before party the - Almeida Theatre

BEFORE 

THE PARTY 

by Rodney Ackland 

based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham 

RESOURCE PACK

Introduction 

Katherine Parkinson 

Photo Keith Pattison 

Welcome to the Almeida Theatre’s 

production of Before the Party. 

The war is over and the Skinner family are trying to 

return to normal. If only the blasted Government 

weren’t such a nuisance about the rations and Cook 

could get some more of those delicious delicacies. 

With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed 

but not alone, they prepare for the latest social 

gathering. 

Amidst the never-ending whirl of hats and dresses 

and below stairs skirmishes, Laura reveals a shocking 

secret that threatens to ruin more than one party on 

the climb to social success. 

Adapted by Rodney Ackland from the short story by 

Somerset Maugham, Before the Party is a sizzling 

potrayal of the upper middle classes adjusting to 

postwar life. It is a play that shines a spotlight on 

British attitudes towards class in the late 1940s, and 

the social pretensions and preoccupations that come 

with it. In a world that has seen so much change after 

the Second World War, many parts of society are 

holding onto the nostalgic traditions of a ‘golden age’, 

while a younger generation look to their future. 

We look forward to welcoming you to the Almeida 

Theatre and hope that Before the Party will entertain 

and inspire you and your pupils to further experience 

the power of live theatre. 

“But darling, what will people think if the 

sister’s wearing mourning and the 

widow’s dressed in pink” 

Blanche 

Compiled by: 

Charlie Payne for Almeida Projects 

Supported by the Almeida Projects team: Samantha 

Lane, EJ Trivett, Charlie Payne, Boris Witzenfeld and 

Sarah Tarry. 

Almeida Projects 

For more information about Almeida Projects and our 

recent work please visit almeida.co.uk/education 

Resource Pack: Before the Party 

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HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE PACK 

This Almeida Projects Resource Pack aims to 

provide an insight into our process of taking the 

production from research to performance. 

We hope you will use it to help you in your own 

investigations into the play both before and 

after your visit to the Almeida Theatre. 

LEARNING AREAS 

This Resource Pack is not curriculum-specific 

but may be suited to the following work areas: 

• English Language and Literature 

• Drama or Theatre Studies 

• Art and Design 

• PSHE and SEAL 

This Resource Pack is intended to supplement 

study of the play by providing information 

about the Almeida Theatre’s production of the 

play, covering the following areas: 

• Staging and world of the play 

• Production-specific research and context 

• Rehearsal process and performance 

This pack also contains the exercises 

included in Almeida Projects’ Introductory 

Workshop for Before the Party. 

Contents 

Contents 

Before the Party Resource Pack 

Production Credits 3 

Plot Summary 4 

Characters 7 

Design 9 

Rehearsal Diaries 11 

Further Reading 18 

Practical Exercises 19 

Script Extracts 31 

Almeida Projects 45 

Copies of this Resource Pack can be downloaded free as a PDF file from 

almeida.co.uk/resourcepacks 


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Production Credits 

21 March - 11 May 2013 

BEFORE 

THE PARTY 

by Rodney Ackland 

Cast in order of appearance: 

Laura Whittingham Katherine Parkinson 

David Marshall Alex Price 

Kathleen Skinner Michelle Terry 

Susan Skinner Polly Dartford 

Anna Devlin 

Emily Lane 

Blanche Skinner Stella Gonet 

Aubrey Skinner Michael Thomas 

Nanny 

June Watson 

Creative Team: 

Director 

Design 

Lighting 

Sound 

Video Design 

Dialect 

Casting 

Assistant Director 

Matthew Dunster 

Anna Fleischle 

Philip Gladwell 

Ian Dickinson 

for Autograph 

Mark Thomas 

Majella Hurley 

Julia Horan CDG 

Bethan Dear 

based on a short story by W. Somerset Maugham 

Production Team: 

Production Manager 

Deputy Production Manager 

Company Stage Manager 

Deputy Stage Manager 

Assistant Stage Manager 

Costume Supervisor 

Wardrobe Supervisor 

Deputy Wardrobe Supervisor 

Hair & Wigs Supervisors 

Children’s Administration 

Chaperone 

Chief Technician 

Lighting Technician 

Sound Technician 

Assistant Theatre Technician 

Set built and painted by 

Costumes by 

Hat by 

Costume Work Placement 

Stage Management 

Work Placement 

Production and 

Rehearsal photos by 

James Crout 

Aggi Agostino 

Linsey Hall 

Danni Bastian 

Anastasia Kaimakamis 

Ilona Karas 

Eleanor Dolan 

Rachel Writer 

Anna Morena 

Jessica O’Shea 

Jo Hawes CDG 

Denise Smith 

Jason Wescombe 

Robin Fisher 

Howard Wood 

Tony Forrester 

Set Up Scenery 

Parkinson Gill 

Alexandra Maier-Bishop 

Janet Christmas 

Cosprop 

Janet Spriggs 

Natasha Prynne 

Charlotte Levy 

Keith Pattison 

ALMEIDA THEATRE 

Artistic Director 

Executive Director 

Artistic Associate 

Artistic Associate 

(Maternity Cover) 

ALMEIDA PROJECTS 

Co-Director of Projects 

Co-Director of Projects 

Community and 

Participation Manager 

Schools and Education 

Manager 

Projects Administrator 

Michael Attenborough 

Julia Potts 

Jenny Worton 

Lucy Morrison 

Samantha Lane 

EJ Trivett 

Boris Witzenfeld 

Charlie Payne 

Sarah Tarry 


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Alex Price, Katherine Parkinson and Anna Devlin 


ACT ONE 

The play opens in the Skinners’ family home in 

Surrey. It is a hot Saturday afternoon in the 

summer of 1949, and the Skinner family are 

getting ready to go to the Heywoods’ garden 

party. Eight months ago, the Skinners’ daughter 

Laura returned from West Africa following the 

untimely death from malaria of her husband, 

Harold. 

David Marshall, Laura’s new fiance, is visiting 

from London and staying with the family for the 

weekend. He and Laura have quarrelled after 

lunch, and Laura has just called off the wedding, 

saying that she isn’t a very good person for him 

to marry. The couple make up, and Laura tells 

David she will announce their engagement to the 

family, after the afternoon’s party. 

We meet Laura’s two sisters: elder sister Kathleen 

is horrified by the inappropriate presence of Mr 

Marshall in Laura’s bedroom; younger sister 

Susan is very excited, having just seen a pig 

being killed on her afternoon walk. 

In an attempt to make it easier for Laura to tell 

the family about her engagement, David, along 

with the help of Susan, hatches a plan for 

impressing the family. This includes calling Mr 

Skinner “Sir,” complimenting Mrs Skinner on her 

new hat and being extra nice to Kathleen. 

Blanche Skinner joins her daughters and David in 

Laura’s bedroom. She tells everyone they will 

have to walk to the party as there isn’t enough 

petrol to fill up the car, due to their rationed 

allowance having already been consumed. She is 

concerned about her attire for the party and asks 

what people think of her new hat. She also asks 

whether Laura has moved the photograph of her 

late husband Harold as it is no longer on display; 

Laura says she has put it away. 

The next character we meet is Aubrey, Blanche’s 

husband and the girls’ father. He is a lawyer and 

standing for public office. He is also something 

of a hypochondriac. We also meet the family’s 

Nanny, so-called by all of them, who previously 

cared for Laura and Kathleen, and who now looks 

after Susan. We learn that a row has broken out 

in the kitchen between the housemaid Muriel and 

the cook; Nanny had to give Muriel a good dose 

of brandy to calm her down and diffuse the 

situation. 

The Skinner family then learn from Nanny that 

Muriel and cook are both guilty of various moral 

offences, including fascism and prostitution; 

Plot Summary 


4

Plot Summary 

Stella Gonet 


“You know now that I’m 

going to marry David, and I 

suppose you want to say 

you don’t approve of the 

idea. But I might as well 

tell you, Father, that 

nothing you say will make 

any difference to me. I 

don’t mean it rudely. I’m 

simply trying to save a lot 

of unpleasantness.” 

Laura 

upon hearing this Aubrey resolves to sack them 

both. After some pleading and gentle persuasion 

Blanche manages to save Muriel from being sacked 

by telling Aubrey that without her they will not 

manage to have such good food, as it is Muriel’s 

uncle at the local farm who is currently supplying 

them with black market produce. 

When Kathleen, Laura and Blanche are finally alone 

in Laura's room, Kathleen shares some gossip she 

heard from a friend she plays golf with: apparently, 

Laura's late husband Harold didn't actually die of 

malaria, but committed suicide. When confronted 

with this, Laura admits she has lied about Harold’s 

death, but only because because she didn't want her 

son Jeremy to find out the truth. During this 

discussion Laura also tells her mother and Kathleen 

about her engagement to David. Blanche and 

Kathleen both express their shock at Laura's decision 

to wear a pink dress instead of the traditional black 

mourning dress, and also at her decision to marry 

again less than a year since her first husband’s 

death. 

Determined to punish Laura for her immoral 

behaviour and disregard for social conventions, 

Kathleen tells Aubrey about Harold’s suicide and 

Laura’s plans for re-marriage. A family row ensues. 

We discover that Blanche and Aubrey had arranged 

Laura’s marriage to Harold to keep her out of 

trouble, after she was discovered to have a boyfriend 

who was both younger than her and from a workingclass 

background. In an emotional outburst, Laura 

reveals that Harold was an alcoholic and that her life 

with him in West Africa had been incredibly difficult. 

The most shocking revelation comes when Laura 

tells her family that in actual fact Harold didn't 

commit suicide at all: she murdered him. 

Having been caught listening outside the door, 

Susan enters the room, escorted by Nanny. Susan 

has heard the whole confession and begins to cry, 

thereby revealing the awful truth to Nanny. 

David returns from his long walk to the local garage 

with some black market petrol he has collected for 

the family car. David remains oblivious to the recent 

revelations. In various states of shock, they all depart 

for the Heywoods’ garden party. 

ACT TWO 

As the family return from the Heywoods’ party, we 

discover that Kathleen and Aubrey have invited the 

Bishop of Cape Town, Sir Arthur Boot, both their 


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wives and Gladys Benson to dinner. These are all 

people that Aubrey is trying to impress in an attempt 

to be accepted as a political candidate for the 

forthcoming local election. At the party, the same 

group of people were publicly gossiping about how 

Laura’s husband Harold died, and in doing so, they 

have revealed to Laura’s fiancé David that she has 

been lying to him as well. 

Laura has another argument with her family. After 

refusing to give up her plans to marry David, her 

father Aubrey throws her out of the house and cuts 

off any future financial support for her or her son. In 

an attempt to make a clean start in life, Laura writes 

a letter to David, who has gone to the local pub for a 

few drinks with his army pals. The letter tells him 

that she has lied to him twice: the suicide story is 

also untrue because she murdered Harold. 

Laura goes out for a walk so Nanny can give David 

the letter when he returns from the pub. During her 

absence, Blanche, Aubrey and Kathleen learn from a 

telephone conversation with their evening dinner 

guests that David is actually the heir to Lord 

Wraysbury’s estate. Having always disliked David for 

his job as a commercial traveller, in which he only 

earns a few pounds a week, the family suddenly and 

drastically change their opinion of him. 

