The most powerful character in this scene was Abigail, who was played by Abby. She used strong gestures and strong facial expressions to show that she was the most dominant character out of all the girls, and that she had the power to make the girls do what she wanted them to do. In this scene, Abigail is telling the girls not to say anything about what went on in the woods. She knows that there is a possibility that the girls may say something, so she tries her best to scare the girls into not saying anything.
Abigail creates her intimidating presence by standing upright with a straight back and her head lifted upwards so that she is looking down her nose at the other girls. She never breaks eye contact with the person that she is talking to, showing her higher status and her power. Abby rarely raised her voice, and she spoke in a calm tone even when she was threatening the girls. I thought this worked well, but if I were to play the part of Abigail in this scene I would try to raise my voice when threatening the girls, to make more of an impact.
Brigid played her role very well, as she was Mercy Lewis, and she showed her fear for Abigail very well, as she spoke in a small voice, showing that she didn’t want to speak loudly in case any of the adults heard her. When Abby was talking to her, she used little hand movements to show that she was nervous. She tried not to make eye contact with Abigail and when she did make eye contact, she looked away quickly showing that she was intimidated by Abigail. Laura was playing the role of Betty.
For the first part of the scene she lay perfectly still on the bed, which bought a sense of mystery to the scene. Whilst Abigail, Mercy and Mary were talking, Betty starts whimpering and screaming and the other girls don’t know what to do with her. The whole scene got frantic at this point, and Laura used her voice well as she was screaming at the top of her lungs “I want my mama. ” This showed that Betty was very scared of what had happened, and of Abigail.
When Abigail tried to touch her, she threw her arms in the air showing that she didn’t want to be touched at all. Laura shouts her lines, in a strong and distressed voice and when she tells Abigail what they had all done, Abigail hits her across the face and Betty collapses on the bed crying. This again shows Abigail’s power over all the girls and Betty lies on the bed again, sobbing to herself. This shows the audience that Betty is scared of getting up again in case Abigail will be there when she does.
