Thursday 8 March 2012

A Flawed Female Character

Looking back at famous characters of theatre and film, actors often remark how they and audiences, really enjoy very strong flawed characters. ! Solitaire our character of the piece, is Leicester born bred Highfields gal and is unmistakably a remarkable one ! Love her or hate her ? This will probably be, a defining question for the audiences . How much of her role is something audiences in some degree, will identify and project their own responses , or be repelled by in some way - will be really interesting.

Often there is a need to play out our own desires onto fictional characters. Leicester is known for a number of high profile sports, literary, persons and some media personalities etc. But what about fictional characters of note ? Sadly , they are often always male and white e.g. Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole comes to mind, as Alan Sillitoe's Seaton are both known worldwide, hailing from Leicester and Nottingham respectively. Trainspotting - the massive UK film introduced the character Renton globally. I often wonder about who are the really strong female characters, particularly Black women characters from our Theatre and Film. Those who have left incendiary trails behind them, that challenged ' the rules of the game as set by society?.

How does this relate the the fact that such female characters 'are under the radar' overall ?
How much of what audiences go to see, is to reassure, to rehabilitate or to offer a fictional 'rehearsal' in order, to be able to sample different more unconventional possibilities ? Solitiaire's very modern story, is an exploration, as to what may happen, as to certain given circumstances and how events may transpire to transcend said circumstances.