And now for the final quintet from Our Country's Good, here are the cross stitches that I made for certain members of the crew. These are all lines spoken by the character I played, Mary (Dabby) Bryant. Based on a real woman from history, this character dreamed of returning to her native Devon, and in fact she did (although not in the play itself). Despite being unable to read, she conducts conversations about the nature of theatre and the meaning of plays, which add the meta-theatrical level to the production.
For one of the cross stitches I maintained the avian theme from previous works (the crimson rosella, because it is one of my favourites), but for the others I chose either the colours of the Aboriginal flag as a representative of this land, or those that remind me of Devon. At one point Dabby says, "I want to see a wall of stone. I want to hear the Atlantic breaking into the estuary", and she also exclaims, "Oh, give me some English rain. I could recognise English rain anywhere. And Devon rain... is the softest in England".
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| I gave this one to The Luminosity who was the Assistant Director and also ran several line-learning sessions |
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| For the German Rep who made my basket of chicken props (pine cones with feathers). The character follows this up with, 'This is a very stupid line and I'm not saying it'. |
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| Said at the end of the play as Dabby dreams of 'my future success' |
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| For our Stage Manager, who did indeed see the whole play, several times |
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| The conclusion of the above line, for our kind and generous prompt |