Michael Thomas and Anna Devlin 


Plot Summary 

After reading Laura’s letter, David decides to forgive 

her, and they prepare to leave the house together to 

begin a new life away from the family. In a desperate 

attempt to improve their social standing, the family 

congratulate Laura and David on their wedding plans 

and offer them the option of living in the family 

home once they are married. 

Horrified by their hypocrisy, Laura and David sneak 

away whilst the family greet the dinner guests and 

prepare to publicly announce the engagement. 

The play finishes with Susan, who has watched her 

family’s behaviour throughout the day, declaring to 

Nanny and the audience that she thinks there is no 

excuse for the way grown-up people behave. Her 

words echo the message which the playwright is 

communicating with Before the Party. 

“I think it would be most 

inadvisable to tell anybody 

the truth. The most decent 

thing in the circumstances, 

Laura, would be to break 

the whole thing off.” 

Aubrey 

Resource Pack: Before the Party 6

Characters 

LAURA 

WHITTINGHAM 

Laura has recently returned 

from Africa after the death of 

her husband. She is 

headstrong and rebellious, 

says what she thinks and 

feels repressed by social 

mores. She represents the 

younger, progressive and 

cosmopolitan generation 

who are moving away from 

traditional values of the 

established class system. 

KATHLEEN SKINNER 

Kathleen is Laura’s older 

sister. She is unmarried. She 

has a sharp tongue and a 

strong need for acceptance 

by her current social circle, 

who frequently engage in 

gossip. She is as 

traditionally-minded as her 

sister is progressive, and 

regards her sister’s 

‘renegade’ behaviour with 

disdain, not least because of 

the effect she fears it will 

have on her own reputation. 

SUSAN SKINNER 

Susan is the lively and 

spirited youngest Skinner 

sister. She is down-to-earth, 

and resists conforming to 

how others think she should 

be seen - for example, 

wearing party dresses! She 

likes playing outdoors, but 

her mother and Kathleen do 

not approve of her choice of 

friends. In our production 

Susan is played by three 

different girls; because the 

actors are younger than 16, 

they are supported in 

rehearsals by a chaperone 

who also helps them to 

continue their academic 

study alongside their creative 

process. 

DAVID MARSHALL 

David is Laura’s fiance. He is a 

dashing and good-humoured 

man, keen to be liked by 

Laura’s family. He is sociable 

and well-connected to 

members of the local black 

market. He has a relaxed 

attitude and, like Laura, does 

not care much for traditional 

attitudes towards social class. 

“Well, I consider we’re a much 

better family than half the 

people with titles round here. 

Families like ours are the 

backbone of England, your 

father always says. ” 

Blanche 


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BLANCHE SKINNER 

Blanche is the mother of the 

Skinner family. She is very 

concerned with keeping up 

appearances in society and 

does her best to ensure her 

daughters do the same. She 

has a tendency to have a 

blinkered of things she does 

not approve of, as if refusing 

to believe them will help 

them not to be true. She 

avoids conflict wherever 

possible. She is a loving 

mother who cares deeply for 

her daughters, but can 

alienate them with her 

worrying. 

AUBREY SKINNER 

Aubrey, Blanche’s husband 

and the father of the family, 

is a staunch patriarch and 

enforcer of social standards 

in the household. He is a 

keen social climber, and is 

currently pursuing political 

office - therefore is even 

more keen that his family 

give a good impression, as it 

reflects on his ambitions. He 

represents conventional, 

conservative attitudes of the 

day. 

NANNY 

Nanny has been looking after 

the daughters of the Skinner 

family for many years. She is 

a stalwart character, but you 

sense she often bites her 

tongue and remains 

impartial when there are 

things of which she 

disapproves. She is of a 

traditionally lower social 

class than the Skinners. 

Characters 

“I cannot see why this house 

can’t be run smoothly like 

other houses. I can’t even rest 

in the afternoon. What am I to 

do Close the bedroom 

windows and suffocate, or 

leave them open and have 

shouting and clamouring in the 

kitchen” 

Aubrey 


8

Design 

Design is one of the most thrilling aspects of theatre 

craft. The look of a show helps to set mood, 

atmosphere, time and place. Design elements for 

any production include set, lighting, sound and 

music. 

Almeida Theatre - empty stage 

Photo Lara Platman 

At the Almeida Theatre, the set design is the first and last thing the 

audience sees. As soon as the audience enters, they can see the set. This, 

together with any sound effects or music, will begin to 

determine how they experience the production. This initial 

impression helps to set the tone for the story to come. 

The designer, therefore, has to consider what impression he or she wants 

to make upon the audience before the play begins. The designer will look 

for clues in the play’s text and will liaise with the director and the playwright 

about these. 

There are also practical considerations for the designer, such as 

how big the stage is, what kind of flexibility is required in terms of 

entrances and exits, and whether the play is set in a specific time 

period. The designer often has to be very creative designing a set 

which calls for several different locations. 

Designing for the Almeida Theatre 

The Almeida Theatre was not purpose-built as a theatre so does not have 

the specialised architectural features that typify most purpose-built 

performance venues: a flytower, orchestra pit, wings, offstage area (indeed 

our ‘back stage’ is actually ‘sub-stage’ in the excavated basement directly 

below the stage floor). This means that our designers and production 

teams have to come up with ingenious solutions to create innovative sets 

in our ‘found space’. The building is famous for its large curved brick wall 

at the back of the stage. This feature of the building is used as part of the 

set design for many of the Almeida’s productions. Even when the actual 

wall is not visible in the set, the brickwork is often echoed as a feature in 

the design. 

A BRIEF HISTORY 

The Almeida Theatre 

seats 325 people, 

and re-opened in 

2003 after extensive 

refurbishment. The 

building dates back 

to 1837, and was 

originally the 

Islington Literary 

and Scientific 

nstitution. During 

the war it was used 

as a Salvation Army 

citadel, and was 

later a showroom 

and warehouse for a 

carnival novelties 

company before it 

was converted into a 

theatre in the late 

1970s. 


9

The design for Before the Party is by Anna Fleischle. 

When directing a production, Matthew Dunster 

often starts with the design. As a writer as well 

as a director, he finds it very useful to start with 

visual stimuli when directing, so as not to get 

weighed down by just a play’s words through the 

creative process. Before the Party was no 

exception; so, months before rehearsals began, 

the design was already created. 

Unusually for the Almeida Theatre, the set for 

Before the Party is framed by a proscenium arch, 

which encloses the action in a cinema screenlike 

box, very fitting for a play that takes place in 

one location. 

The cinematic effect of the design is deliberate. 

Lighting is one of the key indicators of time in 

the play, establishing the pace of the drama. 

Originally it was just to be seen from outside the 

window; however, it was felt that the window was 

too small and that a greater indicator of the 

passage of time was needed. With this in mind, 

the decision was made to make the proscenium 

arch frame of the set into a light box, which 

could be lit in the same tone as the light outside 

the window, and enhance the atmosphere and 

tone of the scenes accordingly. 

Matthew Dunster also decided to use animation 

to show some of the scenes that happen 

offstage. A video designer was brought in to 

create these animations, which are projected 

onto the curtain. This adds to the cinematic feel 

of the staging, and dealt with what Matthew felt 

were quite awkward pieces of staging. It adds a 

contemporary feel to the design. 

With a period production, located in one realistic 

environment, a lot of emphasis was spent on 

dressing the set - finding the right props and 

furnishings to best reflect the period, as well as 

the social class of the family. During the 

rehearsal period, the stage management team 

work with the designer to source these - many 

from second-hand shops and specialist dealers. 

Similarly, in a play very much about the 

importance of keeping up appearances, the 

costumes and hairstyles are authentic to the 

1940s period, and are also designed to reflect 

the nature of the characters who wear them. 

Design: Anna Fleischle 

June Watson, Michelle Terry, Stella Gonet and Michael Thomas 


For more information, the programme for Before the Party contains an informative, illustrated 

article by Designer Anna Fleishcle on her costume designs and inspiration behind her design. 


Rehearsal Diaries 

Stella Gonet and Katherine Parkinson in rehearsal 


Bethan Dear is the Assistant Director for Before the Party. She talks us through 

the weeks of rehearsals and tells us about the process of how the play is taken 

from the page to the stage. 

Week One 

Our week began with an overwhelmingly busy 

meet-and-greet with our nine cast members, a 

large production and creative team and all of the 

Almeida Theatre’s staff. After an informative 

introduction by Artistic Director Michael 

Attenborough, we all sat down to read, and most 

crucially, to listen, to the play being read by aloud 

by our cast for the very first time. 

This is one of my favourite parts of the entire 

rehearsal process: hearing the words that, up 

until now, you have only heard in your head. 

Suddenly there is life breathed into each 

character and the world they inhabit begins to 

spring to life before you. As the rehearsal room 

was filled with laughter, concentration and heavy 

silences, it became increasingly clear just how 

skilful and humorous our playwright Rodney 

Ackland was, looking around me it was clear that 

many of us were thinking the same thing; this is 

such a wonderful play. 

Director Matthew Dunster‘s rehearsals all begin 

with an invigorating hour of Circuit Training and 

Yoga, which was put into practice on Day Two. 

Embraced fully by our impressively fit and healthy 

cast (worth noting they span a 50-year age 

difference), this daily workout is not for the faint 

hearted—leggings are donned, dance music 

blares, and it’s go, go, go! 

For those of you unfamiliar with Circuit Training, 

there are 10 stations set up around the room, 

each with a different exercise (boxing, chair lifts, 

sit-up twists, etc). Working in pairs, you move 

around the stations, doing 30 seconds at each. 

Thirty seconds may not sound like a lot, but 

you’d be surprised just how many squats you can 

actually do in that time (trust me—it’s a lot). 

The great thing about Matthew’s Circuit Training 

and Yoga combination is that you use absolutely 

every muscle in your body. The Circuit Training 

gets your heart racing, your blood pumping and 

your body sweating, and the Yoga allows you to 

be still and breathe, stretch each of those 

muscles you never knew you had and start the 

day feeling calm, awake and ready for anything. 

Five weeks of this and the Before the Party team 


11

are going to be the fittest on the London stage! 

Week One of our rehearsal process has been all about 

asking the right questions, doing specific research and 

broadening our vocabularies (who knew that an Aesegi is 

a West African spear used by tribal warriors and that you 

might find one in a 1949 family’s personal Gold Coast 

Collection). Working through our script, the cast have 

been skilfully guided by Matthew Dunster‘s questions, all 

of which have allowed us to gain a further, clearer and 

more detailed understanding of each character, their 

world, and their relationships to the narrative that 

unfolds, one page at a time. 

Part of our focus for the week has been about 

understanding the England of the play, a post-war world 

that was full of change. 

Among the details that will allow us to capture and recreate 

1949, identifying the changes in speech patterns 

and pronunciation is a key part of accurately portraying 

our family from Surrey. To help us with this, we spent a 

day working with vocal coach Majella Hurley. Who would 

have known that how we use our language has shifted so 

much in 60 years Simple things make such a difference, 

like which part of the word we stress, how we pronounce 

our vowels or what our tongue does when saying a 

consonant. For example; ‘tapping Rs’: By tapping the 

back of your top row of teeth with your tongue, the R 

sound is pronounced differently in keeping with 1940s 

speech patterns. 

Exhilarating, fascinating and informative, this has been 

an action-packed first week, which has left me confident 

of two things: That Rodney Ackland has, in this play, 

given us a high wall to scale, and that we are armed with 

all the necessary people, tools and equipment with which 

to scale it. This promises to be an exciting, challenging 

and rewarding climb. 

