Noises Off

Michael Frayn is brilliant. With that being said, a central motif is interruptions. Each time Lloyd tries to continue on with the production of Nothing On, the doors won't open or close, Selsdon is no where to be found, Brooke loses her contact lens, Garry is struggling to get his point across, or Dotty cannot remember her what props to take off and what to leave on. The motif of interruptions actually ties in with what receives the most stage time which is the personal relationships between the characters themselves. This is interesting to note because it is not the actual script of the play within a play that is focused on, but characters. A tag line that compliments the motif would be "sardines" because every time the word sardines is mentioned, the word signals an interruption. For example, Selsdon's last line in Nothing On is, "a nice plate of sardines" but every time he tries to say it, he forgets which causes an interruption. Other points in the play is in Act One when Dotty cannot remember to take off the sardines or not. Then Garry interrupts the dress rehearsal to point out how the sardines are a pain in the ass. Or in Act Three when the sardines are everywhere and out of place, they mess up the flow of the show and help cause the train wreck at the end.

Glass of Water

-->

-->

Deciding who the protagonist would potentially be is difficult because each character mostly has equal stage time, so it seems as more a collaborative effort from every character. But I chose to delare Abigail and Masham as sharing the role of being the protagonist because of their relationship. Their relationship is constantly overrun by obstacle after obstacle. Abigail finally has been offered a position in the palace by the Queen Anne, so they can finally be together. Then Abigail loses that position because the Duchess claims she is not qualified. Then the Queen decides she can work as a lady in waiting afterall. Masham accidentally kills the dude who always laughs at him and Abigail convinces him that if he loves her, he will leave the country and never return, except he does and risks his life because of his undying love for her. It's like watching a ping pong tournament. They're together, they're not together, so on and so forth. They have the forbidden love thing going for them which helps gain the audience's sympathy vote and hoping that the two love birds will not travel down the Romeo and Juliet path, but make it out alive in the end. Delicious news! Masham and Abigail do indeed because The Glass of Water is a well made play and every well made play is suppose to have a happy ending.  What if this were not a well made play though? I’m curious to know what would happen to our star couple. Would Masham survive or be put to death? Would Bolingbroke have the heart or would it be some kind of Pirates of the Caribbean crossover where Masham is hung, but Bolingbroke actually has a sword for his feet to balance on while he comes to his rescue and the two of them and Abigail disappear into the night?