Briefly outline and justify your casting decisions for Nell and Mrs Farley and then explain how you would direct the spoken and unspoken interaction of your actors in Act One, Scene Seven in order to reveal their attitudes to one another

‘Playhouse Creatures’ is a play written by April De Angelis in 1994 and it is set approximately in 1670, in London. With regard to casting this does not give much direction on how to cast Nell and Mrs Farley however throughout the text there are many instances that may point towards the actresses having particular physical aspects. Firstly, when casting Nell I would cast a young woman in her early twenties. During the play Nell goes from being a young sixteen year old girl to a woman in her thirties so the woman who would play Nell would have to have the ability to have a contrast of maturity within her performance. Tight curls were fashionable at the time, so it would be preferable to cast a woman with naturally curly hair. Hair fashion at the time was very important and working class women, as Mrs Farley and Nell were, would have covered they hair as they did not have enough money to style it — this would be an interesting contrast when later in the play they both have enough money to style it into a desirable fashion. I would cast Nell as a rather small but voluptuous woman, someone who would create the illusion of having a big voice coming from a small body as this would add to the humour of many of her songs that are littered though out her performances at the playhouse and in the streets. In addition to this I would take into account the actresses facial features, through out the play Nell is depicted as an over all happy and well humoured woman and to reflect that I would cast a woman with open features and wide eyes. This would help to endear Nell to the audience and she would come across straight away as an approachable character. Perhaps most importantly for both Mrs Farley and Nell I would cast women with the ability to do very accomplished cockney accents with well executed glottal stops as both characters come from the streets of London, though Mrs Farley thinks of herself as occupying a higher station to Nell and does try to mask her accent somewhat during their first scene together by using superfluous words and a ‘religious tone.’ In terms of pitch and tone I would cast a someone with a low, melodious voice for the part of Nell as she is well known for her singing and jovial joking. In terms of the casting for Mrs Farley it is said in the play that she has ‘continental’ looks and I would therefore take that into account when casting her. Mrs Farley would be played by a woman with dark hair and I would also cast a woman who is tall and long limbed. I would do this because it would reinforce this ‘continental’ image and it would also help to illustrate how pious she is at the beginning of the play and it would help to emphasise her downfall by the end with the physical aspect of making a long, regal body so small and crumpled when begging in the streets. I would cast a woman who was in her early twenties but had a more mature, lined face as this would aid in making her look more haggard later in the play and would also help to distinguish the different maturity levels between Nell and Mrs Farley.