An Analysis of Scene 3 (Pages 7 to 9), From ‘Gregory’s Girl

In scene 3 of ‘Gregory's Girl' there are only three characters involved. One is Gregory, another is Madeline who is Gregory's sister, and the other one is Mike who is Gregory's father. In this scene Gregory is late for school and is getting ready in front of a mirror in his bedroom. He then is talking to himself while he is putting on his deodorant. His sister who is outside is listening to him talking to himself. Gregory then smells is own breath by putting his hands over his mouth and breathes out and smells. He then exhales out loudly and smells. He then picks up his electric toothbrush, selects an appropriate brush, clicks it into place and then turns on his brush. He is in tune with the brush. He then changes gear. Madeline then comes into his bedroom and then criticises his tie saying it clashes with what he is wearing. Gregory then has a conversation with Madeline. The doorbell then rings and Madeline says bye. Gregory then ponders the purple tie and tosses it to one side. He unbuttons his shirt and his father walks in and shouts â€Å"good god† and Gregory then reply's â€Å"hi Mike†. Gregory's dad then tells him not to call him mike but to call him father or dad. Gregory then has a conversation with his dad and his dad makes a plan with Gregory to meet up sometime. They make an agreement to meet at 8 O'clock in the kitchen on Friday for breakfast. Gregory then leaves and his father picks up the purple tie with disdain. For acting out scene 3, I would have a stage set which has Gregory's bedroom, the kitchen and the passageway. The bedroom would be on the left side of the stage. On the right side of the stage would be a passageway which leads to the kitchen in front. Opposite the bedroom would be a door offstage. This would be used to exit/enter the flat. There would be a wall with a door splitting the bedroom and the passageway. There will be no wall to separate the kitchen from the passageway because the audience will not be able to see the kitchen. There will be another door in the passageway which would be Madeline's room. Madeline's room would be behind Gregory's room. This room the audience will not be able to see therefore there will be no need for this room to have props. The props in the bedroom would have a bed facing the audience which would have the blanket shoved to one side and it would be situated on the far left. Next to the bed would be a brown desk which would have a lamp on it, a silver alarm clock, an electrical toothbrush, a roll on deodorant and some books in a messy pile. Next to the desk will be a cupboard and next to the cupboard there is a long mirror. On the floor there will be a school bag some clothes which are in a messy pile. The colour of the room would be blue. I would make Gregory's room a bit messy to show to the audience the typical lifestyle of a male teenager. Another way to show his laziness of waking up is the silver alarm clock to show that he's not bothered about being late for school. The mirror would be there to show him getting changed in front of the mirror. The other props in his rooms are extras to make it look like a bedroom. The props in the passageway would have hooks attached to the wall with jackets on them, a telephone and clock attached to the wall with a desk just below it, some shoes lined up on the floor against the wall near the desk. Next to the desk would be a black school bag (this bag belongs to Gregory). The colour of the wall would be brown. The props would be here to show to the audience that this place is the passageway. The kitchen would have a sink, a washing machine, a cooker, a kettle, a microwave, a fridge, a shelves attached to the walls, there would be plates next to the sink and the walls would be white. The props in the kitchen are here to show what a typical kitchen looks like. The way the actors speak and move is very important in this scene. As a director, I would choose to start off the play by opening the stage curtains and the first thing the audience will see is Gregory buttoning his shirt in front of a mirror. The clothing Gregory would be wearing is black trousers and a white shirt. The clothing he is wearing is his school uniform. While he is dressing he is whistling and moving side to side. When the audience see his room they can tell that he is a typical lazy teenager by the mess in his room. Madeline will then come of her room into the passageway dressed up in her school uniform carrying her brown school bag. She then puts her bag next to Gregory's on the floor then stands outside Gregory's door listening to Gregory's monologue. The actress playing Madeline would be leaning against the wall and would be smiling. She would be wearing a black skirt, a white shirt with a black jumper and a school tie. This would show the audience that she is getting ready for school. Gregory then stops buttoning his shirt and says â€Å"ooh dear me, almost forgot my twelve hour protector. That would never do. Just a little roll fights off the demon sweaty odours for a full twelve hours. Then a little dab to encourage the chesty follicles and perhaps a quick whirl round the band of the Y-fronts and he's protected. One hundred per cent protection against all unsightly odours. Or is he? â€Å". I would make the actor use a commentating voice when the actor is saying these lines. The facial expressions when the