Week Two 

And there you were thinking we were working on staging 

a play. 

Not on Monday of our second week we’re not. No, we’re 

making a film (or, to be more precise, an animation). 

Week Two of rehearsals kicked off with an exciting, 

unexpected and mind-bogglingly technological start. 

After our standard hour of hardcore sweating and 

panting (which, I might add, is less than last week; we 

might just be getting fit here!), our rehearsal room was 

transformed into an animation suite, complete with 

green screen and a bespoke, green, wooden 2-D car 

(naturally). 

Director Matthew Dunster in rehearsal 


“I think you should 

keep a clear brain, 

Laura, instead of 

fuddling it with whisky. 

We’ve all of us agreed 

that it’s your moral 

duty, in view of what 

you’ve told us, to break 

off your engagement.” 

Aubrey 




Michael Thomas in rehearsal 


I can’t tell you exactly what it’s for (if you want to 

know, you’ll just have to come and see the 

show), but I can tell you is how we made it. 

Rotoscoping, as it’s called, is a process of 

filming, recording and editing which allows you 

to film real people—in this case, our lovely 

cast—and then, frame by frame, colour them in. 

The result is a film which looks as if it’s been 

hand-drawn and animated in the traditional way. 

The technology is pretty amazing and the results 

are brilliant. What’s more, it allows you to 

capture the particular, personal physical traits 

specific to each actor and recreate them in an 

animated version of their character. Each actor’s 

outline, posture, the way they walk and move— 

it’s all captured and transferred into the 

animated version of themselves. Amazing, right 

Some of you may already be familiar with all of 

this and therefore less enthralled, but for those 

of us who had never worked with this technique 

before (almost all of us), Monday was very 

exciting indeed! 

wave, every little detail had to be blown up and 

made bigger, stronger and clearer. They also had 

to slow down, doing everything four times slower 

than they normally would—and jumping over 

imaginary puddles in slow motion took some 

practice! 

Q: How many times does it take six actors to 

simultaneously lean backwards, in slow motion, 

inside the squashed window of a green, wooden, 

2-D car 

A: A surprisingly small number (a testament to 

the skill of our cast and the precision of director 

Matthew Dunster’s instructions)! 

Aside from larking about on a green screen, 

Week Two of rehearsals has been filled with hard, 

crucial and rewarding work. By midweek, we had 

finished collectively reading, dissecting and 

working our way through the fine details of the 

entire script. Thursday saw us taking our first 

bold, brave steps on the floor—and boy, were 

they worth waiting for. 

For our actors, Monday was all about being big, 

bold and slow. To ensure our animated versions 

of the characters the cast are playing were 

captured as clearly as possible, our actors had to 

exaggerate and over emphasise everything they 

did physically. Each movement, each step, each 

This is a play, like all, which truly comes to life 

on its feet. Guided firmly by the informative, 

detailed and necessary discoveries Matthew 

helped us to make in our seated work, our cast 

were able to make big, fearless steps in the right 

direction. 


13

I am always amazed by this moment in a rehearsal 

process, the moment you stop treating the play as 

something to be heard and embrace it as something to 

be seen. This is a thrilling, nerve-wracking moment; it’s 

also the most exciting and addictive part of this 

process, the moment in which you begin to see what 

the end might hold. From where I have been sitting this 

week, that end looks like it will be well worth waiting 

for. 

Week Three 

There are many difficult phases, hurdles to overcome 

and challenges to rise to in a rehearsal process—and 

this week has seen everyone, actors and director 

Mathew Dunster alike, put through their paces. Week 

Three has been tough but ultimately very rewarding for 

all as we’ve seen our production of Rodney Ackland’s 

brilliant play come on leaps and bounds. 

This is the time in which our actors are required to 

transform themselves into magicians who can 

simultaneously juggle the tasks of remembering lines, 

finding blocking, continuing to interrogate the text and 

making new discoveries. 

This week has taught each of us individually and all of 

us collectively that Rodney Ackland was an 

exceptionally talented playwright. No detail has been 

overlooked: each character, each plot line, every 

reference has been carefully considered. The text is so 

rich that it’s a painstaking process working through 

each line, each section and every scene, making sure all 

the while that we are asking the right questions, 

exploring each option fully and clarifying our 

understanding of what is being said one page at a time. 

Of course, understanding, exploring and making 

decisions about what is written and what is spoken is 

only half of the battle. What we do physically, where 

we’re going, how and why also needs to be found, 

refined and learned. 

Trying to do these things at the same time always 

makes Week Three of any rehearsal process challenging 

for everyone involved. Simple things can become 

difficult: How do I apply 1940s make-up Am I standing 

on this window seat Was that door handle supposed 

to come off there 

Alex Price and Katherine Parkinson in rehearsal 


“What time will you be 

back to dinner Cook’s 

leaving on the seven 

thirty-five. Shall I tell 

Muriel to open some 

corned beef” 

Nanny 


But with each day that passes, our play becomes 

clearer, funnier and more moving. Every hurdle we 

encounter is tackled head-on by our brave cast and 

skilful director, taking us closer and closer to where we 

should be. 



Untangling this wonderful, remarkably complex piece 

of writing is truly a roller coaster ride. It’s taking us on 

a big, fast, sometimes hairy, genuinely fun, addictive 

journey which leaves you at the end of each day saying, 

“Wow, that was something… I want to do it all again!” 

Week Four 

It’s a funny thing that we do here in the theatre, 

dedicating our time, love, passion and energy and 

focusing it all on creating the imaginary world that a 

writer (if working from a text) has dreamt up. 

Our playwright, Rodney Ackland, has created a 

fictitious world that is very much informed by a real 

time and place, by real events in British and world 

history, based upon a type of English family that 

existed in this specific place at this particular point in 

time. When working on such a play, a huge part of the 

theatrical process must be reliably informed by a 

sound understanding and knowledge of the world that 

your play belongs to. 

Of course, with any theatre production, whether 

scripted, unscripted, new writing or otherwise, a huge 

part of the process is about finding the characters, 

their truths, understanding and convening their 

relationships, their individual and collective narratives. 

The other integral part of any theatrical process is the 

physical creation of the world the play inhabits. In our 

case, with this type of production, we are actively 

seeking to re-create a time which has already passed, a 

period in history, specifically England, Surrey in the 

summer of 1949. 

Michelle Terry in rehearsal 


From as early as October last year the design team for 

Before the Party have been working with Director 

Matthew Dunster to bring our playwright Rodney 

Ackland’s world to life. On our first day of rehearsal— 

already four weeks ago! —the cast and production 

team were presented with a model box of our set 

design: an exact 3-D replica of the theatre space at a 

1.25 scale ratio (chairs, photo frames and ornaments 

look super cool this small!). Having this visual 

reference, along with illustrations of the costumes, 

research into the design, the play, the playwright and 

the period in which the play is set all help the director 

and the cast to immerse themselves in the world of 

the play so they can represent it well. 

From Week Two of our rehearsal process, we have had 

props, furniture and costume pieces in our rehearsal 

room. At the beginning, they were an approximation of 

the real thing; then, slowly but surely, they were 

replaced by what will be used in the final production. 

“Where does Marshall 

get the money to dress 

so well always, and to 

pay for hired cars to 

drive him about in I 

think there’s something 

fishy about him.” 

Kathleen 


15

Katherine Parkinson and June Watson in rehearsal 


In trying to recreate our 1949 world, our 

wonderful cast have had to fully embrace and 

master the art of 1949 speech, etiquette and 

style. As some of our attempts to do this have 

proved relentlessly amusing, I thought I would 

share some top tips on acting, 1940s style—so 

young, budding actors, take note! 

For the girls and ladies: 

Posture 

We modern-day women have an unladylike 

tendency to slouch, sit with our legs apart and 

adopt all manner of comfy-but-ungainly sitting 

and standing postures. For a posture fit for the 

’40s, you need to suck those tummy muscles in, 

straighten those backs, get your knees together, 

and if possible, sit with them slightly over to one 

side with your hands resting gently in your lap. 

(As our youngest three cast members have 

discovered, this is easier said than done!) 

Footwear 

It’s all about the heeled slippers. Our 1940s 

dames wore house slippers with kitten heels and 

slip-on backs, styles which somewhat inhibit what 

a lady can and cannot do it the house (no 

jumping up and down on the bed in these guys). 

Forget about your Ugg Boots or slippers with a 

giant ladybird head—these ladies looked 

glamorous at all times. 

For the men: 

Evening Attire 

Bow Ties. How many of our current generation of 

men can be bothered with ties, never mind bow 

ties If you think the former is a faff, have a go 

with one of these—and if it’s not tricky enough 

on its own, try traversing a stage and speaking 

whilst tying it! For an evening out, a social event 

or formal gathering, all our 1940s gentlemen 

would have worn a bow tie. 

Pipes 

Smoking a pipe was the gentlemanly thing to do. 

There are plenty of shapes and sizes to choose 

from, and don’t forget that you’ll need a tin or 

pouch with tobacco, pipe cleaners and matches. 

Now, not only do you need to be able to clean, refill 

and light your pipe smoothly, but there is an 

art to holding the pipe in the corner of your 

mouth whilst still speaking like a perfect 

gentleman. Go on, have a go—I guarantee you 

will not look smooth nor suave the first time 

around! 

Mastering our play’s period aside, Week Four of 

rehearsals has been an electric, mesmerising 

experience. The talent and skill of our playwright, 

cast and director have become truly apparent. 

This is a very complex play, full of detail, truthful 

observations, intricately-crafted characters and 




story lines. Our company’s continued hard work 

is beginning to show and our production of 

Before the Party is taking shape—and what a 

shape it is. 

Week Five 

Despite knowing from day one of this process 

that this would be a brilliant production of an 

incredible play, it was still incredible to see the 

transformation which happened during our final 

week of rehearsals. 

Our last week of rehearsals has been an 

emotional journey. In Before the Party, Rodney 

Ackland takes us, and the Skinner family, through 

one hell of a ride. Assembling our play, scene by 

scene and act by act, has allowed our cast and 

Director Matthew Dunster to begin to fully 

understand the arch of the entire play. 

As the week progressed we were able to mark the 

peaks and troughs within the play’s rhythm. The 

overall pace is incredibly important, and it’s easy 

for everyone, cast and director alike, to forget 

how the play feels as a whole. Week Five has 

been all about finding the right tone for the play 

and for our production. 

What I have really enjoyed about working with 

this cast and with Director Matthew Dunster is 

that they have all been brave enough to explore 

every option, including the ones that don’t work. 

This is vital, because until you are confident in 

what does not work, it is near impossible to be 

certain about what does work. Week Five allowed 

us to throw out old versions of our work in 

favour of newly discovered ones, and in these 

new discoveries we found what we have been 

searching for all along: truth. 

At the end of the week, we showed the work to 

our first audience, and although we were still in 

the rehearsal room and our audience were all 

Almeida colleagues, this was a big, scary step for 

everyone. But nerves aside, this was one of the 

most important moments in the whole process. 

You can delve, interrogate, un-pick, analyse, 

explore and rehearse, but until you have a live 

audience, you’re blind to what your play really is. 

Theatre is live, it exists because of the fragile, 

electric, tangible relationship between the 

performance and the audience. Without their 

presence, their reactions and their emotion, the 

world we have strived so hard to create will not 

truly exist. 

