A Cream cracker under the settee Essay

Good morning everyone, I would like to welcome you all to the first rehearsal of ‘A cream cracker under the settee’ starring Lisa Pattern who will be known as Doris in the monologue. Doris is shown as an isolated and lonely character, a woman that is strongly opinionated in what she says “I don’t think their married, half of them.” Doris is also critical of people “Yvonne, the funny daughter.” In the first half of the monologue the audience are immediately aware of Doris’ bad leg as she rubs it and already feel sympathetic for her. Doris’ husband is also mentioned in the first half and hints of a baby they had together that did not live long.

We will begin from the start of page eighty six Lisa. As you can see Doris begins by talking about the policeman, the line “The policeman comes past now and again.” Would sound effective if said in a sad, quiet but sarcastic voice with the emphasis on “…now and again”, Doris should say this slowly and quietly but still keeping the sarcastic tone. The reason why she says the line like that is because she feels upset and maybe a bit angry those policemen are not around much anymore.

After this line is said the camera cuts to outside Doris’ house, it then goes into slow motion and a ghostly figure of a policeman walks past and the starts to fade away. All surrounding noises are blanked out and the noise of the footsteps are emphasised. The reason for this is to show how Doris is picturing the police problem and how the street seems ghostly and inhospitable.

As we move down page eighty six Doris goes on to talk about a pram. “More like cars than prams.” This line is a moment of reflection for Doris, as speaking the line you should look up to show Doris is imagining the prams back in her days.

At the end of the paragraph we introduce Wilfred, his name is mentioned in a past conversation Doris had with him. Wilfred is a much laid back person who took each day as it came. He is unorganised man “He had no list.” Although he seemed to be in control of Doris, Doris always had the last word in the arguments. Wilfred is a dreamer who enjoyed his garden before he pasted away “He had to have his little garden even if it was only a bush.” Instead of Doris speaking the lines of Wilfred, the producer has recruited Jimmy Carter to play the part of Wilfred. Wilfred will shown as a flashback, a flashback that appears above her right shoulder symbolising that he was important in her life and a good spirit. The flashback will be shown as a hazy cloud showing Wilfred. When the line: “At that pace, Doris?” is said it is to be slightly blurred and echoing so it sounds like a past memory in her head.

Zulema is then mentioned as you can see; you as Doris are annoyed with this strict and selfish character. Doris does not like Zulema because she feels that Zulema is constantly trying to get her into Stafford house (an old person care home) To Doris Stafford house represents the end of her life, she knows that if she goes in she will not come out. It will be the end of her independence. When talking about Zulema ‘regime’, in a sarcastic manner, you use your fingers as inverted commas.

When Doris explains what Zulema does and says a voice over is used for what Zulema says. It is an echoing voice. The camera angle will be the same level as Doris sitting on the floor (Medium shot) with the faint noise of cars so the audience are aware of the outside world.

Turn to page eighty eight, Doris, there you can see the line: “I wanted him called John.” I want to make this emotional as possible so I have decided to make you cry while saying this line. If you cannot cry naturally then we will cut and use water, the editor will deal with joining the bits together when we cut the scene. I want you to cry to show how sad you are about a baby you had. As Doris starts crying the camera slowly zooms into her face to emphasis her feelings.

At the end of that paragraph the scene fades out giving the audience time to reflect on the events that have pasted. The camera then fades in, showing Doris in another position. She is shown rubbing her leg but the audience are already aware that Doris had problems with her leg at the beginning of the monologue where my stage directions explain her ‘sitting slightly awkwardly’ and rubbing her leg’ she also says “I should never have tried to dust.”

As we move onto page eighty nine. Doris comes into contact with a Cream cracker that she finds under the settee. I want the cameras to go low at this point to show the cracker under the settee. The reason for this is because I want the audience to realise the seriousness of the situation, “A cream cracker under the settee. She wants reporting.” You are angry at Zulema because you feel she has not done her job properly.

Looking further down the page Doris starts thinking about all the horrible things that she might encounter in Stafford house. She starts to spell out her feelings, “I am H.A.P.P.Y. I am not H.A.P.P.Y. I am un-H.A.P.P.Y. or I would be. I have decided to work on this part because it is of great importance in the monologue so far because it shows that Doris might be loosing it and going mad or that she wants her feelings to be known. The first and second ‘H.A.P.P.Y’ should be said loud but slow, as for the last one ‘un-H.A.P.P.Y’ that should start off loud but then your voice should quieten towards the end and sound sadder. The lighting could go duller at that point as well.