Whilst doing my research and exploration of the character of Mrs Farley, I realised that she's just quite a young woman, she's not stupid or bitchy, she's just young. I take a lot from Jenna Malone's portrayal of Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice in terms of her character. She's always bouncing everywhere she goes, with a flirtatious smile on her lips and a song in her voice. I enjoy doing this because I can use a huge contrast in my physicality between the very beginning of the performance and her final moments. She's happy and positive, she just wants a man to protect her and the nice things in life. The thing that gets in her way is her vanity and pride. She adores attention and she hates being bettered, especially by Nell who she knows is far more talented than her, she recognizes her as a threat however she allows herself to become fond of Nell.
In one of our rehearsal sessions Sophia, Heta and I played an improvisation game to help us discover our characters:
The game is simply us sat in a circle completely in character. One by one we come up with questions like "What's the most trouble you got into as a child" then take it in turns to answer the question, improvising stories for our characters and creating histories for them. I learnt a lot from this game. One of the questions was "How did you lose your virginity?" When I answered this question I discovered that Elizabeth was solicited for sex at the age of 13 and being incredibly poor, to the point that she hadn't eaten for 3 days, she complied.
I just remember the feeling in my stomach, at first I thought it was fear but then I realised it was hunger. I hadn't eaten for 3 days and I imagined going home that night and not eating again. I was so hungry you have no idea. It was either one or the other and I was so desperate. Afterwards I vowed never to be that hungry or poor again, I would never be someone who was so low and desperate for food that she would do that. I'm no whore.
Reflecting on this story I find it so interesting. It shows that all she has known from men other than her father is sex. She knows she is beautiful and that men will want things from her. She knows how to use her sexuality to get what she wants in life and she enjoys the attention, she enjoys flirting. However it is also interesting on a second level as she has vowed never to become a whore however she has. She is the king's whore. She sleeps with him and gets paid in petticoats and trips to the palace.
Secondly I learnt something about Liz that came up in the question "What's the most traumatic thing that's every happened to you?" I learnt more about her childhood and her father.
I remember when I was at my poorest. My father was dying and I knew that, so I sent him to the poor house. That's how bad it was, the poor house was better than what I could give him. He used to work there and every day I'd visit him. Well...one day I was walking to the poor house and I could hear this sound. It was like nothing I'd heard before, like a low rumbling that got louder the nearer I got. When I finally got to the poor house, I saw the two foreman outside lying on the ground. I don't know whether or not they were...well, I opened the door and looked inside. I don't know what had happened...the men there must have started rioting. And...well, once they had got the foremen, they must have turned on each other. It was chaos. But I knew my father was in there so I went in. Finally I found him. I don't know whether or not he was dead by the time I got there but...I turned around and I ran out of that poor house. I ran so fast and I didn't stop running until I found myself here.
I think this tells me so, so much about Liz. Why she's so terrified of being poor and alone. The fact that she's not just a silly, naive girl, she's seen some horrific things and she's realised that the world can be a cruel place and that she has to use whatever skills she can to get by. There's something about knowing this that makes me feel so much more connected to her than I did before, which is the beauty of the game that we played.
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