PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

DIRECTORY OF ACTING PIECES
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