

have a natural conversation. Andy is clumsy and tactless. When 

Hannah pounces she is making the most of her opportunity as she 

is desperate for a little love and affection. The audience should 

find the extract very funny, but they should also feel pity for this 

couple who have had to resort to duplicity to do something as 

innocent as kissing. 

DRAMA

Losers, Extracts Two and Three 


Opening line: HANNAH: ‘Look at – the invalid tray!’ 

Closing line: OTHERS: ‘As it was in the beginning, is now and 

ever shall be, world without end, Amen.’ 


Opening line: MRS WILSON: I promise you, dear: he’s all right. I 

know he is. 

Closing line: HANNAH: ‘He’ll pay for this. By God, he’ll pay for 

this!’ 

Casting: 1 male and 3 females 

Characters: Hannah, Andy, Cissy and Mrs Wilson 

Approximate length: 12 - 18 minutes 


Comments: If you combine these Extracts you have enough 

material to assess all four characters. In the first Extract Mrs 

Wilson’s part falls short of the time requirements. One possible 

solution to this problem is to have a brief pause and/or a blackout, 

to denote the passage of time, and then continue with Extract 

Two. Combining both Extracts gives each actor more opportunities 

to show a range of acting skills, especially those playing Cissy and 

Mrs Wilson. 

Pages 60-67 

This is a deceptively straightforward Extract. There is a variety of 

mood and strong contrasts among the four characters. We see the 

interplay between the characters and witness the stranglehold that 

the Church and the community have over Andy and Hannah. To 

begin with it is Cissy who establishes her authority and domination 

over Andy. We should cringe at her piousness. The hypocrisy of 

her character should also be evident throughout. To begin with 

Andy is flippant towards Cissy and tries to send her up. We see 

Hannah’s frustration; she is at a low ebb. The futility of Hannah and 

Andy’s predicament is emphasised in this Extract. Once we are in 

Mrs Wilson’s bedroom the Extract highlights Mrs Wilson’s 

domination and clearly shows the control that she exerts over 

Andy and Hannah. 

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Pages 71-75 

This Extract quickly brings Losers to its uproariously funny climax. 

To begin with the atmosphere is very tense as Hannah frets about 

Andy’s lateness. We revel in Andy’s entrance and his drunken 

tirade. There are plenty of comic opportunities in this scene – 

from the exaggerated indignation and shock of the women to 

Andy’s uncharacteristic honesty as he delivers a few home truths 

with the dutch courage of alcohol. Andy’s manner is bellicose as he 

confronts Mrs Wilson. We see that the balance of power has 

switched. We enjoy watching Cissy and Mrs Wilson’s distress. Andy 

has won a temporary victory. 

DRAMA

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