Anatomy of a Suicide - Part 24

Lesson: Monday 22nd January 2018 

In this lesson we worked on Scene 9 from AOAS. In this scene, the focus at the start is on Anna's scene as Anna, Daisy, and Jamie in the scene are the only people talking on stage. This allows the audience to fully focus on this scene which means that they can pick up on important thing such as Anna's impending pregnancy. Towards the end of the scene, Carol and Bonnie join in with their own conversations. I don't think that this scene is as hard to learn as the lines aren't as sporadic and make sense when they are next to one another, unlike Scene 5 which is currently extremely hard for me to learn. We also need to make sure that it doesn't seem like we are waiting in turns to speak and act throughout the silences that we have.

In Scene 9, Carol's scene is named Sex and starts off with Carol sat smoking after sex. It was suggested that the sex between Carol and John may not have been consensual as it only became illegal for a husband to rape his wife in 1991. Although, we have seen that John is not abusive throughout the play which would suggest that the sex was consensual. Birch may have been trying to make a social comment here that sex between a husband and wife was expected at that point in time. This may be the case for Carol and John and may be suggested that the two only have sex because it was expected of them, and expected of Carol to have another baby which she doesn't want. Although I think this is the correct interpretation for Carol, I think that John was genuinely trying to make love to her as he says "That wasn't about a baby" and "I just want to be near you" which shows that John is craving affection which Carol clearly hasn't been giving him throughout the play and certainly not in this scene. As Carol has been distant from John in not showing him affection and has been shown kissing other people such as Laura, this could raise the question of Carol's sexuality. She certainly doesn't want to be close to John and this could be because she is a lesbian or bisexual (or at the very least on the Kinsey Scale of sexual orientation towards the homosexual side). This would be another contributory factor in why she doesn't want to have sex with John. Birch may be hinting that Bonnie 'inherited' her sexuality from Carol and that Carol had to hide her sexuality whereas Bonnie is allowed to express hers. This shows the change of general opinion from the 1960's and 70's to the 2030's and present day as sexuality is now allowed to be expressed. This may be another reason why Carol feels constricted as she has to be the perfect house wife and is not allowed to properly express herself be that through her sexuality or suicide.

In Scene 9, Bonnie's scene is named Wedding and starts off with Bonnie sitting and reading a book. This allows the parallels between Carol and Bonnie's scenes to show, especially if they were to sit in a similar way which would reinforce that the two are related. Jo comes in halfway through the scene which is seemingly the first time that Bonnie and Jo have seen each other after their relationship had ended. How we staged this scene shows that Jo is less enthusiastic than what she was before as all the energy has been taken out of her voice. I wasn't sure if that was intentional or just a fluke but it does show that Jo has been severely impacted by the loss of their relationship. This may make the audience warm to Jo more than Bonnie as Bonnie hasn't been showing much sadness at the loss of their relationship. I think that the audience would warm to Jo much more than they would to Bonnie as Jo seems to apologetically show her emotions which attracts an audience, whereas Bonnie seems more reserved which means that the audience may not be able to relate as much to her as they do to Jo. Jo's sadness at not being in a relationship with Bonnie is also highlighted in how small her lines are compared to the other scenes, especially Scene 3 and 4 where she was talking throughout the scenes with big paragraphs. There is a section on page 152 which links directly to Anna's scene 4 where Jo says "You look well" to which Bonnie responds "Thank you" to which Jo asks "Are you?". This is very similar to the conversation that John and Anna have when Anna is in rehab which again shows the links that Birch has cleverly inserted throughout the script.

In Scene 10, Anna's scene is named Dinner and much like Carol's previous dinner scene, the focus is largely on the people having the dinner. Daisy may have been invited to the dinner so that Anna and Jamie could reveal the news about Anna's pregnancy hence why the conversation revolves around it.  This scene again shows seemingly a domestic bliss between Anna and Jamie and the audience may again question why things go so wrong and when that is going to happen. They are given some clues in this scene when Daisy begins to compare Anna to Carol and puts forward the idea that Anna may develop post-natal depression after she gives birth to her baby (Bonnie). The scene is very humorous especially with the quips between Daisy and Jamie which contrast with the serious topic that Daisy keeps bringing up throughout the scene. This is the second time that we see Daisy in the play and she is easily recognisable due to her straight taking opinions and as she smokes, something that she learnt from Carol when she first appears as a child. Daisy is present in the scene to draw the audience's attention to the parallels that may begin to emerge to how Carol was after giving birth to Anna and how Anna may be after giving birth to Bonnie. Daisy may realise in hindsight that her suggestion to Carol to have a baby worsened Carol's mental situation and may have somewhat caused her mental decline - here she is trying to show that Anna may end up like Carol was if she has the baby. Daisy may feel some guilt about her part in Carol's suicide, however, it won't be something that keeps her up at night - she only mentions it because it relates to the conversation about Anna's pregnancy. She may also feel slightly guilty because she, in a roundabout way, caused Anna's hurtful experiences with drugs. Daisy is presented very much like her mother, Emma, in the previous scene. Not only do they start of their respective scenes in a similar way - "It's an awful idea" - the two are also very confident with their opinion, something which is shown in Daisy's character throughout, even as a child.

We staged the scene by having a table in the middle of our section of the stage. In my opinion, I think that we should have the same table as what was used for the previous dinner scene. This would give nice continuity and could also show a nice visual effect during transitions if we slide the table from Carol's side to Anna's side and then to Bonnie's side of the stage in Scene 10 for her dinner scene. Anna begins by setting the table and seems more intent on that than listening to what the conversation has jumped to which leaves her tone light and shows that she is happy and content with her life at this moment in time. The gaps that are left in the script when Daisy and Anna are left onstage are comfortable as we eat the crisps that are put on the table in the scene which shows that the two are much friendlier than what Carol and Emma were. This interaction between the two of them when Jamie has left the stage is somewhat similar to the conversation that Carol and Emma had whilst Carol was in hospital after Anna had been born. This continuity throughout the generations is quite nice.