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This is a guide to the characters of The Norman Conquests as
written by Alan Ayckbourn for his casting director for the 1993 revival of
The Norman Conquests at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round,
Scarborough.
Annie
Not so much
a meek personality as what one might term an 'anything-for-a-quiet-life'
personality. Her anxiety to see least trouble often leads her to be taken
advantage of by the others. 'Easier', she feels, 'To do something yourself
than go through all the arguments and bickering required to persuade someone
else to do it.' This attitude has led her to accept far too great a share of
the family responsibilities, especially with regard to her mother.
Ironically, she already sees herself as her own worst enemy and is well
aware of what she is doing. Her low self esteem is something that instantly
attracts Norman. But Annie is tougher than she looks. There is another
dormant, tougher side to her altogether.
Sarah
I suspect a
psychiatrist would find Sarah a deeply unhappy woman. She is certainly
shrouded in deep guilt about practically everything. This results in her
assuming responsibility for the world and his mother. She foresees disasters
that may never happen, finds a crisis (and even creates one) where there was
none previously and invariably dramatises the tiniest incident. Maybe it is
her instinctive sense of order that causes this. Her desire to see
everything in its place and staying there. She must have been the saddest
little girl. For ever scrubbing and polishing her dolls, scolding and
reproaching them for failing to sit up straight or for falling off their
chairs. All her tea parties must have ended in tears of frustration. Despite
her apparent care for the world, she is extraordinarily self centred,
somewhat vain, a bully, sexually repressed and not, alas, very bright.
Ruth
Although
she'd never admit it, her attitude is not a million miles away from Annie's.
Ruth has simply chosen a different path to achieve the same result. In her
case, a couldn't care less, seemingly cool manner which she affects in order
to keep the world at bay. It is no accident that she chooses to view the
world out of focus. That way she hopes to keep it from impinging on her. Yet
there is another side to Ruth. She is actually a passionate woman and a very
intelligent one - by far the brightest of them all. This has led her away
from the safe relationships her head tells her would make sense towards the
unconventional, the unstable - hers and Norman's. Although the two are chalk
and cheese, of course they are opposites irresistibly attracted.
Reg
A bit of a
contradiction is Reg. On the surface a bit of a man's man, gregarious,
jokey, a mite vulgar, he's really just a little boy who's never really grown
up. His and Sarah's relationship is far more mother and third child than husband and
wife. And quite a loner. He's very happy with his own company and again is
someone who's happy to settle for a quiet life. He's very fond of Annie but
not it seems fond enough to do anything much about helping her. Once again
his and Sarah's is a marriage which, whilst seemingly filled with turmoil, is
probably one that suits them both. Reg's description of himself in
Living
Together
is probably as accurate as anything. In between bouts of
furious activity (he responds well to physical or practical emergencies) he
is happy to sit for days staring at the wall.
Tom
Not quite as
slow witted as he seems, Tom's real problem is his inability to tune in or
focus properly on others. He's either a beat behind (more usual) or
occasionally even a beat ahead. Or somewhere else altogether. People, so far
as Tom is concerned, are a total mystery, an unreadable book. Their
behaviour is totally inexplicable. Rages, depressions, bouts of tears,
bursts of unexplained laughter. It's not that he doesn't listen. Often he
listens too hard. To no avail. The harder he listens the more he tries to
please them, the greater they rant and rage. But you should see him with an
injured horse. An almost perfect communion between man and beast. If this
makes him seem rather sweet and charming, yes, he is. He's also essentially
as selfish and self-interested as the day is long.
Norman
The wild
card in the pack. Norman's strength, though even he fails to realise it some
of the time, is that he's totally transparent. He makes no secret of his
needs and desires. He's discovered the greatest male sexual secret, namely
that the quickest way to a woman's heart (and body) is to ask her for it.
And to keep on asking her till she says yes. His 'yes' rate is
extraordinarily high for someone with apparently such an unappetising
profile and slightly dubious personal habits. How does he do it? other
better groomed men ask in bewilderment. But then Norman is unafraid and
rarely offended by a refusal. Indeed, he could probably have been the Don
Juan he professes to want to be. But the thrill of the chase is all for
Norman. Invariably, at the kill, he will back off or lose interest. Enough
for him to know that the unattainable was within his grasp rather than spoil
the romantic dream by taking it. It is this romance, this un-threatening
harmlessness, this genuine love of women, all women, the ability to see
them, every one, as charmed and beautiful beings, that attracts them to him.
They know he manipulates, they are well aware he often schemes and lies, but
when the end product of these machinations is a desire for them, themselves
- what the hell. How often in life do you get the chance to be the
irresistible object of someone's desire? It's good to have been there once,
even with Norman. Needless to say, the biggest single driving force in
Norman's life is his need to be liked, if not loved, by everyone.
Alan also wrote gave an insightful
observation about the character of Norman in the Los Angeles Times in an
interview published on 5 October 1975:
Norman the character illustrates to me the
game that often goes on between men and women when a man spends an
incredible amount of time setting up an elaborate act for the woman's
benefit. The woman sees through it, and likes him despite the act. But the
man continues to think it's his act that's doing the trick. Norman is
patently the most transparent man in he world. He's like someone I knew who
was a total failure with a disastrous marriage, but a tremendous live wire
to meet socially. Delightful, but not for very long. Norman's the wild card
among these English limbo people I carry with me from childhood: the lapsed
middle-class. It's a rich comic area.
In personal correspondence from March 1976,
Alan also talks about the character of Norman:
Norman does manage to spread a veneer of
happiness. He's a charming person in smallish doses. He won't change -
certainly not over two days. He's too selfish and self-centred and ay
set-backs or disappointments he receives are merely going to bolster his own
prejudices about 'other people'. Ruth, who spends most of her time deflating
him in other people's eyes, although a victim of his charms, says more than
a grain of truth about him, however exaggerated.
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