Introduction
On this page I will be doing detailed character analysis for my part in the Common Ground play 'Table'. The part is split between two actors but I think it is important to approach the character as if I were playing her the whole way through to really understand her and be able to play her with truth and grounding.
In the version of the play I have, it lists the main family that the table is passed through and who is related to who.
When reading the play for the first time I kept referring to this, as it is extremely helpful to keep reminding the reader of the relationships between the characters.
In terms of Sarah, she is almost in the middle of the family tree, which is probably why she has such a central role in the proceedings of the play.
As Sarah, the characters that I interact with the most are;
- Albert (my twin brother)
- Gideon (my son)
- Jack (the father of my son)
Sarah is a very complex character, being a nun yet being overwhelmed by sexual desires, then completely changing her lifestyle and moving to a hippy commune. I think it is important to try and find reasons for this aspect of her personality through the family tree. Her parents have a very dysfunctional relationship, and Sarah and Albert are often caught up in that, which is a possible reason for Sarah not knowing how to love other characters in the play and is possibly why her relationship with Gideon suffers.
When reading the play for the first time I kept referring to this, as it is extremely helpful to keep reminding the reader of the relationships between the characters.
In terms of Sarah, she is almost in the middle of the family tree, which is probably why she has such a central role in the proceedings of the play.
As Sarah, the characters that I interact with the most are;
- Albert (my twin brother)
- Gideon (my son)
- Jack (the father of my son)
Sarah is a very complex character, being a nun yet being overwhelmed by sexual desires, then completely changing her lifestyle and moving to a hippy commune. I think it is important to try and find reasons for this aspect of her personality through the family tree. Her parents have a very dysfunctional relationship, and Sarah and Albert are often caught up in that, which is a possible reason for Sarah not knowing how to love other characters in the play and is possibly why her relationship with Gideon suffers.
Rehearsal Task 1 - Stanislavsky; 'Want! Do! Feel!'
"I want something. Therefore I do something. Consequently I feel something."
Who am I?
Name: Sarah Best
Life span: 1920 - 1981
Birth: Lichfield, Staffordshire, 1920
Death: Herefordshire, hippy commune, aged 61, 1981
Previous relationships: Jack Holman, Julian
Family background:
-She has a twin brother, Albert II, who dies before her.
-Her parents are Margaret Fowler who was 19 when she had the twins and Finley Best who was 20.
-She has a son called Gideon who is born in Tanganyika when she is 31. She has a troubled relationship with him; she loves him but does not always express this in a maternal way.
Upbringing: She has a troubled relationship with her parents. Her mother is a very strict Christian and her father sleeps with a prostitute throughout the play which Sarah and Albert are witness to.
Accomplishments: Becomes a nun and moves to Tanganyika to be part of a convent in 1950
Education: Grammar school. 'Higher-grade school' Margaret describes it as. Sarah gets in but Albert doesn't, which causes friction among the parents.
Characteristics:
- honest and moral (particularly when she is a child in Part 1 Scene 6)
- conscientious towards religion (Part 1 Scene 6, Part 1 Scene 7, Part 2 Scene 2, Part 2 Scene 3)
- argumentative (towards her twin brother in particular - Part 1 Scene 6, Part 1 Scene 7)
- honest and moral (particularly when she is a child in Part 1 Scene 6)
- conscientious towards religion (Part 1 Scene 6, Part 1 Scene 7, Part 2 Scene 2, Part 2 Scene 3)
- argumentative (towards her twin brother in particular - Part 1 Scene 6, Part 1 Scene 7)
Vocation: Missionary nun and then not specified when she becomes a member of the commune.
Religion: Christian for her early life and up until she gets turned away from the convent for having an illegitimate child. After that point, it is not specified whether she is still a practising Christian, but presumably not because she joins a hippy commune.
What kind of a person am I?: Headstrong, determined
In relation to a specific scene; Part 2 Scene 5
I picked Part 2 Scene 5 because it is a challenging scene that is very dependent on the given circumstances being in place; otherwise the scene will not make sense. It is also the last scene before the interval and is what leads onto the second half - it needs to be clear that these two characters are drawn together in exceptional circumstances and the consequences of their actions are that she is pregnant.
Where am I?
Tanganyika
Tanganyika
When is it?
1950
Where have I come from?
Sarah has been in her room cleaning up the blood that has been left from where Jack shot the leopard.
Sarah has been in her room cleaning up the blood that has been left from where Jack shot the leopard.
What do I need?
She needs to fulfil her sexual desires and have sex with Jack.
Why do I need it now?
There has been quite an erotic scene where there is obviously sexual tension between Jack and Sarah, and she knows that he will leave immediately, so she has to make the most of him while he is with her - there will be no other opportunity.
There has been quite an erotic scene where there is obviously sexual tension between Jack and Sarah, and she knows that he will leave immediately, so she has to make the most of him while he is with her - there will be no other opportunity.
What will happen if I don't get what I need?
She will be dissatisfied.
She will be dissatisfied.
What do I do to get what I need?
