Goneril

A flash banner.

Sally Bretton plays Goneril

Sally graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Theatre includes In Extremis at the Globe, A Conversation at Manchester Royal Exchange, All My Sons at the Library Theatre, Present Laughter at Bath Theatre Royal. Film includes Outlaw, Peaches and So Long Charlie Bright. Television includes Not Going Out, How Not to Live Your Life, Hotel Babylon, Vinvent, Blackbeard, Blessed, Green Wing and Absolute Power.

Bulletin 1

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as she goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Beginnings
I started acting at a very young age, my first role was as the Farmer’s wife in The Enormous Turnip at primary school. I was only seven but I loved it! We had a very enthusiastic drama teacher and we were always going to poetry reading competitions and performing plays, she really got me into drama and I knew I wanted to be an actress. At secondary school drama wasn’t taken seriously as a subject, which I found very frustrating and so I dropped it. After school finished I spent a year doing various jobs and then I decided to go to the Central School of Speech and Drama. I graduated in 1999. My first jobs after Central were in TV comedy, I did Harry Enfield, and then The Office in 2000. Theatre-wise the first role I had was actually in a play directed by Dominic, called Hayfever. And until now the only Shakespeare I’ve done is one scene from Henry V performed especially for the Queen! I have acted at the Globe before though, as Heloise in In Extremis, but King Lear is my first big Shakespeare show.

First Impressions
My initial impressions of Goneril are that everything is against her. She’s been brought up in a family that encourages sibling rivalry, her father’s a bully, and she’s in a loveless marriage. I noticed a difference in the way Lear treats her from her sisters, he refers to her as ‘Goneril our eldest’, whereas he calls Regan and Cordelia ‘dearest’ and ‘our joy’, and this made me wonder whether she feels that the fact she wasn’t a boy is a disappointment to her father. I thought that if she had been bullied growing up then she would treat people in the same way. This was how I pitched it when I came for the audition, but Dominic wants to steer it in a completely different direction. Instead he wants us to be a family that basically gets on, that although we know our father can be difficult we can handle him, and we’re all caught up in the excitement of the thought of what we’ll be receiving as he divides up the kingdom. The transformation of Goneril happens only when it becomes clear that Lear is not going to support her new public role, and is trying to keep things as they were before. I think she is quite terrified about approaching him, as he is such a difficult man to speak plainly with, and the way he turns on her and puts the most terrible curses on her after she confronts him flicks a switch inside her. She’s seen how her father’s ruled before her, and she follows his example and it all gets out of control. Dominic really wants us to show that there is a definite transition into tragedy, and I think it does make it more interesting to try and see how this happens.

Preparation
For my role in In Extremis I did loads of preparation, as the play was a based on a true story and I wanted to read as much as possible about the real Heloise . But with King Lear I didn’t do that much in preparation because I wanted to know what we were going to go with it before I started developing my character. Even the small amount I did do was very different from the way Dominic wanted her to be played.

The sisters
In Dominic’s take on the play the sisters are all friends in the beginning. Dominic has suggested that Goneril can be seen as taking on the role of an advice-giving elder sister, as I’m the oldest in my family I know we can be a bit smug and bossy sometimes, which would help to explain some of her harsher lines in the early scenes. At the moment we’re developing this friendlier relationship between the sisters, and we’re getting there, but it‘s still tough to square this kinder version of Goneril with her behavior later on in the play. If we are starting from that position, if there is no unease in the family at the beginning, the transition to the Goneril who kills her sister and herself if much more of a challenge. The physical appearance of the sisters is different from the conventional castings too, Goneril and Regan are usually a lot older than Cordelia. In our production you are struck more by the similarities than the differences between the sisters at the start.

First week
The first day of rehearsals started with a ‘Meet and Greet’ for everyone involved in the production, and then the cast did a read through of the play. On the first day of rehearsals Dominic asked us to go away and think about the play as it would appear only from the perspective of your character, and then we had to tell everyone the next day what the journey of your character was throughout the play. It’s a really interesting exercise, and it helps you to make your character the centre of the play right from the very beginning of the rehearsals. For the rest of the week we sat round a table and went through each scene line by line, making sure that everyone in the scene knew exactly what every character was saying, not just their own. It was quite an academic exercise, we didn’t speculate about the motivations of the characters, we just wanted establish exactly what was going on. This week, we’ve been getting it up into action, and Dominic has been asking us to commit totally to our interpretations, to play it all in bold colours for now, and then we’ll stitch in the detail at a later date.

