The 39 Steps - Characterisation (OTT)

As there is a lot of multi-rolling in this play characterisation was extremely important. Being over the top in movements and vocally over the top helps the audience to differentiate between characters and also adds to the vaudeville style and comedy of the piece. All of my characters were different, making them easy to create with voice and body language. 

Anabella - I used a European accent as she was a German spy, but had 'no country' so wanted to keep her accent unspecific. She is quite a sassy yet serious character, in what she is talking about that is, her body language would be slightly provocative. 

Pamela- I only play her briefly so I modeled this character mostly on how Freya played her as we had to be similar. Using a posh British accent and acting like a normal upper class woman. 

Margaret - she is quite a quiet character, from Glasgow, married to Crofter who is a harsh man. She obviously had a Scottish accent which I tried to do but is very difficult, her body language is reserved and much more closed than the other two. 

The 39 Steps - Pace & Energy

The 39 Steps is in the style of vaudeville theatre. A main feature of this is the fast pace which we have been working on. Many elements of the play will only be comical if delivered quickly, for example the scene on the train with Hannay and the Clowns which needs to be quick and snappy to really bring out the humour, which will come with practice. Currently the only thing slowing us down are the transitions between scenes, as we do not have a crew so we need to move everything ourselves, but we are going to use plain blocks and a couple of chairs for most of our set to make it slicker. Once we have completely set our act we need to rehearse the transitions to make sure they run smoothly and do not take away from the performance.

Another important part of vaudeville is the energy. If we let the performance fall flat it will not be entertaining as it is not straight drama, the energy needs to be kept up throughout to bring the characters to life and make it more comical. Energy is very important for the multi-rolling as it needs to be obvious what we are doing, so everything needs to be massive. Although high energy is required, it should be used in different ways for the different characters. For example Anabella is more sarcastic and serious, where as Margaret is more excitable and innocent.