The two stimuli’s for my coursework were a play, Hobson’s Choice by Harold Brighouse and a song, For What its Worth by Stephen Stills. Some characters in both texts are similar, such as Maggie in Hobson’s Choice is protesting against her father and the children in the song are protesting against the war. The theme duty is similar in both texts. The setting is different; Hobson’s Choice is set in 1880s Salford when wages were low, but the setting in the song is the 1660s Vietnamese war. The theme of duty could be used in our performance as it was in both texts. The theme of family in Hobson’s Choice could be used to influence us.
The similarity of protesting could be used in my role as I could protest for the innocence of my friend. As the characters in the song protest against the government, we could protest against the law. Unlike the song, Hobson’s Choice has the theme of the break of family; we could use this in our performance. The contexts of both texts are very different. Hobson’s Choice was written in 1880s when Salford was poor, therefore we could have a poor family in our performance. The song was written in the time of the Vietnamese was when the 1660s Americans enjoyed freedom. We could use this, but have the freedom taken away. The work ethic of the character Mr Hobson was different from the work ethic of 1660, as they had none. We could use this in our performance as the judge could have a strong work ethic and the criminal none.
The line ‘man come and take you away’ from the song could influence us as this could be the time when the criminal is arrested. In the song, the person has been taken away from his family to fight. We could use this as the criminal could be taken to jail. The character Maggie and Mr Hobson in Hobson’s Choice are contrasting character; we could use this in our performance as the judge and the criminal are contrasts.
The theme of duty is important in both texts. In Hobson’s Choice one of the main characters, Maggie does her duty, as she does not want to take care of her father but does. In the song, the soldier does his duty by fighting for his country although he does not want to. In our performance, the judge could do her duty, by trying to decide if she should do her duty and let the defendant go. The mother could be doing her duty as a parent by supporting her son.
In our performance, we hope to communicate to the audience that one character struggling to do her duty can have an affect on so many people. To show this we could have monologues for each character to show their thoughts and feelings. In my role, I could have a red spotlight and me sitting in the floor to show stress of the character. We could use a track called ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ when the criminal is stealing. We plan to use facial expressions and changes in tones of voice to communicate the idea of struggle to do duty. We could have a thought scene where all the judges’ thoughts are heard. The theme of duty from both texts influenced our performance.