There are many factors which contribute to this 

production being the endless joy it is, and one 

which made this process and our final show very 

unique is the presence of our three youngest 

actresses, all playing the character of Susan 

Skinner. Polly Dartford, Anna Devlin and Emily 

Lane have brought an energy, a life and a 

refreshing honesty to all our endeavours. 

Here are their favourite moments from our last 

week and the lines that they love the most in the 

show: 

Anna: “The best thing I did this week was 

performing in front of a live audience. I was very 

nervous, but it was nice to get an idea of what it 

will be like next week.” 

Polly: “The best thing this week was the vocal 

warm-up with our vocal coach Majella Hurley, 

and Emily and I having to look away from each 

other because we couldn’t stop giggling!” 

Emily: “The highlight of my week was a one-toone 

with Assistant Director Bethan Dear when 

we went and stood outside and shouted at a 

wall–we were having a contest to see who could 

shout the line, ‘Oh, Laura!’ the loudest.” 

Among the girls, a favourite line of Susan’s is, 

“It’s best to be prepared in this life,” and I 

couldn’t have put it better myself. Preparation is 

key to the success of a theatre production, and I 

feel confident that our Before the Party team are 

well-armed with five solid weeks of preparation. 

This has been an extraordinary experience 

collaborating with a group of extremely talented 

people. We have worked hard to honour the 

brilliance of Rodney Ackland‘s writing, guided by 

Director Matthew Dunster‘s steady hand, and we 

now have the foundations for a truly wonderful 

show. 

All that’s needed now is the reaction from a few 

full-blown audiences to help us shape, adjust 

and put the finishing touches on the production 

order to ensure that our Party is going to be one 

to remember! 


17

Michelle Terry 


The Almeida Theatre programme for Before the Party contains a wealth of 

contextual information about the production, including the following 

exclusive research articles: 

• The Life and Times of Rodney Ackland 

• Rodney Ackland: Ahead of His Time 

• Black Market and Rationing in Post War Britain 

• Cocktail Parties 

• Designing Before the Party 

Further Reading 

The programme also contains full details about the cast and creative team, and more 

information about the Almeida Theatre and our work. Programmes are available to purchase 

for £3.50 each from our Box Office on 020 7359 4404 or in person. 

FIND OUT MORE > follow the Almeida Theatre’s blog with insights from the rehearsal room 

and beyond at blog.almeida.co.uk 

Before the Party by Somerset Maugham, in East and West (1934) 

Somerset Maugham’s short story, the source material for Rodney Ackland’s 1949 play. 

Absolute Hell by Rodney Ackland 

Ackland’s best-known play. An excellent television adaptation of this play was made for the BBC in 1991, 

directed by Antony Page, starring Judi Dench; the full video is available on YouTube: 

www.youtube.com/watchv=gun9GtNJ0n4 

Changing Stages by Richard Eyre and Nicholas Wright (Bloomsbury, 2000) 

This authoritative ‘bible’ of British Theatre has a chapter about Rodney Ackland and his contemporaries 

including Terence Rattigan, chronicling their place within the cultural climate of the day. 


Practical Exercises 

Adapted from the short story by W. Somerset Maugham, Before the Party offers 

interesting stimuli for exploration in the classroom, with a number of issues 

ripe for practical exploration. This section contains a number of practical, 

discussion and written exercises to stimulate further study of the play, and 

support your visit to the Almeida Theatre. 

Review: Key Moments from the Production 

If you have seen the production of Before the Party, reflect on your experience. This will allow you to 

clarify anything you were unsure about, and share as a group any elements that engaged you in the 

drama, from page to stage. As a group, discuss your visit to the Almeida. As a teacher, you may want 

to lead this, in advance of students writing a review of the production. 

Discuss (1): What striking images/moments do you remember from the production Make a list on 

a flip-chart. If the group find it challenging to think of key moments, start by suggesting key 

moments in the text, how they were staged and reasons they are significant. 

Practical Extension: In groups of four or five, recreate one or two of the key moments from the 

Almeida production in a still-image, each group chosing a different image. Show these tableaux back 

to the rest of the group. Allow other members of the group to identify the moments within the play. 

What was dramatically effective about these that made them memorable 

Discuss (2): Discuss the theatrical elements of the production of Before the Party and how these 

theatrical elements relate to the key themes. 

You may want to cover the following: 

• integration of movement and language in performance 

• the stage setting and design 

• use of space 

• costume 

• technical elements: lighting and sound 

• creation of pace, mood and atmosphere/specific effects 

• creation of specific effects for an audience 

• the actor/audience relationship 

For example, use of music: 

1. What did this make you feel 

2. How did this enhance the drama of the production 

3. Did the music link to the dramatic themes of the play 

4. What was the effect of having the music in the foyer, before the production starts 

5. Is the music incidental (soundtrack, not heard by the characters) or interpolated (within the script, 

heard by the characters), and was this obvious 

Other examples to look at: the revelation that Laura’s husband didn’t die from malaria; the 

beginning of Act Two, when the family have returned from the party; the revelation that David 

Marshall has connections to the landed gentry; the final scene of the play. 

Written Work: Write a 250-word review of the Almeida Theatre’s production of Before the Party for a 

newspaper of your choice. Bear in mind the style of the publication - e.g. one written for the Sun will 

be different to one for the Telegraph. Part of the review should describe one key moment of the play. 

Can you give the review a headline and a star rating Feel free to send any of these finished reviews 

to us at projects@almeida.co.uk 


19


Before the Party deals with a number of themes that are particularly interesting to explore in the 

classroom, for example: attitudes to social class in Post-War Britain, secrets and lies and the effect of 

gossip. Below is a selection of exercises and activities to investigate, grouped into themes, to allow 

you to continue work around the play, to further and develop drama and theatre-craft skills. Each 

theme contains three exercises: a warm-up game, a text-based exercise using the script from Before 

the Party, and a devising exercise to further extend exploration of the ideas in the play. 

Resources are included at the back of this Resource Pack. 

THEME: GOSSIP AND TELLING TALES 

1. Warm-Up Game: Gossip Lines 

Aim: This game is a cross between Chinese whispers and charades and aims to introduce the idea of 

rumour-spreading in a practical way. It can be competitive if the group would like it to be. 

Time: 10 minutes 

Materials: Paper with 15 actions on them and paper with six stories on them (see boxes below). 

Practical Exercise: Split the group into groups of five. Each group must stand in a line looking at 

each other’s backs. Each person faces away from what’s going on so they cannot see it until it’s their 

turn. The person at the front of the line is given an action. 

ACTIONS: 

1. Brushing your teeth 

2. Mowing the grass 

3. Chopping vegetables 

4. Riding a bike 

5. Washing dishes 

6. Tying shoe laces 

7. Reading a book 

8. Writing on a white board 

9. Playing netball 

10. Rubbing something out on a 

piece of paper 

11. Straightening your hair 

12. Putting on false eyelashes 

13. Loading up the washing machine 

14. Putting a stamp on a letter 

15. Decorating a Christmas tree 

For example: ‘Brushing your teeth’. They must mime this 

action to the next person and so on until everyone has 

seen it. 

When the action reaches the end of the line, compare it 

with the original action given and see if it was correct. The 

person at the front of the line changes for each new 

action so everyone has a turn to teach it. This continues 

for another 5 rounds or until everyone in the group has 

had a turn. 

This could be played competitively, where all the lines of 

students are facing the teacher/leader, who gives out a 

new action when each group has given them the right 

answer. They can have a few guesses but if the answer 

isn’t correct then they do not pass that round, but the 

teacher/leader can give out a new action anyway. The 

group who finish first and have the most right answers 

wins. 


NB: It is advisable to make sure that the actions are different for each group on each round so they 

cannot copy each other. 

Variation: If the group are confident, or for an extra challenge, then try the same game out but with a 

story instead of an action. There will only be one round for this game and it can just be played within 

the groups, not as a competition. The first person reads a story from a piece of paper (provided in 

this pack). The rest of the group have to remember the story and tell it to each person in the line 

until it reaches the end. The person at the end must then tell the rest of their group what they think 

the story is. The whole group then hears what the original story on the piece of paper. 

Evaluate: Where did the actions / stories change and how Why do you think this was What skills 

were needed from students in order to pass the actions / stories on accurately 



STORIES: 

1. A friend of my brother’s found £10 in the park last Tuesday. He kept it and spent it on pizza. It 

was pepperoni with extra cheese. I don’t like cheese, it stinks. 

2. My dog went to the vets last week because it got in a fight with a Spaniel. It cost us £400 and 

they couldn’t even fix its leg. Poor little Derek. 

3. I dropped my iPhone down the toilet at the shopping centre and it still works. It fell out of my 

brand new bag from Fat Face. 

4. Joey’s sister is afraid of needles. She had to take a blue tablet instead of getting vaccinated. 

Everyone got a red spot on their arm but she didn’t. Kerry said her arm was bleeding and she had 

to stay after school until 6pm until I stopped. 

5. Mr Jones the Science teacher was on TV once on BBC2. His show was late at night, about 

11pm so no-body watched it. Nick says his daughter Katie was the only one that watched it. 

6. An Olympic Silver medallist is coming to the school next week. His sister used to go to this 

school six years ago. He’s going to do a talk in assembly for the year 10s. 

2. Script Exercise: Exploring Performance Styles 

Aim: In this exercise students perform script extracts from the piece and are asked to perform them 

in different styles. 

Time: 30 mins 

Materials: Script extracts 1 - 3(see pages 31-34 of this Pack) 

Practical Exercise: Split the class into smaller groups relevant to the numbers of students required 

for each scene. Ask them to read through their scene (extracts 2, 3, 4, 5). Then ask them to choose a 

point where something changes for their character. It may be their sympathy towards another 

character, their opinion about another character or an event that they have just found out about, 

their motivation or their allegiance. There may be a different pivotal point for each character. Ask the 

groups to discuss this and think about how they would show these changes during the scene, it may 

be in a subtle way or through an obvious staging choice. 

For a single character speech (extract 1), work in a group of three. One person is in the middle of 

the scene speaking the lines and the other two are on the edge of the stage playing the role of nosy 

people outside the doors, or guards. Imagine there are two corridors on either side of the stage and 

the guards walk up and down them when they choose to. The actor does not want the guards to 

hear what they are saying so whenever the guards walk up and down the side of the stage, they must 

find ways of keeping quiet or moving away from them. The guards choose when to walk so they have 

the power to alter how the scene is played. The actor must deliver the speech like a soliloquy to the 

audience, imagining the audience is Susan, who the character is speaking to. This group can swap 

their roles around so that everyone can have a go at being the guards. This relates to the character 

of Susan who likes to listen from behind the door to what’s happening. Allow 10 - 15 minutes to 

rehearse before showing back to the rest of the group. 

Evaluate: Show back the scenes to the rest of the group, and encourage students to be a critical 

audience. The following questions are suggestions of what to ask after the show back. Some 

questions may not apply to all the scenes. Consider the following: 

• In what way do you feel that your character changed during the scene 

• What decisions did you come to about how to stage the scene 

• Were there any ideas you tried out but that didn’t end up in the final piece Why didn’t they make 

the cut 

• Did you have any difficulties in finding how some characters changed during the scene 


21

• What do you think about the family dynamic during the scene What decisions did you make 

about how to portray how the family gossips during the scene 

• For the audience, what did you notice about the family dynamic during the scene 

• For the audience, what parts of the scene did you feel worked well and why 

• How did the guards affect the speech and the behaviour of the actor on stage 

• How did the person playing the actor feel about having the guard there 

3. Devising Exercise: Family Scenarios 

Aim: This is a devising exercise that uses different ways of staging to show how the same scene can 

be manipulated to enhance certain themes. It builds on the last exercise and uses some of the 

techniques, however this time using the students own devised scenes and not the script. 

