KNOT HEART - Almeida Theatre

CharactersLUCYLucy formerly worked as a children’s television presenter on apopular CBBC programme about wildlife. She was a bright,creative and outgoing child, a talented performer who studied atstage school Italia Conti, and went on to enjoy a successfulcareer in presenting – a career that is still potentially movingforward. She suffered from nerves, and used drugs to help relax,however rapidly developed an addiction to them. She is verymuch her mother’s daughter, and the two enjoy a closerelationship, although Lucy sometimes feels distant from hermother. She acknowledges that she has had a good and stablelife, with no small measure of happiness. However she holds astrong ideal of the person she ‘should’ be, and the expectationof her mother and social class.BARBARAMother of Lucy and Angela. Barbara is from a generation andclass where one’s personal family problems are not spokenabout openly. Barbara’s love for her family leads her to deny toherself the truth of situations. She feels instinctively closer toLucy than Angela, the latter whom she has never reallyunderstood. She has a warm heart and is desperate to helpLucy, wanting to keep her under the roof - this she understandsas safe. She can be selfish and dismissive of people sheperceives of lesser social or moral standing. Barbara was ayoung woman in the sixties, where she dabbled with drugs withher husband. Her husband was an alcoholic but Barbara is, tosome extent, in denial about this.ANGELAAngela is Lucy’s older sister, aged 36. She has never had a closerelationship with her mother but was more akin to her father;she has a fiery relationship with Lucy. She was an intellectualchild, and felt in the shadow of her outgoing sister. She is ahigh-ranking lawyer with a successful career that she hasworked hard to achieve. She has not had many lovers, and isstill without a partner, something her mother often reminds herof. She carries a lot of a bitter anger with hard-nosedpragmatism – she believes she can see the self-delusion hermother and sister indulge in and often lets it be known.5 Resource Pack: The Knot of the Heart