PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

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DIRECTORY OF ACTING PIECES
(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