Time: 15 minutes for devising, 10 - 15 minutes for showing back. 

Practical Exercise: The class can be split up into groups of 4/5. Each group is given a scenario and 

have 15 minutes to devise a scene based on it. Any information that is not clear can be made up by 

the students. For example, what the crime is. Ask them to think about what they have done so far 

and to apply the skills learned to this devising exercise. 

• Scenario 1: A member of your family (who is present on stage) has committed a crime. You 

are trying to make sure no one else finds out. You think there may be someone listening 

outside the door. 

• Scenario 2: One of your neighbours has committed a crime. You, as a family have just found 

out and discuss what you know about the situation and who you know it from. One person in 

the scene is more connected to this crime than they are letting on. 

Students now show back their scenes to the rest of the group. After the first showing, ask the 

students to remain on stage and to play the scene again but applying one of the following rules to 

their performance. These rules are designed to challenge the way the students perform their scene 

and to show that the sharing of ‘gossip’ or private information can be seen in physical actions and 

staging as well as the words spoken. 

RULES 

• If there are chairs used, anyone who sits on one can only speak the truth. 

• Two people are walking up and down the side of the stage, acting like guards, the people in 

the scene don’t want them to hear what’s going on. (This is the same as the rule in the 

previous section). 

• The stage is now half the size. 

• There is someone upstairs. 

• The scene is taking place in a local café in a small town where everyone knows each other. 

• Two people in the piece are hard of hearing. 


Evaluate: After students have finished showing back their work for the second time, after the rules 

have been applied, consider the following questions: 

• How did the rules affect what you did 

• Did you enjoy being put on the spot and being asked to change your performance with no 

rehearsal 

• Did the warm up game help you with thinking of how gossip is spread 

• Did you base your characters on anyone you know in real life or on TV 

• What difference does having to tell the truth have on how you talk about people 



Stella Gonet, June Watson, Anna Devlin and Katherine Parkinson 


THEME: POST-WAR LIFE AND VALUES 

1. Warm-up Game: Improvisation 

Aim: To get the participants working instinctively and openly with one another. The exercise also 

recreates the setting of the play; all the action takes place in Laura’s room and characters are 

constantly entering and leaving. 


Practical Exercise: Have all of the students in a large circle (leaving space in the middle) and choose 

4 volunteers (or a minimum of 3 if a smaller group) to come into the middle of the space. Next, give 

the volunteers a setting, e.g. a doctor’s surgery (something quite structured when initially playing the 

game is a good idea). Explain to the group that you will walk around the outside of the circle and 

that when you tap someone on the back, they will enter the scene and take the place of the person 

that has been there the longest (with the first group, the students will need to improvise a leaving 

order). Explain that each character must find a reason for entering or exiting the scene and must 

make that clear to the audience. Start the first group off with the improvisation in the setting that 

you chose. 

Start selecting participants to enter the group slowly, giving them time to develop logical excuses, 

and then work quickly, so that characters pop in and out of scenes and participants have to think on 

their feet. 

Evaluate: What were the challenges of this exercise What skills do you need when improvising 

Draw attention to any ‘blocking’ of the action that occurred. Why do you need to support each other 

when improvising 

2. Script Exercise: Exploring Tension in Conflict 

Aim: Rodney Ackland’s Before the Party is set after the Second World War has ended, and is the 

characters constantly reference the War in a range of different ways. Some characters want to talk 


23

openly about what happened to them during the War (Laura), some want to keep the memories of it 

supressed (Aubrey and Kathleen) and we see how future generations are metaphorically poisoned by 

its memory (Susan). This exercise uses the script to invite students to consider the tensions that 

these different attitudes to the War create in the play, and what options the actors have for exploring 

these. 


Materials: Script extracts 4 and 5 (see pages 34-38 of this Pack) 

Practical Exercise: Introduce that the play is set post-Second World War (though the original novel 

was set after the First World War); introduce that different characters within the play have very 

different attitudes to the War. Ask the participants what range of attitudes they imagine might be 

possible. 

Split the group into smaller groups or three or four, and give each group one of the two scrips 

extracts. Ask the groups to read through their extracts together and explore the different ways in 

which the war and its after-effects are referred to. Get them to think outside of the obvious e.g. 

Blanche’s poor digestion could be due to rationing during the war, or an element of her nerves. Ask 

the group to consider how the events alluded to in the war are contrasted to the domestic setting of 

the play. Once they’ve discussed this between themselves, ask the group to get the extracts on their 

feet and to consider the different characters’ attitudes to the war. Ask them to experiment with each 

character making their attitude more subtle or exaggerated, playing it in a straight-forward way, or 

making it more complex with the character fighting another instinct (e.g. wanting to discuss it, but 

holding back out of propriety). Ask the group to rehearse an interpretation that they are happy with. 

Evaluate: Make an audience out of the participants and ask each group to perform their extract and 

have the class feedback on how the characters’ different attitudes to the war came across in the 

scene and how this engaged the audience. 

3. Devising Exercise: Family Dynamics 

Aim: The play explores postwar domestic life and the tensions and difficulties in communicating with 

one another when different members of the family have had different experiences during the war. 


Practical Exercise: Divide the group into 4 equal groups. Give each group one of the following 

characters: 

• A male soldier fighting on the frontline 

• A suffragette, leading the movement for the women’s vote 

• A wife with children, waiting at home for her husband’s return from fighting 

• A son whose father is away fighting 


Ask the group to work on the detail of their character: how old they are, how far into the war 

movement they are, do they have children (if playing the suffragette or soldier), did they take their 

position willingly. Ask them to then flesh out what they are doing on a day to day basis via 

improvisation in their smaller groups. For example, the wife might be counting ration coupons for 

her children and going hungry herself; the son might have entirely forgotten his father etc. For the 

soldier at war, encourage a non-naturalistic improvisation to avoid physical contact. 

Once they have explored this in some depth and have a really good sense of their characters, ask 

each group to stand at each side of the room, spread out against four walls (each group to a wall). 

Explain that you will call out two characters at a time, and that everyone in that group should step in 

the middle of the room and meet their counterpart e.g. a male soldier might meet his wife. 

The participants should then improvise their very first meeting post-war (if the group might find this 

difficult, give them a concrete setting, e.g. you’ve just met at a train station). Spotlight some good 



examples and have the group watch and feedback on which tensions are explored and how the 

characters express themselves. As the exercise progresses, and as the group get more confident, you 

might choose to have more than two characters meeting e.g. soldier, wife and son. 

Evaluate: Feedback with the group on what worked and what didn’t work; consider how this exercise 

enhanced understanding of the tension at play in Before the Party. How might the rehearsal process 

have used some of these techniques 

THEME: STATUS AND POWER 

1. Warm-Up Game: Stop / Go & Sacrifice / Survivor 

Aim: To physically introduce the idea of status and get the group energised and focused. 

Time: 5-10 minutes 

Materials: Post-it notes / labels (for variation only) 

Practical Exercise: Ask participants to start walking around the room, filling the space and varying 

their route, so as not to just walk round in a circle. Give instructions: when you say stop, they freeze 

immediately wherever they are; when you say “go” they start walking again. You can add other 

actions like jump, clap, point etc. After the group have mastered this, and are responding quickly, 

change the instructions. Now ask participants to do the opposite of the action you call out e.g. when 

you stay stop, they go, but when you say go, they stop; when you say jump, they clap, but when you 

say clap, they jump. 

For the second part of this exercise, continuing from stop/go, now when you call out survivor one 

person stays standing up, everyone else falls to the floor. When you call out sacrifice one person falls 

to the floor whilst everyone else remains standing and looks at the ‘sacrifice’. 

Variation: Give each participant a Post-it labelled 1, 2 or 3. Ensure that participants do not see/know 

what number they have been given. The aim is to be close to someone who is a 1 and to avoid 

everyone who is a 2, and to run from everyone who is a 3. Ask participants to guess what number 

they think they were and why. 

Evaluate: What was most difficult about this exercise What do you think the aim was, and what 

skills did you need to use For the Variation element, how did it feel to be a number 1 Or a number 

3 Who had most status 

2. Script Exercise: Status Levels 

Aim: To use the script as a basis for exploring the dramatic potential of characters of different 

statuses, and its effect in performance. 


Materials: Script extract 6 (from pages 39-40 of this Pack) 

Practical Exercise: Ask three volunteers to read the script extract out loud. Whilst doing this one 

person is standing, another sitting on the chair and another sitting on the floor. Ask them to change 

levels at various points in the scene. Discuss with group what effect this has on the scene. In groups 

of two or three ask they them to stage the extracts with the obstacle that they must all be on different 

levels. Watch them back if you have time. 

Evaluate: What was the effect on status of physically varying level Consider this from the point of 

view of both performer and audience. Did physically changing status alter status within the script 

How might you use a non-naturalistic / stylised exercise like this in rehearsal, or use it to develop 

character dynamic 


25

June Watson, Anna Devlin and Katherine Parkinson 


3. Devising Exercise: Shifting Status 

Aim: To create fictional devised scenes exploring changes of status, and its causes and effects. 


Practical Exercise: Discuss with the group types of people and/or real people in society with high 

and then low statuses. High status people could be Barack Obama, a famous music star, the 

Queen, a high-flying business manager, headteacher; low status people could be homeless people, 

servants, children. Consider what status means in this context and make a decision for the group 

as to which rules you use to define high and low status. 


In pairs, students should create a scene based on power shifts; with one person starting with a 

high status and the other a low status. By the end of the scene the power should have shifted at 

least once. The scenes should be no longer than two minutes long. An example pairing might be a 

parking ticket inspector and a rich celebrity who’s just had their car clamped. 

Evaluate: Watch the scenes back and discuss the moments of change and how status was played. 

Consider what was dramatically effective and why. How does considering status help in developing 

character dynamics What does it teach you about the character you were playing What causes 

status to shift 

THEME: TRUTH AND LIES 

1. Warm-Up Game: What’s the Truth 

Aim: To explore techniques of concealing the truth. 


Practical Exercise: Split the group into groups of five or six. Take a minute for each person in 



those groups to think of two facts about themselves and one lie. Starting with one person, they must 

each share their three statements. The other members of the group are able to ask one question 

each in order to uncover the false statement. Repeat, going round the group until all have had a 

chance to be questioned. 

Evaluate: Come back together as a whole group. How easy was it to tell who was lying What were 

the best techniques of concealing these lies Discuss the idea of ‘unbelievable truth’. 

2. Text Exercise: Lies in Before the Party 

Aim: To investigate how lies are told in Before the Party and analyse their effectiveness. 


Materials: Script extracts 7-10 (from pages 40-44 of this pack) 

Practical Exercise: Split the class into four groups, giving one extract to each. Tell the class that one 

of the main story points in the play is how Laura’s husband Harold has died. Each section reveals a 

different method of death, only one is true. In some sections the lie is more obvious than others. 

The group should read out the section together and discuss the following questions. 

