Hello there,
It’s been a while since I wrote something so in these next few posts, I will be highlighting some of the things I have been creating. For now, this blog post shall focus on my script-writing and the creation of my character, Mrs Arsehole.
Now it is important to note that whilst the script has been developed, the concept of my childhood as a rollercoaster has not changed at all so you can relax for now. However, in furthering my script, I decided to establish a character that would become an alter ego for me to play in the show. The reason I wanted to do this was as the show focuses on my time at school and the knock on effects of my conditions being ADHD and Worster-Drought Syndrome, I felt that there needed to be a character which the audience could hate and genuinely struggle to treat seriously. Plus, at my time at school, this headteacher was the only one which caused the problems. So, with that in mind, I decided to create Mrs Arsehole.
However, people may ask how this has been utilised in the script. To give you an idea, here is a little snippet of her speech.
The Script
However, my first downhill would occur when I had my first assembly at my primary school. I was pushed into this one room with everyone. Everything went silent. I could hear the noise of distant footsteps. Out of the blue, this thing who looked like Maggie Thatcher arrived. She yelled “Good morning everyone”.
(Audience: Good morning Ms. Arsehole!”)
The performer puts on the wig and becomes Mrs Arsehole
Me (As Mrs Arsehole): Now, today we have a new student called Daniel. So I want you to be really nice to him. Now, Daniel needs some friends so lets be nice to him. Now how do we behave in this school? Yes.
V/O: We laugh about how you are called “Ms Arsehole”
The V/O laughs and the school laughs and starts singing “MS ARSEHOLE IS A FARTER”
Mrs Arsehole (Exploding): QUIET! (Silence) Anyway, who’s ready for our hymn today?
The performer takes off the wig and blazer.
Me: What a b…Witch. I definitely mean witch.
When devising the character, one question that I raised early was how she was going to be utilised in the show. Whilst I did want to expose her as a comedic character, I do still want to expose her true colours in the solo performance and show how she was to students at my school. One way I want to do this is by showcasing the comedy as irony. In other words, I want the comedy to start off as if I am joking. However, there is a truth behind her methods of teaching. From this, I hope to bring true terror for the audience and for them to understand how she ended up being worse after a first glance.
As well, one other idea in creating the character is through the idea of costuming. Indeed, whilst a lot of the character comes from the mannerisms and scripting of the character, some of the creation comes from costuming. So, in costuming, I have decided to dress Mrs. Arsehole as Margaret Thatcher. Possibly one of the most hated people in Barnsley.
(mynameiswhatever, 2009).
Now there are numerous reasons to costume this character as Margaret Thatcher. Firstly, one of the reasons is due to the connection to my home town. Indeed, as I live in Barnsley, she is possibly the most hated person due to the closure of the mines during the 1984/85 strike and also causing so much unemployment. Still to this day, the town has not recovered. So, as I have not recovered from Mrs. Arsehole, I want to utilise her as a character. However, another reason I want to use her as a caricature for Mrs Arsehole is because, upon further research, I uncovered that from 1970-74, she was in the Cabinet as Secretary of Education. So, I felt that this would be a prime example to use her for my alter-ego.
I have also decided to further this idea by placing in another line in the show based on Margaret Thatcher’s death. This is the following line:
I had defeated the Wicked Witch of the West. For now. It’s just a shame she didn’t melt away.
Again, the reason I wanted to bring in this line was I wanted to showcase the ideas of Margaret Thatcher. In particular, I wanted to highlight her death. When she died, there were a lot of party’s particularly in Barnsley and the most popular song played when she died was “Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. Whilst I do not particularly agree with the behaviour, by including this line, I will be able to reinforce how the similarities between Mrs. Arsehole and Margaret Thatcher are not uncanny to each other.
Overall, I am happy with the performance is going. I hope that by using Mrs Arsehole, I will be able to create a lot of comedy with her. For my next steps, I need to work on performing the role and also on how the script will merge her role into the show. For now, here’s to more work for the next few weeks.