Consider three appropriate rehearsal techniques you might use to highlight the different personalities of Marie and Margaret

Margaret and Marie, despite posing as friends, actually conflict throughout the play, primarily due to their personality differences: I would want to use this scene (the first time they are seen together) to highlight these differences to the audience.

First, I would begin by having both actors represent their characters in a Brechtian ‘Gestus’, to allow them to understand the difference in personality. By reducing the character to a simple movement, it forces the actor to realise the essence of character’s personality at its simplest level. Therefore, I would get the actors to reflect on the differences between their Gestuses (e.g. Marie may stare at the floor self-consciously, whereas Margaret may judgementally roll her eyes), with the contrast between them communicating to the actors their different personalities.

Then, I would explore the non-verbal presentation of the character’s personalities, through Laban’s ‘Movement Techniques’. I would have the actors reflect on their characters, and relate them to one of Laban’s 7 movement techniques. For example, Margaret’s sharp dismissals and judgement may make her a ‘flick’, whereas Marie’s lack of confidence may make her a ‘float’. Through expressing these characters in opposing movements, it will non-verbally represent their different personalities.

Finally, I would explore the verbal presentation of the character’s personalities through Peter Clarke’s techniques of ‘Blind Children’ exercise. In this exercise, I would have the actors speak their lines with exaggerated intonations and emotions, as if they were performing to blind children and wanted to be clear as possible. By performing their lines in such a hyperbolic way, it would allow the characters to appreciate the different vocality the characters have as a result of their different personalities (e.g. Margaret may be curter or with a more factious tone, whereas Marie may be more feminine and softer).