• What is the method of death 

• Is this a truth or a lie 

If it is a lie: 

• Who is telling the lie and why 

• Does everyone believe the story 

• Who benefits from this telling of the story 

If it is the truth: 

• Do they have an ulterior motive for telling the truth 

• Does everyone believe them 

• Who benefits from this telling of the story 

Evaluate: Allow up to 10 minutes 

for discussion in small groups and 

10-15 for feeding back and 

discussing as a whole class the 

outcome of each group’s work. If 

you have seen the performance, 

draw on the way these scenes 

were played out in the production. 

3. Devising Exercise: Motives for Lying 

Aim: In the play, one of the main motives for telling lies is to maintain the family's position in 

society. This exercise is to give the participants a chance to experience this. 


Practical Exercise: This exercise is done in groups of three. Each group should label themselves as 

person 1, 2 or 3. The scene has the following rules: person 1 really wants to get on the good side of 

person 2; person 3 knows an embarrassing fact about person 1. Give each group 10 minutes to 

devise a short scene using this scenario.As part of the devising process, groups should consider and 

discuss the following. They do not have to tell each other the answer to the question, but they 

should decide what they do know about each other and what they do not: 

• Why does person 1 want to get on the good side of person 2 

• What is their relationship 

• What does person 1 want it to be 

• What does person 2 think of person 1 

• Does this change as the scene progresses 

• How does person 3 fit in to this Do they know person 2 

• Do they want to embarrass person 1 or will they back them up in whatever they say 


27

Evaluate: Show scenes back to the class. What decisions did you have to make in order to make the 

scene work How did the role of person 3 vary in each of the different scenes What were the 

challenges of playing person each person In Before the Party, which characters most closely relate 

to persons 1, 2 and 3 

Michelle Terry and Stella Gonet 


THEME: PLAYING PERIOD 

1. Warm-Up Game: Physicality in Character Development 

Aim: To explore the physical attributes used in developing a character. 



Practical Exercise: To warm up ask the participants to begin by walking around the room, using all 

space and filling the gaps on the floor. Rather like a ‘house of cards’ they must silently pick a card 

number to identify with. Ace equals one being the lowest of status and King being the highest. 

There is no Joker in this pack! 

Continuing to walk in the space ask the participants to think about how their chosen character 

might move. Then when they are ready encourage the participants to begin walking like their chosen 

character. Reminders - They are walking alone - How do they move What rhythm do they walk with 

Are they fast or slow Are they heavy or soft in their walk Where do they look Are their heads high 

or low Do they stand tall or try not to be noticed Explore the possibilities. 

Now ask them to introduce themselves to another character in the space. They can only say “hello” 

upon meeting each other and “goodbye” when they leave. What is it like to greet another person 

Shake hands How does it make your character feel 

Evaluate: At the end of this exercise ask the group to line up in order or the ‘house of cards’ from 

lowest to highest number – the challenge is that they are not allowed to tell each other their chosen 

number. Did they get the correct order Remember that some will be the same. In a group discuss 

what they discovered within the movement and physical gestures of their individual character and 

those they met on their journey. 



Alex Price and Katherine Parkinson in rehearsal 


2. Script Exercise: Clues in the Text 

Aim: To develop a character within a play we often look for clues from the text. This exercise asks 

students to investigate what we can deduce about a character from the words and directions in the 

script. 


Materials: A selection of any of the script extracts 1-6 included in this pack. 

Practical Exercise: Spilt the group into equal groups, depending on how many script extracts you 

have chosen. Alternatively this exercise can be done individually as a homework task or as a whole 

group if preferred. To extend this exercise, you can use multiple extracts for each character (e.g. for 

Blanche, extracts 1, 2 and 5). 

Read through the piece or extracts and ask each participant to select a character from that scene. For 

that character, each participant should create a list of: 

• What the author says about the character, the description of the character. 

• What the character says about him/herself. 

• What the other characters say to or about the character. 

• The actions and interactions of the character – what he/she does. 

Reflect or discuss what we have discovered; also draw attention to what we are not told about them. 

Now, return to the character and build a character profile for the piece as a whole by asking each 

participant to write a one to three word character response for each of these words about their 

character. You can either do this on how the character would describe themselves (i.e. in character), 

or objectively, as how the director might approach the script. 


29

Create responses for the following character profiles: 

• Lifestyle 

• Beliefs 

• Customs 

• Values 

• Group Membership 

It may be helpful before the exercise starts to discuss what each of these phrases mean, and the 

differences between them. 

Evaluate: What do we learn about the characters in this play and the time period in which they are 

living Why might this information be useful to the actor playing the part Are there any 

disadvantages in taking a text-based approach to developing character 

3. Devising Exercise: Exploring Period 

Aim: To explore how the ‘period’ in which a play takes place will add to developing and creating a 

character. 


Practical Exercise: In pairs or small groups chose an everyday activity such as getting ready for a 

party, setting the table for family dinner, or getting ready to go on a day trip. Imagine the same act 

performed in different times reflecting different views of the world. Perform the event as if living in 

the cave persons’ prehistory – the ‘50s – ‘70s – ‘90s – present day – science fiction future. (Additional 

images may be used if necessary to aid the group if they are unfamiliar with the time periods). 

Discussion: Once each group has performed the different eras discuss the style of the period. What 

character choices were made and why Discuss what the characters in each scene would have looked 

like What clothes did they wear How did they move Or speak 

Evaluate: Draw comparisons with each group and identify the similarities or differences between the 

characters in each time period. 


Almeida Projects: Schools and Education 

Our Schools and Education programme is really important to us, which is why we have a 

number of ways that we can work together with you. 

Depending on your needs, budget and the time you have available, we work with the education 

sector in the following ways: 

Subsidised Tickets 

A comprehensive package of discounted theatre tickets, in-school workshops and a personal 

host for the production to answer any questions about the theatre or the show. 

Residencies and Workshop Packages 

We offer packages to bring the expertise of our practitioners in your school from one-off 

workshops to year-long residencies, all tailored and responsive to your students’ academic 

needs. 

For more information about working with us, visit our website almeida.co.uk/education, email 

projects@almeida.co.uk or call 020 7288 4916. 


Script Extracts 

THEME: GOSSIP AND TELLING TALES 

Script Extract #1 

BLANCHE 

Now, Susan, if you ever stop and look at anything like that again, I shall take you 

straight to a psychiatrist. It was very ill-bred of you to watch. Thank goodness I’ve 

never seen anything like that, or I’m sure I should never eat meat at all. They say 

those stock yards in Chicago… What was that book that created such a scandal before 

the last war, exposing all the horrors of the corned beef factories Greed, that’s what it 

was called – by Sinclair Lewis. Mrs Baxter – you know, the woman on the Committee 

of the Institute with me – she was telling me how they make foie gras. It’s horribly 

cruel, she said, forcibly feeding the geese or something – just as they used to do with 

suffragettes – she’s a Theosophist – but I absolutely refused to listen. Heaven knows, 

I said, we have little enough pleasure allowed us with this awful government, but I 

happen to have a jar of foie gras sent me from America. I’ve been looking forward to 

it as a treat, and you mustn’t spoil it for me by telling me how it’s made. (She adjusts 

her hat again in the mirror.) If there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s cruelty to animals. 

(She turns to explain her hat.) Well, shall I wear it, or not 

(There is a pause.) 


KATHLEEN 

Don’t you like it 

There’s something which I think Laura ought to know. I was playing golf with Gladys 

Benson this morning. 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

Gladys Benson Is she that woman who’s related to Sir Arthur Boot 

(Quickly.) Only by marriage. Lady Boot is her aunt, that’s all. 

Oh yes, of course I know her – Gladys Benson – she was elected Honorary Secretary 

of the Golf Club this year, and you were so disappointed because didn’t get it again. 

I was not disappointed. Everyone knows I didn’t want another year of never-ending 

work, or they’d have voted for me. 

Yes, of course, dear. 

They only voted for Gladys because of her aunt. You know what snobs some of them 

are at the Club. As if titles meant anything these days. 

Well, I consider we’re a much better family than half the people with titles round here. 

Families like ours are the backbone of England, your father always says. What were 

you going to say about Gladys, dear 

She was dining with the Canon last night, and the Bishop was there. He’s been to the 

Gold Coast, and he knows a good many people that you know, Laura. 

Oh, how interesting, Laura. That is nice. (To KATHLEEN.) Did he know poor Harold 

Yes, he remembers him very well. He says he was shocked to hear of his death. (She 

pauses.) 


31

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

(LAURA opens her jewel case and takes out a pair of earrings.) 

Laura, why did you tell us Harold died of malaria 

(LAURA looks at KATHLEEN’s reflection in the mirror over the dressing-table for a moment, 

then slowly commences to screw on an earring.) 

What do you mean, Kathleen 

The Bishop says Harold committed suicide. 

(BLANCHE gives a startled cry.) 

Is it true, Laura 

Yes. 

But, Laura darling, why didn’t you tell us 

(LAURA pauses for a moment, then methodically screws the second earring into place.) 

I thought it better for Jeremy to think that his father died of fever. I didn’t want him 

to know anything about it. 

Poor Harold. (Tears trickle down her cheeks.) He was always a good son-in-law to me. 

Whatever induced him to do such a dreadful thing (She pauses.) I understand about 

Jeremy, of course dear – but surely you could have told me the truth 


KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

You might have known it was bound to come out. 

(Turning.) Why I didn’t expect a gossiping old parson to have nothing better to talk 

about than me. 

When the Bishop said he’d been to the Gold Coast, it’s only natural that Gladys 

should ask him if he knew you and Harold. It put me in a very awkward position with 

her. Now she’ll tell everybody we hushed it up because we were ashamed, and it’ll be 

all round the Golf Club in no time. 

But Harold always seemed so jolly – and so normal. And he had dear little Jeremy and 

a very good position in the Civil Service. And he always seemed to like the life in West 

Africa, in spite of the snakes and natives. Whatever made him do it, Laura 

The climate. 

Poor boy, how dreadful! And he kept it all to himself so as not to worry you, I 

suppose He never said a word to us when he came home on leave. What a terrible 

shock it must have been for you. How did it happen, Laura 

Kathleen can probably tell you. 

(KATHLEEN hesitates, then decides to speak.) 

KATHLEEN 

(Moving centre.) The Bishop says Harold cut his throat. 

(BLANCHE gasps.) 



BLANCHE 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

He says that Laura had been away with Jeremy, and when she came back she found 

poor Harold dead on the bed. 

(BLANCHE begins to sob and rises.) 

(Moving to LAURA.) Laura – my poor child. (She puts her arm around LAURA.) 

(Pulling herself free.) Please don’t fuss me. I can’t stand being mauled about. 

(BLANCHE moves and sits on the end of the bed.) 

(Moving to BLANCHE.) Don’t cry, Mother. (She lays her hand gently on BLANCHE’s 

shoulder.) It’ll make your eyes look red, and people will think it so funny. 

(BLANCHE makes a successful effort to control herself.) 


AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

Now you know the truth, Laura must wear mourning to the party, mustn’t she It 

would be bad enough wearing pink if poor Harold had died a natural death – but with 

the Bishop and Gladys Benson knowing what really happened – and they’ve probably 

told everybody by now – people will think it very funny indeed. 

Even if you’ve no consideration for me, Laura, you might consider the effect on your 

son of giving him a feckless good for nothing to take Harold’s place. 

