Character and Costume Reflection

Louise’s Character.

Louise’s character was a simple yet complex character to understand, she has a strange relationship
with her brother and the rest of her family aren't seen in the play. They are seen doing normal brother
and sisterly things such as arguing, talking about what they’re doing tonight but as soon as Louise stands
up for herself we can see her quickly bad down from the conversation as she is hit with a ‘sexually
intended’ statement from her brother, the audience can quickly see the strange sexual intent of the
statement and can feel uncomfortable for Louise (Phoenix and I felt strange about this line in the play
but attempted to project the uncomfortable tension onto the audience to make us feel more
comfortable and even tried to make it sound weirder than it was).

We can then see her in the next scene with Carol and Brenda following Scullery’s scene. She seems to
complain a lot to Carol by Carol’s reaction to her shoulder pad slipping, Carol and Louise then are listing
off pubs to spend the evening in and get hit on by Scullery which seems to be a normal experience from
the women on Road, Carol makes a snarky remark and leaves Louise doesn’t seem to mind but is
seemingly annoyed at Scullery’s remark. When first reading the script of road Louise wasn’t a very
memorable character, I wanted her to be slightly naive about the events going on but capable of
knowing right from wrong. I based her character off Debbie Gallagher from the show Shameless U.S,
using season 1 and early season 2 Debbie for reference. I felt as though Louise and I could relate a lot,
being the ‘underdog’ in the relationship with her and her brother.

In Louise’s final scene we see her, Brink, Eddie and Carol characters they met previously, they’re at
Brink’s house early in the morning. Louise has a small monologue about her views on the life they all live
and really stands out in the play and makes the audience wonder what the rest of the characters think
about the Thatcher era. Louise dips into her mental health and how nothing is shared out, money or
love. This relates back to earlier on when Brink and Eddie were trying to get with the girls, thinking all
they wanted was sex. She describes herself as a “quiet person, people think she's deaf and dumb” (when
being Louise I acted in a ‘aloof manor’ seeing her as ‘ditzy’.) She doesn’t like forgetting the feelings she
feels as once you put them away, they become memories, and no one can remember who said what or
did what, she’d rather talk about them. She tells that “Everything’s been made ordinary in our eyes” She
could be referencing the sexual events or even her brother's strange intent, Louise knows these things
are not normal or even average, but they have been accepted by their community but they accept it as
they could get money or even a hope of love, I relate to Louise as I’ve had to live with this question,
growing up I know this isn't right but in Louise’s case and everyone else that lives on road this is a norm
for them. She says that she has never said such a speech in her life and is glad she has. This is an
important scene as throughout we see the lighthearted characters, but this scene is real amongst others
such as Joey and Claire’s struggles. Louise doesn’t seem to have the opportunity to tell her truth. She
finishes her small monologue with a reference to Joey and Claire’s scene as she says, “if I keep shouting
somehow, I might escape”. Claire and Joey go on hunger strike to hopefully see if they can escape the
world they live in, we soon see unfortunately that they cannot escape the world they live in. I think
these lines speak volume as this is how the people living in poverty felt in this time.

Louise’s Costume and Makeup

Louise’s costume was made from a sparkly dress from ZARA (safety pinned at the bust), purple tights
from SHEIN, fishnets that I had distressed from Primark, black leg warmers from SHEIN, and combat
boots from Stradivarius. I chose the dress because Louise has a line that says, “My shoulder pad
slipped”, this dress was perfect as they have shoulder pads and had a promenade 80s feeling and stood
out as Louise and Carol are often at the pub. The purple tights were necessary as Louise is a fun, girly
teenager in the 80s, neon being a highlight of the 80s. I tried to dress down the costume by adding
distressed tights to show the Thatcher era and having to upcycle clothes due to the loss of income, this
can be shown in the scene with Louise and her brother when they are wearing work overalls, the
audience can assume that they used to wear them to work and is in denial about losing their job.
I wanted to bring Louise’s eyes to life, using a bold eyeshadow to match with the purple tights, this is a
contrast with the Thatcher era as she amongst others are suffering through poverty, or though she
speaks out about how she wished for riches instead of the life she currently lives. I used a purple/bright-
pink lipstick to give a more ‘random’ and eclectic look to show that she is a fun and young ‘naive’
teenager. I used a natural base almost as if I didn't have foundation to show Louise’s youth, I added
blusher to give her a ‘flushed’ look.