A Cream Cracker Under The Settee by Alan Bennett The beginning of any literary work is not to be undermined for it is essentially the first impression we get of said text. It is exceptionally true for dramas, where when viewers experiences it first-hand, they cannot go back to reread it as they could with prose or poetry. Therefore the first scene is ought to raise awareness onstage as well as in literary criticism. The first scene, words, characters present will set the mood and could set the viewer’s expectations. Giving deeper analysis to opening scenes, many things can be discovered about a play. I would even go as far as to claim that in many cases the first scene, or even sentences will determine what the play is about. Alan Bennett’s play A Cream Cracker Under The Settee begins (and continues) with the monologue of Doris, the seventy-five years old widow. She appears alone onstage which automatically highlights her, and gives her importance. Having only one character present will inevitably draw the attention to them, which attention might remain until the end of the play despite knowing whether or not she will continue being the only …show more content…
Doris “is sitting slightly awkwardly on a low chair and rubbing her leg” and remains in this position for long minutes. This creates a link between the empty room and her inability to fill it, showing the viewer her loneliness, old age, and pain. The stillness of the stage is in harmony with her being motionless. The lack of action happening onstage supports why her monologue works so well dramatically. Doris either recites past events or talks in conditional, imagining situations. She cannot move forward, neither literally nor figuratively. The action (or lack thereof) onstage must be passive because Doris herself is passive. When later on movement happens, it either works in a way to enhance her despair or it happens in the dark, and we meet Doris sat still
The first line of a novel needs to capture the reader. In the novel Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls the author tries to hook the reader with an interesting first sentence: “When I left my office that beautiful spring day, I had no idea what was in store for me.” (pg. 1). I feel that this sentence does bring the reader in and created a sense of curiosity of what would
As soon as we open act 1 scene 1, we immediately see the theme of the
Bennett's Characterisation of Graham in A Chip in the Sugar and Irene in A Lady of Letters
Through December 5th through the 7th, I performed in Thornton Wilder’s play of Our Town. The only sets or props that the actors or actresses used where folding chairs for us to sit in, umbrellas to hide Emily (Julie Dumbler), and flats on both sides of the stage to hide the people behind them. The reason for the lack of set is so the audience can use there imagination of what the town of Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire looks like. All the rest of the props that the actors had to use were pan mimed and acted out to the fullest to make it look real. The only other experience with no set was with Miss Henery in Neodesha and it was a disaster so I didn’t know how well this was going to work out. But with the help of our director Peter Ellenstein and the rest of the cast, the pan miming was very successful. Our performance space was a modified thrust stage. The shape of the stage served us well for this play, but the back stage was horrible. All of the chairs that we had to use were folding chairs that made a lot of noise even if you hardly touched one. One neat thing about the play is that all of the sound affects were made by our backstage manager (Lisa Mitchell) or other members of the cast. In exception for the clock chiming at the end of the play. People who have seen the play tell me that it is a very heart moving play. I did not get that feeling because I was always backstage or onstage. Ether way I didn’t get to watch the play so I couldn’t see what was so moving about it. The only humor I got was from lines and the funniest person I heard was Professor Willard (Gary Mitchell). The audience is led through the entire play by the Stage Manager (Cory Venable). He literally talks to the audience between every scene explaining what is going on in the story. I thought Mr. Wilder did a good job in having a Stage Manager do this. The Stage Manager tells and shows us a story a young girl growing up and facing death, even after death. He show us how Emily Webb (Julie Dumbler) first gets to know her future husband George Gibbs (Eric Cole).
The beginning of the film follows a current trend; there are no introductory credits and the first scene begins with the characters in action.
... on his own parents experiences. Her obsession with being "clean" and "decent" are typically Northern working class values. There is much about this character that is irritating but when we learn about the dead child who "wasn't fit to be called anything" we suddenly realise that there is more to her than we thought. Like Muriel, Doris has spent her life "keeping up appearances", refusing to cave in to hardship and making the best of her situation. Also like Muriel she has a strong sense of her position as a woman, although here we see the opposite attitude - that the woman is the "boss" in a marriage. Poor Walter was definitely a henpecked husband. Her strength of character is such that she quite deliberately decides not to ask the policeman for help when he knocks at the door. She knows that she will die and seems to prefer to choose her own time and place for it.
From the start of Act One, as the setting of the play is announced, an
...ate or notice the wonders around them. That is until death where they can no longer change what has happened. Wilder also implies that the one thing that is taken for granted is the connections we have with others. We often neglect those around us and only care for what’s in our own little box. Wilder even uses great detail to have the reader understand that. The use of a character such as the Stage Manager is wonderful because the audience no longer has to feel disconnected from the play but can have a direct connection. Not only through themes such as life, love, marriage and death but through a character itself. This allows for greater focus and thought. Wilder again encourages us to not take life for granted and encourages us to learn and appreciate what life is about. It is “in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying.” (1.36)
In the play a Chip in the Sugar Alan Bennett shows us a life of a very
Also the play would not get anywhere else. No one would watch it. The use of the prologue in giving an introduction and background to the conflict is a wise one. As it was certain phrases and words, to show how. the families are in anguish and don’t like each other.
The first scene of a play usually sets up the basic themes and situations that the remainder will work with. In Shakespeare’s play King Lear, the very first scene presents many of the play's basic themes and images. The recurrent imagery of human senses and of "nothing," the distortion of familial and social ties, the gradual dissolution of Lear's kingship, all make their first appearances in the first lines of Shakespeare's play.
Bennett states in his introduction that "forms....dictate themselves" and that material demands to be "written in a particular way and no other". Each of the characters, according to the author has a "single point of view" and none is "telling the whole story". He says that his characters are "artless" and "don't quite know what they are saying". It is true that this is so. We, the listeners, can make conjectures about all of them. Graham's ambiguous sexuality, Susan's alcoholism and Muriel's perverted husband are not revealed directly through any statements made to us. They are hinted at by what is left unsaid or by what is obliquely inferred. In a very real sense, though, this is true to life and Bennett cleverly constructs each monologue to be as realistic as possible. In speaking to an inanimate object - the camera - each character is, so to speak, alone. The audience is not "there", as far as the speaker is concerned. Better still, the camera is like a hidden priest in a confessional. Each person is able to speak quite frankly to the anonymous listener. If we make judgements we have no means of interaction. This is not a two - way process of confidential gossip, for none of the characters expect a reply. Bennett lets his characters reveal themselves openly and we are left to form our own opinions of them. He calls the style "austere" and so it is, for there is no authorial decoration of expression. What each character actually says is all we are given to work on and we must sift the inner meanings for ourselves.
The first scene is a television which automatically brings the modern feel to the film. As the camera gives the sense of the television moving slowly towards us we suddenly break into a quick speedy montage showing the story and some of the characters. The introduction to the play is repeated, once on the television by the news reader and again during the opening montage. This may be to create effect or perhaps to show the importance and publicity this story had. The scene in the petrol station focuses on the rivalry and hatred of the two families, The Capulets and the Montagues.
The Significance of Act 1 Scene 1 in Relation to the Play as a Whole
The opening of a good novel is extremely important, it gives us contextual detail, sets up the story and serves to draw us in, to give us a reason as to why to read this book. While each book's opening is truly unique and different, if you look closely you will see certain similarities and differences between them, and you will notice how particular books mirror each other. Two books I especially observe this in is John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and Sarah Crossan's "The Weight of Water", as while they are two very different books, each set in an entirely different time period and location, they have certain similarities, such as the theme of dreams, and the way each author explores the theme of discrimination.