She flirts with him and initiates the undressing which ultimately leads to them having sex.
She flirts with him and initiates the undressing which ultimately leads to them having sex.
What must I overcome?
He is attracted to her but is not the initiator of the sexual contact - he knows she is a nun and she must overcome his insecurities and reservations about doing this.
He is attracted to her but is not the initiator of the sexual contact - he knows she is a nun and she must overcome his insecurities and reservations about doing this.
Acting Technique Lessons
For Acting Technique we had to break down our characters in relation to a specific scene, like above. This time I chose the first time the audience see Sarah, in Part 1 Scene 6 where she is with her twin brother, Albert. Below is the breakdown of the scene that I did. It is similar to the Stanislavsky approach but also includes what Sarah physically does in the scene. I found this quite difficult because we have not yet done proper blocking so I just had to use the bare stage instructions in the text. However, this may change as we do more work on the scene. I found it useful to really break down one scene and analyse everything that Sarah knows at this point, but am cautious not to over-analyse the text as otherwise the acting may become quite structured and more mathematical as opposed to feeling free and easy. In this respect, I have discovered I find this approach useful for the beginning of the rehearsal process but personally prefer a Mike Alfreds style approach to the latter part of rehearsals where work is more rooted physically and is more organic; 'different every night'. Please refer to the 'Personal Work on the play' tab for more information on my exploration of practitioners.
Character Relationships
One of the notes given to us from our director after one of the runs was that we should be absolutely clear who our character has relationships with throughout the play. I knew that I needed to do some work on this because I had been given a note about being too business-like when interacting with Mother Superior, who is meant to be an authoritarian figure, but primarily one of Sarah's friends. Particularly with the scenes I have with Mother Superior, they are extremely friendly and the language suggests they are fond of one another. I needed to get that right so that there is a strong effect on the audience when, after the interval, Mother Superior takes the decision to send Sarah and Gideon out of the convent - it is not a decision she takes lightly. Taking this note on board, I came up with the diagram below which details the three different groups of people that Sarah interacts with throughout the play and what her relationship is like with each of them.
I enjoyed doing this because it made me reconsider what I had already thought of the relationships between the characters and helped me make new discoveries. For example, when Sarah receives the table in Tanganyika, this is because Albert has died and the house has been sold along with most of their possessions. Upon looking at the relationships closer, the moment that table lands must be even more significant for Sarah because it is the only family connection she has left - all her other family are dead and her only way of reconnecting with them is via the table. Therefore, I need to change the way that I have been playing her receiving the table at the dock in Tanganyika and also when she sees the table for the first time uncovered - this moment suddenly has so much more weight in it, and I really want the audience to understand what is going through her head at that moment - the loss of family connected with the gain of the item of furniture.
Character Research
We have a month to go until the performance and there are still aspects of Sarah's life that I am finding difficult to relate to and find the truth within.
The main part I am struggling with is Sarah's conversion to Catholicism and becoming a missionary nun. To help me with this, I have been watching youtube videos and have placed the two most helpful below. When beginning this research I knew I would be unable to find anything that directly explains Sarah's story, but I was able to take aspects from several different videos to use as inspiration.
The first video I came across is this, a video about young nuns. From Part 2 Scene 2 it is inferred that Sarah is already a nun at the age of 26, in the flashback scene to four years previously; the last time she saw Albert and Finley. Therefore, Sarah would have become a nun at a young age, which I could not really understand. Obviously this video is looking at the possible struggles of being a nun in the 21st Century but I think the struggles of being a young nun are similar from whatever time period the person exists in.
From this, I learnt that for most nuns, they are only allowed out of the convent very rarely so that would explain why so much has changed for Sarah when she goes back home and how high the stakes must be if she hasn't seen her family in a long time. Another aspect of the video I can use to inform my character choices as Sarah is knowing how difficult it is to explain the lifestyle to other people. In the scene, she is ridiculed by her brother (Albert says, 'Where are your husband? Where are your children?') and this is something that the young nuns in the video faced - people not understanding the nuns way of life.
The next thing I was struggling with was understanding Sarah's life as part of of the convent as a missionary nun in Tanganyika. Personally, I have never been to Africa and have no idea what it is like there, so sought help in the form of a video. The video below was shot in 2014, so would be about 60 years after the play is set in Tanganyika but still gives me a good idea of the type of place it is, which will help me with my imagination of the world of the play. From the video it is also interesting to see the varied people that ended up in old British colonies, like the nuns' differing backgrounds in the play. I will apply this research to my interpretation of Sarah and the world of the play much more and now have a much better understanding of what it may have been like.
As I was doing research I also came across this webpage;
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/50200410 which is the archive of an Australian newspaper from 1950. I thought this was useful as the story (which is below) is very similar to Sarah's story. Interestingly there are parallels with this story such as the lady working in a school, as Sarah also teaches children, her learning Swahili and staying for 4 years; it was a long-term project. It was very exciting to find an account of something from the time period of the setting of the play that relates so closely to Sarah's story and gave me a few ideas about background information and filling in some of the gaps not mentioned in the play.
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