In this lesson we focused on Scene 12.
Carol's section in this scene is called Swimming and shows Carol and young Anna going to the river to go swimming. Carol seems a lot more detached than she did in the previous scene that she interacted with Anna. This could be because she has had the ECT as suggested because she keeps "forgetting things" and having headaches both of which are after effects of ECT as described by Felix in the previous scene.
Bonnie's section of the scene is called Sleep and shows her arguing with a patients' relative, Luke. It is very clear that Bonnie is rushed off her feet as shown by the amount of people that she has to tend to because she is "running an A&E department on a Saturday night" and as we have included her tending to another patients' head at the beginning of the scene. Luke is clearly annoyed that she hasn't been taking the best care of his mother but this is because there are too many people coming into the A&E department. The question is raised about why Bonnie has decided to run the A&E department on a Saturday night. It could be because she is trying to distract herself with wok due to the break up of the relationship with Jo hence why she has taken on one of the most challenging roles again. I think that Birch has decided to include this scene because it shows how effected Bonnie is by the break up of the relationship, so much so that going to work isn't working anymore to distract her from life.
Anna's section of the scene is called Doctor and shows her in hospital with John. In the scene, it's clear that Anna is starting to show similar signs to how Carol was after she had Anna and John can see this which is why he acts so worried in the scene. We staged it so that when Anna enters the stage John is already sitting down on a chair with his back to the audience. This is mirrored in Carol and Bonnie's scene with Carol having her back to the audience on her side of the stage and the patient having her back to the audience on Bonnie's side of the stage at the beginning of the scene. This shows continuity between the generations. Anna seems to be showing signs of neurosis which juxtaposes the young Anna that we see on Carol's section who is innocent because she hasn't had all the things happen to her that the older Anna has experienced. The audience may feel slight sadness because they know that the child version of Anna is going to grow up taking drugs and have her mother die only to end up committing suicide herself. Halfway through the scene Anna sits down on the chair facing out to the audience her back to John as she describes what she feels - "profoundly lonely". This is incredibly disturbing because she asks John whilst she has her back to him if he "feels cold" and tells him that he "looks cold" despite not actually seeing him. This presents an image that Anna is seriously mentally disturbed and is approaching to what Carol felt. The audience definitely know now that the birth of Bonnie is what causes things to go horrendously wrong.
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