How would you say the lines?

[res23.livejournal.com]

In End of Term, Lawrie, upon discovering that Jesus was not literally a shepherd, realises that she would have to say the line in the play "Lest he, one day, should be a shepherd" differently than she had been planning.  (Well OK, not exactly planning, as she doesn't have the part yet, but you know what I mean; she thinks that the line would need to be said differently in the two cases).  While I appreciate the distinction between being a literal shepherd and being a metaphorical one, I can't translate that into different ways of actually saying the line... (I was rubbish at drama of any sort).  In what way do you think the lines would be said in each case?  What would she be trying to imply differently, and what would be different about the way they're said - stress and emphasis, tone, just the look on her face, etc?  Or, if you can't actually describe the difference - do you hear it as different for yourself??

Or is it just meant to have been an example of her amazing acting ability, and even AF didn't actually know how the lines might be said?

Comments

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I've thought a lot about that over the years.

In the one case, it would be a "looking into the practicaL future" and in the other it would be "looking into the spiritual future", so I can see that you might say it differently - except that either way, would he know that it was going to happen?
Either way, the "lest" is odd. I associate "lest" with negatives -
"Watch lest the wolf approaches", but perhaps I've got that wrong.

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

I always thought it meant "in case".

[richenda.livejournal.com]

I always thought it meant "in case".

Certainly, but I thought of it as negative - as in "lest worse befall".

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's tricky. And the point about the shepherd boy not knowing the future himself is important. So it must be about what the actor is trying to make the audience feel, rather than what the shepherd boy is trying to say to Mary. But how that translates into saying it differently, Lawrie only knows!

[richenda.livejournal.com]

Yes. I thin k that the point is more about Lawrie' s dreaminess than about her acting. That teatime scene with the grandmother is one of the funniest scenes in family life that I know - Rowan and Ginty determinedly eating and pretending that it isn't happening - Oh I'm off to read it again.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

For me, the point is that Lawrie realises for the first time that the line which she had assumed was to be taken "straight" was in fact imbued with conscious dramatic irony. Quite apart from anything else, that means she can expect a different audience reaction to it, and needs to factor that into her delivery. In the Players and The Rebels there are a number of instances where the players are thrown off-balance by lines acquiring a sudden double meaning by the operation of external factors and by the audience reaction to that; it also occurs in The Mask of Apollo which presumably affects AFs writing of drama scenes. Lawrie has picked up that fortunately her grandmother has allowed her to be aware of the potential the line has, even though like all situations of dramatic irony the actor has both to behave as though the line means no more than the words on the page, in order to remain in character and to bring out the hidden nuance the author intended. How Lawrie does it is a matter of technique and sensitivity; one imagines Untiy Logan delivering the line by sending a soulful glance around the audience and giving the line an echo of "holy, holy" gush, but I imagine that Lawrie will come up with something a lot more sophisticated.

[colne-dsr.livejournal.com]

It's beyond me to imagine how one person acts better than another, or how to tell why one person acts better than another, but I remember watching Bugsy Malone. Jodie Foster was on a different plane in terms of acting ability compared with the rest of the cast - Lawrie's presumably something like that.

[(Anonymous)]

This must be the loveliest thread ever. I really don't know how you would do this, technically, though of course I see what she means. It's a bit like conveying the 'Once, not now' as Dr Herrick directs Nicola to in Once in Royal.