Low Level Panic: A Play by Clare McIntyre - Prof. Martínez Luciano, Resúmenes de Teatro

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Low Level Panic

CLARE MCINTYRE

| English Theatre |

INTRODUCTION

I am going to talk about “Low Level Panic”, a play written by Clare McIntyre, and first performed in February 1988 at the Royal Court Theatre of London, associated with the Women’s Playhouse Trust. PLOT The first scene starts with Mary reading a magazine and Jo having a bath, both in the bathroom. Jo complains about her body and compares her legs with other women’s legs. Jo is talking about a dreamed and rich life, while Mary comments about what she says. Then Celia enters announcing that some kids had set fire to the deckchair at the garden, and Mary goes down. Celia and Jo start talking about face care, when Mary enters and joins the conversation by saying that she feels like a thing. The scene ends with Celia talking about her first pornographic magazine plenty of naked women, but without men. In the second scene, weeks earlier, Mary is at the street after finishing working, while she is taking her bicycle two men assault her and try to abuse her sexually. The third scene happens the same day in the bathroom, Jo announces Celia that she has finished the hot water so that Celia will not be able to have a bath, ignoring Jo what Celia says. The fourth scene is set in the armchair, Jo recognizes that she masturbates thinking about a trio, but she is afraid of talking about it with someone. In the fifth scene, Mary and Jo are getting prepared to go to a party. However, Mary does not feel comfortable dressing like that. Mary tells her about that night when she was abused, but Jo does not give relevance to it,

it and about people. In addition, she has suffered from sexual harassment and maybe this is the reason why she is upset.

• Celia is older that Jo and Mary and seems more responsible and mature than them. Mary and Jo don’t like her because they think she is bad, although she gives good advices.
• Two men; (A and B) they do not appear on scene, but they can be heard talking. Both of them abuse Mary sexually. STRUCTURE, STYLE AND LANGUAGE The play is structured in one act and eight scenes. It is written in prose, with lineal chronology, although it has flashbacks that are linked with the current situation. The story is realistic, current topics can be founded in the play as abuse, violence, sexism and low self-esteem. STAGE PROPS The first scene is set in a bathroom where there is a pornographic magazine on the armchair. Then there is also a wash hand-basin, a bath, a door, a window and a mirror. Although there are two scenes outdoors, as the playwriter asks, there is no need to change everything, because of the lightning. In the second scene there is a bicycle. There is also a bottle of wine in the scene five, and some sheets in scene seven. The music is quite important with the situations happening. In the beginning Jo sings “Mitsy” at the beginning of the play. At the end of the fourth scene, it sounds “When at night I go to sleep”, this song is linked to Jo’s speech

which she ends saying She could have got herself killed, and the songs ends with a metaphor of dying. In the fifth scene it sounds music linked to the girls that have gone to a party. The first scene takes place during a sunny day in summer. The second one weeks earlier at midnight in a street. The third scene is set the same day as scene two but it the bathroom. Scene four is set in the armchair of the bathroom a random day. Scene five is set at the present in the bathroom. Sixth scene happens a random evening in the street. The scene seven happens next night, and the eight next morning. CRITICAL EVALUATION After having read the play, I consider that it is an amazing play, a female playwright writing about real women’s problem and thoughts. I completely believe that this play should be read by everybody due to the fact that it can be seen different types of women, because we are not all similar. In addition, for me the best part of the play is the topics: beauty, pornographic industry, sexual abuses, sexist advertising, rivalry among women. Firstly, in this play I have realized of how a woman sees herself compared to how other women see her. People have different perceptions of life. Moreover, this is linked to rivalry among women. At the beginning, we can read how Jo compares her legs or face to others, or during the last part of the play where Jo compares herself with Celia. Sometimes these situations drove people to mental or alimentary issues, and I believe it is a good way of reacting and changing our point of view. Secondly, I would like to remark sexism in this play. We have two main characters, Jo and Mary, with different perceptions. While Jo is opened to

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McIntyre, Clare. Low Level Panic. NHB, 1988.