The Birthday Party - Scripted Play

The Birthday Party - Scripted Play

This is a dark humoured play set in an English town. It is about a

couple who let out a room to a lodger called Stanley. One day two men

arrive on a door step looking for rooms. The arrival of these men

opens up a can of worms for Stanley, as they come from a mysterious

past. Although we never discover the whole picture of what Stanley

did, a web of tension is woven around the relationship that Stanley

has with these men. Goldberg, the stronger character of the two,

masterminds the destruction of Stanley and the play centres

Very much around the way in which they do it.

2: The extract

We chose this section because it involved the final showdown, which is

the most moving part of the play. It is the bit where Goldberg and

McCann are scaring him with psychological warfare. The rest of the

play really gives reader/ watcher the full background of the play.

There is a lot of tension built up as the story progresses. In the

scene that we going to perform is a climax until Stanley has a mental

breakdown. This is made very humorous as Stanley is not expecting this

and starts to feel very uncomforted as the speech is confusing him

mentally.

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3: the character

I began to like McCann because he wasn't really that strong at getting

his point across but he was used by Goldberg to put pressure on his

victim. I liked the idea of pier pressure because it could be used to

get people to do things at you're command. In the scenes we are

practicing at the moment, Duncan Gray and I have to circle Stanley

asking him questions about his life which he would rather not answer.

I guess that we were confusing him until he broke down. That showed

the power of pier pressure. Stanley would have broke down a lot

earlier but Goldberg and Stanley creted a climbaxe.

4:aims as and actor