Back to Top

Bulletin 2

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as she goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Blocking
Now we have got up and decided to go through the play with really big brush strokes of colour to see what it is like. To remove the feeling that this massive beast of a play might be unconquerable. We decided we had to commit 100% to everything, no matter how strange our choices might seem. So we marked out the movements in a rough fashion, saying come over here at that point, remember to do this, that sort of thing.

In the third week of rehearsals we went through the play again, and by this time most people were off the book, which means they know their lines by heart. So we could start stitching more material in, and we could begin to see the play coming together, and yesterday we did our first run of Act 1.

The significance of prose
Something I needed to work out is why Regan and Goneril speak in prose when they are alone together, which they do right from 1.1. When a character speaks in prose it usually signifies that they are hiding something, that there is something else going on underneath. Even though we are clearly plotting together the fact we are doing it in prose and not verse suggests that there is an undercurrent of mistrust even between us. Giles [Block, the text expert] thinks that it has something to do with the fact that the power balance is different from what we expected it to be. We thought the Kingdom would be divided into thirds but it has actually been divided between the two of us, and that this puts the sisters into direct opposition to each other. I’ve been thinking about when Goneril says to Regan ‘Sister, it is not a little I have to say of what most nearly appertains us both’, and it seems as though at this point she is trying to exert her power over Regan by pulling rank as the older sister. It’s as though she thinks we’ve got half the kingdom each but I’m the older one and I’m telling you what’s going on. Regan still seems a bit undecided about what’s going on, saying ‘We shall further think of it’, but Goneril is pushing for action, ‘We must do something, and i’th heat’. She seems to be emphasising that as the eldest she is the leader.

Working with experts
Giles is amazing. We sit there and go through the punctuation of the text, he’ll refer to the First Folio and say, ‘You see here, that is two words rather than one, and there’s not a comma there, there it is a hyphen. Can you see how that would change the rhythm? That’s the original punctuation.’ And you go ‘Aah!’ He’s brilliant.

Glynn [MacDonald, movement expert] is also brilliant. She is really helping me to develop what kind of physicality Goneril’s going to have. She’s suggested that Goneril should be taking up more and more space throughout the play, until she collapses. As she’s so predatory Glynn has suggested that she should have a very direct, hunter-like focus to her gaze, always watching. And because she acts before thinking we’ve decided to always have her moving forward, never back, and pushing through the air in a forceful manner.

Differences between Goneril and Regan
I think that either consciously or subconsciously Goneril is trying to rule in the same way as her father did, as she seems to be asserting herself in quite a masculine way and takes the men on their own terms. Regan seems to use her sexuality to get her way. I think that she is feeling quite overwhelmed by him in 1.3, when she complains that ‘his knights grow riotous and himself upbraids us on every trifle’, and I think it is here that she decides that she is not going to endure his behaviour any longer. And then when he returns you see her gradual realisation that she can take control, and you can see her excitement at the first taste of her power. And it’s so interesting that her revolt takes place in her domestic space. I’ve come to more of an understanding about why she behaves as she does, everything’s happening so fast and she seems almost giddy with her new found power.

Discussing the family
In the third week Lear, the sisters and Dominic sat down to try and work out the family dynamic, and that was really helpful. It put us all back in the same play, and the relationships became a bit clearer. We speculated about whether maybe the mother had died giving birth to Cordelia, which would explain why the sisters resented her and why Lear was so protective of her. But then we moved away from thinking about the mother, because it is all speculation, as there is only one line in the entire play about her. We thought about how the reaction of the sisters to Lear’s rages, for example when Albany seems shocked by Lear’s cursing of Goneril, she replies ‘Never afflict yourself to know more of it, but let his disposition have that scope as dotage give it’ (1.4.282-3). We all decided that this shows that we used to be terrified of him, and that although they are used to his rages they know that it is on a different scale now, its been taken to a different degree. Something has changed in him since he’s relinquished the kingdom, he doesn’t know how to behave and is all over the place.

The jig
We’re doing a jig. At the end everybody is dead on the floor, and me and Regan get wheel-barrowed in. I thought they were joking at first, but no we come on in actual, wooden wheelbarrows. Then the singer, Pamela, she goes round, singing in Old English, and as she taps people and they come to life again and we all sing a bit in Old English and then we all jump into the jig. We’ve had three jig rehearsals, and we’ll be dancing as actors though we are going to be paired off with our husbands.

My costume
My costume’s a sludgy sort of green colour, and made out of beautiful material, and trimmed with fur. I think there’s some leather as well. It’s very big and will take up a lot of space on the stage, which goes with my character. And I’m having a hat. It’s supposed to look like my hair’s been bound in material. I like the idea of hair, but I’m not so keen on wearing a hat as I can’t imagine storming around with it on. Regan’s is a darkish red colour, and is fitted at the waist because she’s the sexy sister.

