Claire 30-40 - amnesiac
Richard 30-40, Claire’s husband – running from shady past
Kenny 18, Claire/Limping Man’s son – dyslexic, pot-smoker
Limping Man (Phillip) 30-40, Claire’s ex – disfigured, limp, lisp, violent
Gertie 60, Claire’s mom – aphasic
Heidi 30-40, Phillip’s girlfriend – fake cop
Millet 30-40, Philip’s “cell-mate” – uses puppet to speak truth
ACT I
Scene one – Claire/Richard’s Bedroom
Scene two – Limping Man’s car
Scene three – Gertie’s kitchen
Scene four – Richard’s car
Scene five – Gertie’s basement
Scene six – Richard’s car
Scene seven – Gertie’s kitchen
*Intermission
ACT II
Scene one – Gertie’s Kitchen
Scene two – Gertie’s Basement
Scene three – Gertie’s kitchen
Scene four – Richard’s car
Those flashes of memory that hint at another life
That reminds me of…
I think I’ve been here…
Am I remembering a dream or real life?
When Claire awakes muddled the audience experiences this as well. Perhaps lighting becomes more focused as she does.
Mental sounds and images are CLOSE to the audience – I want the audience to feel as though they are having these flashbacks. Sound – I’d like to move the speakers as close to the audience’s ears as possible so it feels like the sounds are in our head. I want lights to go a little screwy when Claire has her episodes, but no one else will notice.
Bright/Cartoony feel underscored by darkness. The cheeriness Richard and Philip try to impose on her is a thin veil over the pain and ugliness she’s endured.
Closer to the action = More real
At the “edges” there is confusion, darkness,
menace
Set, lighting, music is less
familiar just outside
Claire’s immediate
attention
Fuddy Meers
=
Funny Mirrors
Funhouse / Menacing
DARK RIDE
Haunted House at Knoebel’s Grove
Click link below slideshow
to see video
Mechanical movement - Objects, set pieces, scenery moving into place very artificially.
The feeling of a RIDE – Claire (and the audience) is being guided through a journey
Memory response in audience of ride devices (lap bars, strobe lights, etc.)
Levels - I want the kitchen and basement to be at different levels with stairs that clearly connect them
NO literally frightening elements - no ghosts, goblins, etc
NO carnival/fun house set – This play takes place in REAL places. It merely FEELS as scary and menacing as a carnival ride to Claire.
NO circus designs – I don’t want circus tent patterns on the wall paper or clowns on sweaters, but I do like lifting the “darkened” primary colors from the funhouse palette
COLORS, the dark encroaching at the edges, the lines(but not the stripes)
Colors
Familiar made
strange
Angle
Bright kitchen
Strange angles
The curves in the
kettles
Curves in moldings and window frames
Contrast to the bright kitchen – behind the bright there is darkness
Piles of memorabilia – the wreckage of their lives
Angles of the light indicates the basement as underground
Use cars to indicate “ride” feel to audience.
Most direct allusion to carnival
LAP –BARS!!
Wallpaper patterns should look ridiculously cheery –
like they are trying to hard!
Sunlight in the opening scene should convey “a scary cheerfulness”
Puppet should look like a “church
puppet” to make its foul mouth funnier!
The puppet is another opportunity to
veer from realism. Puppet’s skin color and features another chance to convey
grotesque distortion.
The familiar made strange
(See below to play music)