Bold+Girls+notes

'Bold Girls' by Rona Munro
'Bold Girls' is a four act play exploring the lives of four women. Set in Belfast during the troubles, the text explores the relationships between the woman, and the lies and conflict that lie just below the surface. Cassie, Marie and Nora's lives are turned upside-down by the arrival of Deirdre, a teenage girl whose presence forces the other characters to reveal some 'hard truth' to one another.
 * Overview**


 * Characters**
 * Nora - Cassie's mother. She is the oldest of the group.
 * Cassie - Nora's daughter, Marie's friend. Cassie is a strong-willed and volatile character.
 * Marie - Cassie and Nora's friend and neighbour. Quiet character whose life is dominated by her dead ex-husband Michael.
 * Deirdre - Michael's secret child from a previous relationship. Her appearance drives the narrative forward.


 * Characterisation**
 * Cassie - much of Cassie's character development centres around conflict, with the main aspects of her character to emerge being her aggressive and volatile nature. The way she reacts to Deirdre in the club, for example, helps to develop our understanding of the character.


 * Conflict**
 * Nora and Cassie
 * The conflict between Nora and Cassie centres around their competing views of Nora's husband (Cassie's father), who is dead. Cassie believes (and tells the audience) that her 'daddy' was a wonderful man, and paints the picture of the perfect, caring father; Nora, however, disputes this, describing her husband as a violent and abusive man.
 * Cassie and Deirdre
 * Deirdre's appearance at the beginning of the play provokes immediate anger from Cassie, who demands answers from her when she turns up in Marie's house. This conflict escalates in the club scene, when Carrie forces a confrontation with Deirdre, who reveals a piece of information (that she saw Cassie in a car with a man who we later find out was Marie's husband and Deirdre's father) that causes Cassie to erupt.
 * Cassie and Marie
 * As a result of the conflict between her and Deirdre at the club, Cassie reveals the truth to Marie - that she had an affair with Marie's husband. Marie's world begins to collapse, and she finally stands up for herself, attacking Cassie and throwing her out of the house.
 * Marie and Deirdre
 * Having found out the truth about her husband, Marie must confront Deirdre, who reveals that she is Michael's daughter. Deirdre tries to force Marie to tell her about her father, even threatening her with a knife, but Marie takes this from her and uses it to destroy the picture of Michael was has hung on the way, dominating the set. This conflict seems to resolve at the end of the play, as Marie and Deirdre begin to form a new relationship.

The key scene in the text is scene two, and the specific incident is the point at which Cassie tries to attack Deirdre - it is as a consequence of this event that the text's conflicts come to a head in scene four (the climax of the piece).
 * Key Scene(s) / Incident(s)**

The climax of the text is in the final scene, when each individual conflict comes to a head. The drama increases with each individual conflict - Nora and Cassie's is spiteful and destructive; Cassie and Marie's features limited violence and a more crushing revelation; and Marie and Deirdre's is the most violent and dangerous.Marie's destruction of the picture of Michael is the point at which the drama reaches its peak: she uses the knife (itself a symbol for the truth) to destroy the lie that has controlled her life.
 * Climax**

The text explores the male domination of the women's lives, and the consequence of the truth.
 * Theme**


 * Setting**
 * Belfast, the Troubles - an environment that audiences are likely to automatically connect to ideas of conflict.
 * The house - represents the world that Marie has built around herself after the death of her husband - his picture (a blown up image which is bigger than the religious picture on the way) dominates the room, reflecting the grip that the memories of him have on Marie's life.
 * The club

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