Berkoff - Greek - Development of Characters

The three main characters that I had in the piece were Mum, the Sphinx, and Chorus.

Mum

The first scene where I was given this role was in the Dinner Scene where the mother is certainly overly caring and motherly to her children and to her husband, shown to be rushed off her feet but loving it never-the-less. The element of loving looking after her family makes it more of a disaster when Eddy decides to leave the home.

As I developed this scene and her character I was able to vary my tone of voice. I decided to elongate my vowels and lines not just on specific lines such as "Oh, he don't like my cake". I did this because it shows a marked difference between my 'normal' Cockney voice which I used as the Chorus which allowed the audience to easily distinguish when I changed character. This was also influenced by Berkoff's own experiences in East End London as the stereotype of lower-class Cockney women is that they're quite dumb - as shown by the inaccurate grammar in the line given previously in this paragraph.

My movement was more womanly than what I presented as the Chorus - this can be highlighted in the second part of the Fortune Teller scene where Mum and Dad go and see the oracle again. However, my movement was still quite telling of a Cockney woman as it wasn't as slinky as the Sphinx's movement. My facial expressions as the mother differed from general smiles in the Dinner scene to disgust in the Fortune Teller scene, easily showing the audience where her priorities and hatred lie.

Sphinx

This was the first character that we developed. Initially, we created the Sphinx as having a Cockney accent as well as the other characters, however, I suggested that the Sphinx should have a posher, higher tone of voice. The posh voice suggests that the Sphinx is more sophisticated than other characters and also shows a marked difference between Cockney women such as the mother and upper-class women. Moreover, the fact she's clever enough to come up with a riddle that hasn't been solved shows how much smarter she is than other characters within the previous scenes.

The movement for the Sphinx that I developed was slinky and cat-like because she has the body of a lion and she's portrayed as a woman. I, therefore, assumed that she may be slightly sexual in trying to put off Eddy especially as she makes references to brothels and Eddy talks about a "Hong Kong whorehouse" in their scene. I also attempted to make her sassy hence why she clicks at the line "Go now before I lose my cool". She is also much like a predator which is easily seen as she has the body of a lion (a predator) and the wings of a bird (also a predator). This is heightened as we have four people playing her which makes her seem a lot bigger than Eddy. I attempted to make my facial expressions gruesome in some instances to show how fearsome she is.

Chorus

The Chorus in this sense for me is when I say any line when I'm not presenting as the mother or as the Sphinx - for example at the line "mouth open and eyes like a carrier bag" in the Dinner scene. This relates to the traditional Greek Chorus which was a non-individualised group of performers who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. This is certainly seen within this character as the majority of my lines as the Chorus were said simultaneously with the other actors such as "Don't talk to me about thrills" in the Fortune Teller scene.

The tone of voice that I used as the Chorus was more manly to contrast with Mum and the Sphinx. I also attempted to have a broader Cockney accent to make the setting more obvious - this would directly contrast with the Sphinx's accent. The movement I used was more manly and more traditional towards a Cockney man - I had to demonstrate confidence and overall cockiness as this is the stereotype as highlighted in previous blogs.