Filling in

Antonia who plays Eve #2 has been absent and I’ve been filling in for her. Whilst playing this side of Eve have I have discovered a lot about the character that I otherwise wouldn’t have. A lot of the discoveries I have made has influenced how I now play Eve at the beginning of the play. For example, in the potato pre Eve #2 I played Eve #1 quite shy, innocent and nervous which meant that the scene included a lot of awkward pauses. Post Eve #2; Eve #1 in this same scene is more chatty and jokes but Celia doesn’t react which is what causes the awkward pauses. This works better then there being awkward pauses because the character doesn’t know what to say. I also think that Eve’s personality would be one of the things that catches Celia’s attention and she would need to be a little bubbly like a stereotypical chatty working class al -but on the less eccentric side of the spectrum. So especially by the end of the scene I now have this side of Eve shining through more.

I also now know where the journey needs to be heading more, although there is a considerable time jump from me playing Eve to the Antonia's playing her but the character’s relationship has bloomed so much and grown in a very short amount of time. I know that I need to irritate Florence more in the park to give her the opinions of Eve that she has later on in the play and I need to show the growth in friendship from the potato scene to the park scene so that the audience don’t find it a shock when the two characters kiss later on.

I wish I could’ve played Eve all the way through once to see what else I would have learnt about her because there were things I wouldn’t have picked up on from just reading the play or from watching the others play their roles.

This helped me learn some things about her past however it probably would have helped Amire and Antonia more so because they would play what happens before their sections. I am so grateful for having the opportunity to play Eve #2. It was also a massive confidence boost because I felt as though I was a bit rubbish at Eve #1 but I think it is because I have a few short scenes in which most of the things I say aren’t naturalist in the sense that I’m shouting ‘For what?’ ripping my bed up or the hammer scene. In comparison, you have Antonia’s really naturalistic romantic conversations that are written amazingly and were so

Easy to create because they were written so well. Being able to perform this section confidently in character with ease made me feel as though I was finally playing the character right. So I think the character is there but I just need to feel like I’m doing them well and not worry about not always having another person in the scene to bounce off of.

However, it has also made me realise my limits a little bit. I realise that I can’t show the variety of the character that I wish I could. Playing the character for such a limited time because that section is her time of innocence I think limits me a little as an actor. In my soul I do want to have these romantic scenes and scenes that are painful to watch for the audience but I don’t. I struggle with creating variety in my scenes because they are short and most of them aren’t realistic. I understand the split but emotionally I wish I could connect myself more by having a wider ranges of emotions that the character experiences.

I love playing Eve though, she is a great character and I wouldn’t change her for the world.