Crossing Actors

During the plays original run in The Royal Court Theatre, my character was played by a woman, which surprised me. Even more so when that same woman also played Mary Brenham.

I believed that, with the original production of such an intense and politically fuelled play and based on a true story, everything would have to be precise in order to keep the play as true as possible. If the character was a man, it would have to be played by a man. Especially as this was in a society where men had more authority and a bigger hold on women. It didn't cross my mind that there would be a range of different factors that would stop the director and casting director from hiring a seperate actor to portray a character with 6 lines and in only one scene. So, they cast one of the bigger characters in the play to take on one of the smaller officers during the scene they were not in. I thought this was clever and efficient. 

However, I do believe this could have ruined the illusion for the audience, had I watched it in 1988. Due to lack of time within each scenes, Louise Arnold (who played both Mary and Faddy) had only a jack to represent her change of character for The Merits of Theatre - Scene 6. Looking at pictures, I was drawn to the fact every other character in that scene who played the officers had a full costume and looked exactly how they should do. However, Louise had her full convict uniform on that was clear to the eye and the jacket wasn't enough to keep the imagination alive.