actor is speaking he would be raising his eyebrows and moving his head. When the audience see this scene the audience know that Gregory likes to smell good. Then Gregory puts his hands over his mouth and smells his breath. Then he exhales out loudly smelling to see if his breath smells. When the audience see this they realise that Gregory does not like to smell bad and he likes to give a good impression of himself. He then says â€Å"can't smell a thing. Better give the shiny molars a polish, just to be on the safe side†. The way the actor would say this would be in a ‘oh well' tone of voice. The actor would shrug his shoulders and raise his eyebrow slightly when he is saying this. Gregory then picks up his electric toothbrush, selects an appropriate brush, clicks it into place and then turns on his brush. He is in tune with the brush. Gregory then stops brushing his teeth and puts on a purple tie. At this point Madeline walks into his room, stops dead and stairs at his tie and says â€Å"you're not wearing that tie are you? â€Å". When Madeline says this she would say it in an ‘uurgh' tone. Gregory would then jump from fright and would turn around saying â€Å"please don't creep up on me like that. You could damage my delicate relationship with this finely tuned apparatus†. He would then say in a suspicious tone â€Å"what's wrong with the tie†. Madeline would then reply in an accusing tone â€Å"it jars†. Gregory then says â€Å"so! † in a not bothered way. Madeline then says â€Å"it will set peoples teeth on the edge†. Gregory then argues back â€Å"it's a statement†. Madeline then replies â€Å"only to you. to everyone else it shows dreadful taste† in a criticising tone. When Madeline is talking the audience know that Madeline is in control and that Gregory listens to his sister who is younger than him. At this time Gregory will be adjusting his tie looking back at the mirror. Madeline will then go to his bed to fold up his duvet. When the audience sees Madeline fold up his duvet they see that she cares for his brother and she act a lot older than her big brother Gregory. Madeline then sits on his bed staring at him. Gregory then says in a curious voice â€Å"aren't you late for school or something? â€Å". Madeline then says looking at his clock I'm waiting for someone†. When the audience see her looking at the clock they think that the person she is waiting for is late or. Gregory then looks at her and says â€Å"oh. Who? â€Å". Madeline then gets off the bed and walks past him stops at the door turns back and says â€Å"Richard. He walks me to school†. At this time there will be a sound effect of a doorbell. Madeline then opens his door and leaves going into the passageway, she then collects her bag and when she gets to the front door to leave the flat, she opens the front door then says â€Å"see you† and Madeline the departs with the front door closing behind her. Gregory then leaves his room fully dressed and says â€Å"bye†. He then stops dead and looks slightly up then says to his self â€Å"walks her to school†. Gregory then ponders at the purple tie and throws it to one side onto the desk in the passageway. He then undoes one shirt button looking at the audience, two buttons then three. Gregory's vest shows then he tries to adjust it but it fails. He does his third button up and his father then comes in through the front door and looks at him and shouts â€Å"good God†. Gregory then reply's in a normal high voice â€Å"hi Mike†. The actor playing mike has a newspaper and goes towards the desk and says â€Å"call me dad, Gregory, or pop ore something . . . it makes me feel better when you call me dad . . . or father†. Mike then puts the news paper down onto the desk. The actor playing mike says these lines in a disappointing voice. Gregory then says â€Å"as you wish, father† in a not bothered way. At this time Gregory's father walks into the kitchen and opens the fridge. Gregory follows him. Gregory then says â€Å"how are you anyway†. Mike reply's â€Å"fine. Were all very well. Your mother was asking about you only the other day† in a surprising voice. At this time mike has just taken a bottle of milk out from the fridge. Mike then continues â€Å"I told her we had met in the hallway, briefly, last Thursday and you looked fine†. Mike then puts the milk near the kettle and takes the kettle to the sink and now he is filling it up with water. Mike then turns the tap off and takes the kettle back to boil the water. Mike is continuing â€Å"this is an added bonus. She'll be thrilled with news from this unexpected sighting†. Mike then presses the button to boil the kettle. Gregory then looks at the kettles light and asks his dad â€Å"so what keeps you hanging about the homestead† in a curious voice. Mike then corrects him in a correcting voice â€Å"returning to not hanging about. He then says in a tiresome voice â€Å"I have already taken Mr. Clarke for his pre-test warm up, done an hour with Miss. Benthal and since my next client†¦ † Gregory then buts in and says † client? Bit over the top, isn't it? † in a humorous voice. Mike then looks at Gregory with a raised eyebrow and continues â€Å"my next client happens to lives nearby so I dropped off for a cup of coffee. Unfortunately the adaptor for the coffee machine seems to have walked, and, not unnaturally, I surmised that it may have walked here†. Mike says the last few lines sarcastically to give the audience a bit of humour.