Well, we can only hope that wherever poor Harold is now, he won’t be able to look 

down and see the way you’re treating him. 

KATHLEEN 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

And I might tell you, Laura, by hiding the truth about Harold, you’ve started all sorts 

of malicious gossip. 

What gossip 

Well, you know what Gladys Benson is – she’s certainly not reliable – but she said that 

when the Bishop and the Canon were discussing Harold’s death, the Bishop said he 

believed that Harold drank. 

Oh, my dear, what a shocking thing to say! 

Of course, I told her it was completely untrue. 

This is what comes of making a secret of things. It’s always the same. If you try to 

hush a thing up, all sorts of rumours get about which are ten times worse than the 

truth. 

The Bishop said there was even a rumour going round the Gold Coast that Harold 

killed himself while suffering from delirium tremens. I think for all our sakes you 

ought to deny that, Laura. 

It’s such a dreadful thing to have said about anyone who’s dead. And it’ll be so bad 

for Jeremy when he grows up. 

It’s quite bad enough for me now, Blanche. I suppose Sir Arthur was present when 


33

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

AUBREY 

LAURA 

AUBREY 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

this conversation took place 

Yes, Father. 

What does it matter Do you think the Committee will turn you down because of 

some gossip about your son-in-law 

What is the foundation of this story, Laura Harold was very abstemious. 

(After a pause.) Here. 

Did he drink 

Like a fish. 

(AUBREY, BLANCHE and KATHLEEN look startled.) 

(After a pause.) Laura! How can you talk like that about Harold, now that he is dead 

I could never have believed a girl of mine… 

Never mind about that, Blanche, we can go into all that later. I don’t know how far 

what the Bishop has been telling people coincides with the facts, but if you take my 

advice, you’ll tell us everything. It will make it easier for all of us if we, at all events, 

know the truth. 

THEME: POST-WAR LIFE AND VALUES 



LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

David – for God’s sake. I don’t want to see you any more. I don’t want to marry you. 

I know it must seem very erratic and odd, but leave it at that. I shouldn’t have let it 

go so far. 

But what have I done 

You’ve not done anything. I ran away to avoid a dreary cross-examination. Now go. 

Kathleen’s probably in her room – she’ll hear us. 

So what 

Well – this is my bedroom. (She crosses below him to centre and turns.) You’ve been 

drinking again, haven’t you 

I stopped at The Feathers on my way. Any objection 

No – it has nothing to do with me. 

(KATHLEEN enters up right. She stops right of the chaise on seeing DAVID.) 

KATHLEEN Oh – excuse me. There was something I wanted to talk to you about, Laura – 

something very serious. 

LAURA 

Later, Kathleen. After the party. 

(KATHLEEN looks from LAURA to DAVID, then turns to the door up right.) 



KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

DAVID 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

What’s the matter, Kathleen 

(KATHLEEN stops and turns) 

Do you object to David coming up here to talk to me 

I don’t want to criticise, Laura, and I know it has nothing to do with me, but I think 

you should remember that you’re not in West Africa now – you’re in Luffingham. 

(Moving and sitting on the end of the bed.) I’m under no misapprehension. 

Well, you must realise that things that might be all very well on the Gold Coast are 

looked upon in Luffingham as extremely bad form. Of course, it’s nothing to do with 

me, I know. 

It’s my fault for coming up here, Miss Skinner. 

I’m not blaming you, Mr Marshall. I know you were in the underground movement 

in Yugoslavia during the war – 

I don’t see what that has to do with it. 

(Ignoring the interruption.) – and I can well imagine you became accustomed to a 

different kind of life between the sexes. But that was some time ago now. 

What do you mean by – ‘a different kind of life’ 

Well – a life without time for social conventions and so on. Men fighting side by side 

with women – sleeping in the same tents together… 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

I don’t think they had tents. 

Well – next to each other on the grass, then – or whatever it is they do in guerrilla 

warfare. But please remember, Mr Marshall – and I don’t mean to criticise, I’m 

speaking to you as a friend – you’re in England now – you’re not still in the 

Resistance – and Laura is not a guerrilla. 

(DAVID bursts into laughter.) 

(Angrily.) Oh, you know what I mean. How else can one pronounce the word And I 

don’t think it’s very nice, Laura – going on like this while you’re still in mourning. 

(She turns and exits up right. DAVID is abruptly sobered by her words.) 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

(Looking intently at LAURA.) Is that what’s worrying you 

What 

Mourning, What people will think, and all that. 

(Protestingly.) Oh, David! 

What then 

(Looking away.) I – I just thought – I’m not a very good person for you to marry. 


35

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

(Moving in left of LAURA.) Can’t I judge for myself 

Darling – I’ll try – I’ll try so hard to be good for you. 

What are you talking about 

I don’t know. Nothing. 

Tell me – is there any insanity in your family 

Yes. 

(LAURA frees herself.) 

(Trying to pull her down.) Hey! 

No, no, Bruce darling – let me go. She’ll come in again. 

(Releasing her.) Did you hear what you said then You called me Bruce. 

How extraordinary – yes, I did. (She ponders a moment.) Yes, how extraordinary. 

Who were you thinking of (He pauses.) Laura – did you call your husband Bruce 

No, no. Bruce was someone I knew years ago before I married. I certainly wasn’t 

thinking of him consciously. (She studies DAVID’s face and runs her fingers through 

his hair.) You are a bit like him, though, now I come to think of it. 


DAVID 

LAURA 

DAVID 

LAURA 

Were you in love with him 

Yes. I was very young – it was ten years ago. Really, that is odd, my suddenly calling 

you Bruce. 

What’s happened to him 

Bruce He was killed in the war – so Nanny told me. I never saw him again after I 

went to Africa. (She pauses.) 

(DAVID sits up.) 

(She rises with a sigh.) I must start getting ready for the Bishop. 

(DAVID rolls over and lies face downwards on the bed, with his head at the downstage end and 

his feet on the pillow.) 

DAVID 

LAURA 

Is that what you were always saying to this character – ‘No, no, Bruce darling, let me 

go’ 

(Laughing.) Not at all, David. (She moves to the wardrobe.) You’ve got your boots 

on the bed. 




AUBREY 

NANNY 

AUBREY 

NANNY 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

NANNY 

KATHLEEN 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

Is it true that Cook locked Muriel in the kitchen cupboard 

In the boot cupboard. 

In the boot cupboard, then. And why did Cook lock Muriel in the boot cupboard 

Because Muriel’s a Jewess. 

Is Muriel a Jewess Had you any idea she was a Jewess, Blanche 

No, I hadn’t – her nose is rather turned up. 

(Turning the chair down right and sitting.) But, Nanny, it is her uncle who keeps the 

farm, isn’t it He’s certainly not a Jew. 

No, he’s a Wesleyan or something like that. It’s her mother who was a Jewess. 

She is one, then. (To BLANCHE.) She might have told you when you engager her. 

The girl was under no obligation to disclose her parents’ race or religion. 

It is the limit though, the way they worm themselves in everywhere. We’ve even got 

one at the golf club now. 

Who’s that, dear 

You know that Scottish woman, Mrs Burns, whom you thought so charming Well, 

we’d never have known she was a perfectly awful Jewess if Gladys Benson hadn’t 

found out her name was really Bernstein. I’ve been very cold to her ever since. 

AUBREY 

NANNY 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

NANNY 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

Never mind about that now. (To NANNY.) What is the reason for Cook’s 

extraordinary behaviour Is she an ex-Nazi Fascist 

Yes, of course she is. She gets a paper sent her every week with a picture of that 

Oswald Mole-sey on the front, and what’s more, she started telling me something 

about we fought on the wrong side in the war. We ought to have fought side by side 

with Hitler, or some such nonsense. 

(Rising.) She can leave this afternoon. 

Oh, Aubrey! 

You can give her a fortnight’s wages, and she can catch the first train up to London. 

Quick march at the double. 

But, Aubrey dear… 

Blanche, please understand, if there’s any chance of my representing Luffingham, my 

household must be above reproach. (He moves down left and turns.) I cannot have 

it said that I allow a Jew-baiting fascist to cook for me. 

You’re making a mountain out of a molehill, Father. It’s not as if she were a 

Communist. 


37

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

Aubrey, it really is rather drastic, dear, telling Cook to go today. 

I don’t know where we’re going to find anybody else like her. And what about supper 

tonight 

We can finish the goose. 

There’s not nearly enough. 

Mr Marshall had three helpings. 

And there’s not a bit of stuffing left. 

Then we can open a tin of corned beef. I will not allow a Hun and a Nazi under my 

roof, after six years of fighting them. 

It wasn’t only because of Muriel’s being half a Jewess, was it, Nanny 

Oh Now what is the truth about this (He moves to the stool and sits.) 

Well, Nanny tells me Cook said that Muriel was nothing but a… (She breaks off.) Put 

this glass down, Kathleen. I shall have to take some Bisodol tablets to the party with 

me. 

(KATHLEEN rises, takes the glass from BLANCHE, places it on the coffee table, then resumes her 

seat.) 


AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

NANNY 

KATHLEEN 

You can’t say I didn’t warn you, Blanche. You insisted on a second helping of that 

rich goose. 

Oh, don’t browbeat me, Aubrey. I’m nearly out of my mind with worry. How could I 

know I was going to have all these upsets 

What upsets There’s only this trouble with Cook, isn’t there Or is there something 

else (He pauses.) Blanche, answer me. What’s the matter with you 

As a matter of fact, Father… 

Be quiet, Kathleen. (To AUBREY.) Why, it’s nothing – nothing, dear. Nanny, tell Mr 

Skinner what it was Cook said. 

She said Muriel was nothing but a prostitute, or something of that, and everybody in 

the village knew about her goings on when the American soldiers were here – 

hanging around the camp every night – drinking gin and limes with them, and 

singing disgusting songs. 

It doesn’t surprise me in the least. 



THEME: STATUS AND POWER 


LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

I’m sure Harold wouldn’t want me to wear mourning indefinitely. 

But darling, what will people think if the sister’s wearing mourning and the widow’s 

dressed in pink 

(Laughing.) Oh, Mother, that’s a perfect jingle¬ 

Well, whatever Laura may do – I shall wear my black chiffon. 

(Sitting on the end of the bed.) Laura, what’s the matter with you I’ve not said 

anything before but you’ve been most strange ever since you came back from Africa 

– hasn’t she, Kathleen It’s like – it’s like having a stranger in the house. 

(There is a long pause, during which KATHLEEN gazes intently at LAURA.) 

There’s something which I think Laura ought to know. I was playing golf with Gladys 

Benson this morning. 

Gladys Benson Is she that woman who’s related to Sir Arthur Boot 

(Quickly.) Only by marriage. Lady Boot is her aunt, that’s all. 

Oh yes, of course I know her – Gladys Benson – she was elected Honorary Secretary 

of the Golf Club this year, and you were so disappointed because didn’t get it again. 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

here. 

KATHLEEN 

the 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

I was not disappointed. Everyone knows I didn’t want another year of never-ending 

work, or they’d have voted for me. 

Yes, of course, dear. 

They only voted for Gladys because of her aunt. You know what snobs some of them 

are at the Club. As if titles meant anything these days. 

Well, I consider we’re a much better family than half the people with titles round 

Families like ours are the backbone of England, your father always says. What were 

you going to say about Gladys, dear 

She was dining with the Canon last night, and the Bishop was there. He’s been to 

Gold Coast, and he knows a good many people that you know, Laura. 