Back to Top

Bulletin 3

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as she goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.

Tech Week
The tech took about three days of rehearsals, lasting until about 10pm at night. Not much changed in the move from the rehearsal space to the stage, only tiny tweaks to the blocking – I suppose because Dominic [Dromgoole, Artistic Director of the Globe and director of King Lear knows the space really well. You’ve got to up your performance when you get on to the stage. It’s quite personal in the rehearsal room – it’s a very small space, very intimate. On any stage, you’ve got to rack the performance up a bit, but in this stage you really have to, so it all became bigger, and we all got worried that we’d lost the details. But Dominic told us not to worry, that it’s just part of the process of tech week and finding our way in a new space. Changes were very minor; I ended up trying to play a lot more up to the upper galleries, looking around a lot more, and trying to take the theatre in, which was quite scary at the beginning because it makes you almost wobble when you’re looking up to the lords’ rooms.

Goneril’s costume
The biggest change from tech week was with my costume. Part of it is a really long heavy overcoat that I was supposed to be wearing for a lot of the play. I did for a few previews, but it weighs an absolute tonne, so we struck a deal that I would wear it in the first scene and the last two, and then I could have the rest of the time off! It really affected my movement as it’s so heavy and long that I was tripping up over it all the time. So it’s just the skirt and I am getting better at moving in it. In the rehearsal room I was walking fast, striding around, and that proved to be impossible in the dress. Glynn [Macdonald, Movement Coach] was saying, ‘Try and move like a duck, so you’re gliding on the top but your legs are moving very fast underneath!’, but I just couldn’t bear to go on tip toes underneath the dress. I’m in flats, so I do pick up my dress from time to time, which I get told off about; her status is such that I should be gliding around and never hiking up my dress, but I can’t go at any pace at all it in it. I figure that Goneril’s got more important things to do than to move slowly. In the one show I did speed up, I fell over just as I was going off-stage so I’m now trying to steer it round, rather than lifting it up.

They’re supposed to be clothes, not costumes, so I’m supposed to inhabit it, but I get tangled. The costume I wore for Heloise [in In Extremis in the 2007 season] was long but it was light, so when I turned it turned quickly; with this dress I turn and then it follows me like a juggernaut! There’s swathes of material as it’s pleated, which makes it hang really wel,l but also means it’s easy to catch on things. Regan’s coat is much lighter, and Kellie [Bright, Regan] seems better at moving around, but then she doesn’t have to go at the same pace. The hat helps me to maintain my posture, as you hold yourself better if you’ve got a big hat on. It does give me stage presence and it works for the character though.

The First Night
I think just going on, saying your lines, and coming off successfully is the real achievement of the first night. Dominic says that there’s always a big difference on the first preview; a lot of Friends of the Globe come, and they’re very excited about it – they are there to support you. Although I found the first preview very interesting, because the audience had control of us, not us of them. There was a lot of coughing and lots of wriggling, and there was a round of applause after the fight. Dominic told us the next day that we need to be in front of them all the time, we need to be fast when we come on stage and always be desperate to say what we have to say; in that way you stay ahead of them, and then they’re happy to follow. And it worked. When we did it the next night, the audience dynamic was completely different.

Previews
There were also lots of small cuts in preview week. The wheelbarrows got cut because they were making the audience laugh and spoiling the mood. Even when the play was tight all the way through, there was still a chuckle, so now those characters that have died get dragged onstage in blankets. But I think if you’re in charge of the audience, then you can’t tell the difference between the preview audiences. Although, because it’s a set text in schools, for the first week there were a lot of kids down stage left to the front, who like to chat and this was new to me; we didn’t get school groups in to see In Extremis and it was in a more recognisable language, so it was easier to follow. I had a couple of nights of it in a row and I was starting to find it really distracting and then I just thought, ‘This is a part of the Globe experience’. Also, apparently in the original Globe, lots of stuff would be going on in the pit; people were possibly selling stuff and it could have been that when the rich people would come through, the audience might be more interested in how fantastic they looked. That’s part of what acting at the Globe is, and you can’t be too precious about it.

After Previews
We’re two and half weeks in, and we’ve got two weeks off King Lear after tonight. I think I’ve hit my stride, though I’m finding new stuff every day. There’s the scene between Goneril and Regan at the beginning that I still find hard to play, where we’re taking the idea that there is no darkness and that we’re a happy family. I find it quite hard to play; it’s the bit I like the least and I still feel like I’m holding back from what I would like to do. But this production is about the family tragedy, and if you can spot that it’s going to unfold straight away, then there’s no journey. It feels slightly against the text but I like the journey.

Back to top