Scene 2 analysis

This is the scene where William and Lily get to know each other, this is also the scene where William lies about his parents being dead and where he asks Lily out. In this scene the two characters seem to bounce off each other a lot when describing how horrible their home town is. We wanted to emphasise this idea through our movements. As appose to a lot of the other scenes where all our characters mainly stay sitting down, occasionally standing to go get another book, we wanted to portray an excited atmosphere as the characters express there opinions confidently. To do this we walked around the room a lot as we said our lines, running at some points. We jumped on and off the table creating larger gestures with our hands than usual. After we finish bouncing off each other we sit back down on the table facing the audience.

This is when William lies to Lily about his parents being dead. We decided to face the audience for this so the audience can see are facial expressions clearly, instead of just seeing the side of our face. With this part of the scene we didn't want to move around a lot, we wanted to maintain a serious atmosphere and we wanted the audience to focus on what we were saying as appose to our movements. Then came the part where William calls Lily up on the burns on our arms. This is when Lily shows William how she burns herself. To do this I got a lighter and placed it a few spaces behind were my arm was resting. So from the audiences perspective it looks like the lighter is burning me, but from where I am standing the lighter is no-where near me. Using this illusion maintains the safe environment.

After this part in the scene we are supposed to talk about how we are like machines and animals. This part was cut from our script to stop the play being too long. Instead the scene jumps straight to William asking Lily out. After rehearsing this scene a lot we found that it disturbed the flow of the scene, it made it seem too jolty. We wanted it to flow into the same fluent conversation we had evolved. I decided that William needed to make contact with Lily at some point before he asks her out. To do this, we made William take the lighter from Lily, but linger as he slowly takes the lighter from her hand. This creates tension between the characters as they hold a position including physical contact in. This then allows a short pause to be placed as he stirs up the courage to ask Lily out.

After Lily denies his offer of a date we wanted the last few lines to be rushed as Lily attempts to reassure him that he isn't the reason she said no to his burst of affection. This creates a panicked atmosphere but also a comedic one. Just as William leaves the scene I suggested he comes back on again after realising he has forgotten his book. Again this makes the scene a lot more laughable rather than awkward.