Oh, how interesting, Laura. That is nice. (To KATHLEEN.) Did he know poor Harold 

Yes, he remembers him very well. He says he was shocked to hear of his death. (She 

pauses.) 

(LAURA opens her jewel case and takes out a pair of earrings.) 

Laura, why did you tell us Harold died of malaria 

(LAURA looks at KATHLEEN’s reflection in the mirror over the dressing-table for a moment, 


39

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

then slowly commences to screw on an earring.) 

What do you mean, Kathleen 

The Bishop says Harold committed suicide. 

(BLANCHE gives a startled cry.) 

Is it true, Laura 

Yes. 

But, Laura darling, why didn’t you tell us 

(LAURA pauses for a moment, then methodically screws the second earring into place.) 

I thought it better for Jeremy to think that his father died of fever. I didn’t want him 

to know anything about it. 

Poor Harold. (Tears trickle down her cheeks.) He was always a good son-in-law to me. 

Whatever induced him to do such a dreadful thing (She pauses.) I understand about 

Jeremy, of course dear – but surely you could have told me the truth 

You might have known it was bound to come out. 

(Turning.) Why I didn’t expect a gossiping old parson to have nothing better to talk 

about than me. 


THEME: TRUTH AND LIES 


BLANCHE 

SUSAN 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

(Scrutinising herself again in the mirror.) La Marr She’s on the films, isn’t she Stop 

giggling, Susan. (She turns.) I was mistaken for Lily Elsie once, when I was a girl. Of 

course, talking of corned beef factories, I really oughtn’t to wear ospreys. I wouldn’t 

dream of buying them myself. 

(Eagerly.) Do they pull them out of the birds alive 

Susan, I don’t like the way your mind’s developing at all. But my poor son-in-law 

brought them for me, Mr Marshall, the last time he was home on leave. (She turns 

to LAURA.) By the way, Laura, Harold’s photograph’s disappeared from the drawing 

room. You haven’t taken it, have you 

Yes, I put it away. 

I should have thought you’d like to have it out. (She pauses.) It was so nice of him, 

too – before he’d started to get fat. (Hastily.) Not that I minded him getting a bit 

stout, dear. I thought it made him so jolly-looking, poor boy. (She indicates the 

framed photograph on the dressing-table.) That’s awfully good of dear little Jeremy, 

too, isn’t it Hasn’t he got his father’s eyes… Darling, why don’t you put his 

Daddy’s picture next to him – they’d look so nice together 

(There is an awkward pause.) 



KATHLEEN 

BLANCHE 

SUSAN 

DAVID 

KATHLEEN 

DAVID 

KATHLEEN 

SUSAN 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

(Her eyes wander to the window.) I wonder if they’ll have the same ices that we had 

for our party last year – they’re awfully good – really creamy. But I have to be so 

careful, Mr Marshall, only the simplest food. 

(KATHLEEN enters up right.) 

(Moving above the chaise.) Do you know where the Flit is, Mother My room’s full of 

mosquitoes. I’ve been bitten on the elbow. 

The Flit 

Nanny’s got it in the nursery. 

(Rising.) Can I get it for you, Miss Skinner (He crosses to the landing door.) Yes, do 

let me. The nursery – that’s on the next floor, isn’t it Yes, I know. 

Well, you’ll never find it. 

Yes, of course I will, Miss Skinner. I insist. (He exits.) 

(Breaking to the fireplace and turning.) What’s come over Mr Marshall all of a 

sudden 

Is that how Harold got malaria, Laura – through a mosquito bite 

You’re a thoughtless little girl – you don’t want to upset poor Laura, do you 

What makes you think I’m so easily upset, Mother 

SUSAN 

(Kneeling upon the bed.) Well, that is how you get malaria. Miss Trotman’s brother 

was in India, and he got bitten and he was dead in a week – all through going out in 

the afternoon with his knees showing. 


BLANCHE 

LAURA 

AUBREY 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

But he was in love with you. When you were having Jeremy, he wrote me such a 

lovely letter about you. 

That was after I’d made a scene one day when I’d found him dead drunk at the Court 

House – administering justice to the natives. I told him I was going to have a child, 

and he wept and gave me his word of honour he’d go ‘straight’, as he called it. 

Why didn’t you write to me, Laura, and explain the situation 

What good would that have done 

Well, your father – your father might have written to him – he could have appealed to 

his honour as a gentleman. 

(LAURA laughs sarcastically.) 

LAURA 

He’d given me his word of honour. I don’t see what difference a letter from Father 

would have made. 


41

AUBREY 

Didn’t he even attempt to keep his promise 

LAURA Oh yes, for a few months – before I went away to have Jeremy. When I came back – 

we were going up the river by motor launch – he could hardly keep his balance on 

the landing stage, he was so drunk. I knew I hated him then. I could have killed him. 

BLANCHE 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

AUBREY 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

Oh, Laura, don’t say that. Don’t forget he’s dead, poor man. 

(LAURA looks at BLANCHE, and her expression darkens. AUBREY moves uneasily.) 

Wasn’t he ashamed of himself, Laura 

Ashamed – oh yes, I dare say he was ashamed. But he had another attack of DTs 

within three months. 

Why didn’t you leave him 

From what you tell us, I find it most extraordinary that he wasn’t dismissed the 

service. 

Oh, he wasn’t drunk all the time. Sometimes he’d go for two or three weeks without 

drinking. Besides, nobody knew – we were so isolated there. 

But, Laura, when you came home on leave, Harold certainly wasn’t drinking then. 

No, I threatened him; I threatened him; I told him if he ever let Jeremy see him 

drunk, I’d take the child away forever. 


KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

Didn’t that have some effect on him 

Yes, it did. He did actually keep sober for nearly six months – until I left him for a 

week to take Jeremy to the sea. Harold’s assistant had to go up country to arrest a 

woman who’d murdered her husband, and Harold was by himself for about three 

days. Only three days, and when I got back, the bungalow was littered with empty 

bottles. (She rises and eases left.) He must have started almost as soon as he was 

alone in the place. He’d just sat there, drinking and drinking, pouring the stuff down 

his throat. 

Oh, Laura dear, don’t go on with it. (She rises.) I’m quite upset enough. (She moves to 

the landing door.) I shall go out of the room. 

(She hesitates, right of the bed, and cannot resist remaining as LAURA continues her story, hardly 

conscious of the interruption.) 

LAURA 

KATHLEEN 

If I’d left him, or if Jeremy had died – if something terrible had happened to him in 

the past which he’d wanted to forget, there would have been some excuse. But there 

was none – none. He couldn’t be left alone even for three days. I’m not sorry – he 

deserved it – I still say he deserved it. It was only luck that Jeremy wasn’t with me 

when I found him. I was so beside myself – I can’t say exactly what happened even 

to this day. There was a knife on the wall beside the bed where he was lying – it was 

above the table which had empty bottles on it, and glasses knocked over – and 

suddenly the red blood spurted out from his throat – there was a great red gash 

across it. 

(Rising.) Laura – what in God’s name are you saying 



LAURA 

AUBREY 

KATHLEEN 

LAURA 

AUBREY 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

(BLANCHE stands staring with startled eyes, her mouth open.) 


BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

The knife wasn’t on the wall any more. It was on the bed. 

(After a pause.) I don’t understand. (He moves below the chaise to left of it.) How 

can he have committed suicide if he was in the state you describe 

(Crossing to LAURA and shaking her.) Laura, for God’s sake explain. 

(Releasing herself.) The knife wasn’t on the wall. I told you. I don’t know what 

happened. There was all the blood. He never spoke. He died almost at once. (There 

is a pause.) 

But you wicked woman, it was murder. 

(After a pause.) Laura, you didn’t do it, did you 

I don’t know who else did. 

Come here, dear, I want to speak to you. 

(Moving centre.) If it’s about Harold, there’s no point going over it. I told you what 

happened. 

(With a determined and dramatic air.) Laura – you didn’t do it. 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

(Shaking her head and sighing.) Oh, Mother. 

Listen – no, listen, darling. Come and sit down. 

(LAURA moves to the chaise and sits on it, above BLANCHE.) 

I’ve been thinking. You told us when you found poor Harold – in that state you had 

what they call a mental blackout, and then you came to, and found him lying there. 

Well, haven’t you every thought what might have happened, with all those natives 

about I’m absolutely convinced that one of them crept in while you were 

unconscious – somebody who had a grudge against Harold – you know what they 

are, they all have grudges against their masters – against the whites, and he, or it 

may have been she, it may have been the nurse for instance, must have done away 

with him, and placed the knife in your hand, and when you came to, naturally you 

thought that… 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

No, no, Mother, no. It’s not true, I’m afraid. 

Yes, it is. It is, Laura. (She starts to cry again.) It must be. I can’t go on if it’s not 

true. 

(Sympathetically.) I’m sorry, Mother. 

BLANCHE (Endeavouring to control her tears.) You know, darling, whether it’s true or not – 

don’t forget you are my child, and whatever’s happened I still love you, you know. 


43

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

LAURA 

BLANCHE 

(With tears in her eyes.) Oh, Mummy, don’t. You may be right – yes, perhaps you 

are. You may be right. 

(Blowing her nose and wiping her eyes.) Of course I am, dear. I know no girl of mine 

would ever have done a terrible thing like that. You’re too good, Laura dear, that’s 

what it is. It was the same when you were a schoolgirl, always ready to take the 

blame for other people. Well, thank God I’ve found out the truth at last. You do agree 

with me, darling, don’t you 

It could have happened. Anything’s possible, I suppose. 

It did happen. It did. You must get those other dreadful ideas out of your mind. I’m 

right, Laura, aren’t I dear Tell me I’m right. 

All right, Mother, if you like. 

(Rising and crossing to the dressing-table, sighing.) Now I can face them all tonight. I 

don’t know how I could have gone through with it, otherwise. 



Photo Ludovic des Cognets 

Before the Party 

Almeida Projects Resource Pack 

Compiled by Charlie Payne with 

contributions from Jasmin Anderson, 

Elizabeth Bacon, Bethan Dear, Simone 

Finney, Anna Landi, Lyndsay Marsden, 

Laura Purling and Sara Robertson. 

Before the Party by Rodney Ackland was 

produced at the Almeida Theatre 21 

March - 11 May 2013. 

The information in this Resource Pack 

is correct at the time of going to press. 

All rights reserved. © Almeida 

Theatre, Published March 2013. 

The Almeida Theatre is a Registered 

Charity No. 282167. The Almeida 

Theatre Company Limited, Almeida 

Street, London N1 1TA. Use of this 

Almeida Projects Resource Pack is 

authorised in connection with the 

Almeida Projects work at the Almeida 

Theatre. Any further use in any form 

must be approved by the creators. The 

copyright of all original material 

remains with the creators. 

Almeida Projects is the Almeida Theatre’s 

creative learning programme. 

Since 2002 our main aim has been to inspire the theatre-makers, theatregoers 

and theatre-lovers of the future. Each year we provide more than 

10,000 opportunities for young people to participate in projects led by 

experienced industry professionals inspired by main-stage shows in our 

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Our Schools and Education programme is really important to us, which is 

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Depending on your needs, budget and the time you have available, we work 

with the education sector in the following ways: 

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For more information about our work, please visit our website: 

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before party the - Almeida Theatre

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