Breath work

In our workshop with Bethan, our fight choreographer, we learned how our breathing would affect our emotion in a scene. If we were breathing quickly and using deep breaths, this would clearly demonstrate our anger in a scene. This heightened our emotion and we also tensed our bodies to let the emotion be shown throughout our whole bodies. We used this for the fight scene at the end of the show and it was very effective as it allowed us to get into the appropriate mind-frame before entering the scene. This gave us energy  and set a clear atmosphere for the scene. Furthermore, this accurately showed the relationship between the boys and the girls and how some of the boys despised them and were outraged by what they were doing. I doing this very useful as I can easily transfer this into another character or scene. This is very simple, yet very effective. I can experiment with it to see the level of anger my character has and how this will be shown though my breathing.

Inspiration for character photos

This is the typical stereotype of what Professor Radeligh comes across as. The picture shows a snobby, pretentious elder man wearing very formal clothing. This inspired me to bring out the arrogance and cruelty in my character. The helped me with my facial expressions as he appears to be looking down on someone or something by looking down his nose. This is a simple, yet a very effective way to covey this to an audience and the other cast members in the scene. Some of the features of this photo are exaggerated for comic effect and are over the top. Therefore, I will use some of these features but in a subtle way in order to keep my performance naturalistic and believable rather than comical.



This is a photo of Professor Huxley who was a scientist in the Victorian era. This is useful as this is a real professor and shows clearly what they wore and how they acted in that time period. He shows a more serious side to the character rather than the purely arrogant and exaggerated picture before. This photo inspired me to show his power, maturity and softer side. Radleigh is a family man and has a caring side to him. In the picture, the professor looks serious and frustrated which I can transfer easily into my performance.

Workshop with Ellie

We were lucky to have Ellie, who played Tess in the original production at the globe, to come in and watch/direct some of the work we had done. We discussed the importance of the historical context of the play was and shared our research to show our understanding of the background of our play. Although it's set in the Victorian era, the language is mainly contemporary with short sentences which makes it easier to understand.

Ellie told about how important actioning the script is as this would make us aware of their objectives, motivation and how they achieve this. This helped me think about my character in further detail in order to discover depth to him. This made it much easier for me to get into the mind frame and characterisation of Radeligh. She also said that its important to wear costume in rehearsal, this would allow us to get into character as well as helping set the atmosphere for the era of the piece.

The language I use in my scenes is very important as I use words to bring people down rather than fight people as they were sophisticated and intelligent. My language is patronising, rude and passive aggressive. therefore, I use sharp, short sentences to show anger and authority.  Ellie got the whole cast up and split us between boy and girls. The girls had the line "I'm going to be a doctor" and they had to retaliate to the boys in different manners to see what worked. This helped us see the physical power struggle between the two sexes. This also helped me experiment with different ways of saying my lines to see which way would assert authortiy and arrogance in my speech.

Interrogating the relationships

Who do I like??

Radleigh and Collins are very close in the play. They have similar personalities, therefore have a lot in common and are able to bond with each other. They both firmly agree that education, particularly in academic areas should be strictly left for men. They never disagree or argue throughout the play, showing their similar perspectives on life. They also share a few jokes with each other which shows that the relationship between them is relaxed and friendly while still being kept formal. They are both highly intelligent and slight snobby in their attitudes. However, I think Radleigh's views are more extreme than the views of Collins and he will show his frustration and say how he really feels where as Collins tries to be more discrete. This annoys Radleigh and Collins isn't as hot headed as he is.


Radleigh has great respect for Ralph and Lloyd as they are the epitome of what a student at Trinity should be. They are confident, highly intelligent and oppose women's suffrage. He has a lot in common with these two. He is proud to teach them and favors them to the other students. He can especially relate to Lloyd who likes to speak his mind, regardless of the consequences.

Who don't I like??

My character appears to dislike the girls (Tess/Celia/Carolyn/Maeve) in the play. However, its not so much them personally that he dislikes, it is what they stand for. He is very against the idea of women getting the vote or getting an education. He doesn't like the fact that they are fighting for a cause he believes to be unnecessary, therefore he shuts them down and is sly and petty when talking to them in order to patronise or demean them so that he can appear superior to them. He doesn't have a huge opinion on them as individuals, however he uses his narrow minded views to abuse his power over them.


Radeligh had a strong dislike for Mr Banks and isn't afraid to show it. Originally, he thought that Mr Banks would not be suitable for the scholarship so is bitter about this. Radeligh's hate for Mr Banks grows throughout Act 2 Scene 1. He believes that Mr Banks is naive and ungrateful for believing that he can balance teaching at Girton and teaching at Trinity. He takes this personally as he believes Mr Banks thinks his job is easy, therefore considers Radeligh to be lazy. Radeligh is very proud and arrogant so takes great offence to this. He is furious that Mr Banks is also supporting the vote and this is the final straw. Radeligh looks down on Mr Banks and is very rude and patronising towards him and is ashamed to be associated with him.

Anderson annoys Radleigh as they don't share similar views. He blames the incident of Mr Banks being foolish on Anderson for recommending him for the job. He is shocked that Anderson has put them in this awkward position. However, he has to hide this as he doesn't want to ruin their relationship with each other.