Generations, children, parents, grandparents, mothers, daughters, women, changing times, tough decisions, loss, strong women, tradition, being stuck, 20’s, 40’s, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, single parent, independence, teenagers, art, London, Oldham, Manchester, conflict, secrets, tension, subtext.
Play Length 1 hour, 45 mins
Time 1920s-1980s
Accents South London, Mancunian, Oldham
Place London, Manchester, Oldham, a non specific Wasteground
Set All very minimal, “the setting should be a magic place where things can happen” (Keatley, pg 3, 1994). Each setting should be suggested through light and simple objects and chairs. A wasteground or “other Place” , Cheadle Hulme the family home in Oldham, Raynes Park London, Cheadle Hulme Manchester, backyard Oldham, Office in Croydon, Twickenham hospital, Oldham backyard of house.
Specificity As the play takes in mini map setting it allows the possibility of being performed in various places. It ha s a flexibility about it hat could be interpreted and used in other English city’s, even other country’s. The accents and language are fairly specific to English culture so this must be considered if the play were to placed elsewhere.
Characters 4 females
Note: all the actors playing the characters need to be able to play flexible playing ages. In Doris’s case you would have to play her as a very young girl all the way up to her 87th year. The child parts of the play should be played by adults, with the possible exception of Rosie.
Ages below are suggestive
Doris 25-35
Margaret 25-35
Jackie 25-35
Rosie 15-25
Synopsis
Charlotte Keatley “wrote this play to explore the behaviour and communication of people” (Keatley, pg xxvii, 1994).
The play evolves around the generational lives of four females from the same family, Doris, Margaret, Jackie and Rosie. Scenes are set in different types of 20th century time periods from 1920-1987.
The play is a showing of changing times, family values, society and the pressures of family life/expectations. Each female in the play has moved on from their mothers values, which provides tension and debate. All perhaps are right, all perhaps are wrong, either way the females are subject to the culture and society they grow up in.
The big secret of the play comes from Jackie's pregnancy of Rosie, whilst she is studying at university. Her mother, Margaret and Jackie agree that she will raise the child whilst she gets an education and a career. This turns in to a long standing tension between them, keeping the secret all the way up until Rosie is 16.
The secret divides the whole family and Rosie eventually decides to live with her Grandmother Doris, who get on very well, despite their obvious differences in generation and values.
There is something very moving about he play, the loss of time, pride, and love strike an accord with the reader and audience member.
Monologues and duologues etc...
Page 81
Key Words Unwell, hospital, old age, senile, elderly
Length 1 min
Character(s) Margaret
Type Monologue
Synopsis Margaret is lying in a hospital bed under anaesthetic. The scene is surreal as Margaret blurs being under sedation with anaesthetic. However there is something quite moving about her words as if Margaret is trying to say something more meaningful.
Snippet
Margaret: My parents are called, My parents are called...Sticks and Stones...When I have babies, they will be called Sugar and Spice and all things nice...I will give them everything they want and they will love me (pause)...Mother?...Mummy...What happens when you die?
Page(s) 83-84
Key words Loss, regret, teenage pregnancy, lies, mother, daughter, secrets
Length 2 mins
Character(s) Jackie
Type Monologue
Synopsis Jackie reveals how hard it was, giving Rosie away at her birth and seeing Graham, Rosie’s biological father, years later with his family and kids
Snippet
Jackie: How dare you! You’re at the centre of everything I do!...She was the one who wanted to keep it a secret...I wanted you, Rosie.(Angry) For the first time in my life I took care of myself- refused joints, did exercise, went to the clinic. ‘It’s a girl’. After you’d gone I tried to lose that memory.
Page(s) 92
Key words Love, engagement, 1920s, changing times, courtship, naivety
Length 2 mins
Character(s) Doris
Type Monologue
Synopsis Doris is in a 1920s dress in her late teens/early twenties. She talks about her courtship to Jack and how she fell in love with him. The speech highlights the changing attitudes and generations within the play, it is fitting that Keatley would end the play with Doris as a twenty year old.
Snippet
Dorris: I felt so shy suddenly. I had to just stare and stare at the tablecloth while he was asking, blue and yellow squares, there was an ant struggling to carry a piece of cress across the corner. These are things you remember, all your life. I suppose I didn’t think it would be like this and then we just ran and ran, talked, made plans. I felt somehow weedy, sort of silly having given in-to-love.
Links to writer: Charlotte Keatley
If you would like to purchase the play you can do so on Amazon.
Other works Our Father
Written by Joshua Ashley-Smith
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