The story is about the last day of a women's, called Doris, life. Doris is a hygienic person; she is obsessed with keeping her home clean. But sadly due to her old age, leading to her inability to work, she has a worker from the council to come and clean for her.
Doris has a problem with the cleaner, she states "... Zulema doesn't dust. She half-dusts" this means that she doesn't clean properly she leaves dust everywhere.
An example of this quote states "... you haven't dusted the top of that.Doris tries to dust, but is weak and so can't do her best.
The story is based mainly around a cracker she finds on the floor under the settee. I think the story should be set in a more influenced old people place. What I mean is something like an old people's home, or a quiet suburban area. This is because those kind of places are what old people like for some reason, they are places where they can interact with people their own age or near there age.
The inside of the house would be very old fashioned.With old settees and wallpaper that is brownish yellow. I would put nearly everything a dark brownie yellowish colour, this is because old people used to love those colours and it's unlikely she would've changed the colours. There would many ornaments, like little china on the wall or small statues etc.
Again the lighting would be slightly lights, so the room don't look too dark, maybe have shades of it. The time of year would be autumn, as that is when the trees leaves go all brown and crispy and fall of, causing a mess on the floor it occupies.As it's her last day I would make it dawn, as we went the audience to see what she will do throughout the day, like she will start of complaining that she shouldn't have done the cleaning and now her leg is hurting. Then in the morning, something like 10am, is when she finds the cracker and starts to talk about it and finally there would be the evening, around 6pm where she cries for help and then finally dies, though its not shown.
The character playing Doris would have to wear old clothes, with an old authentic colour, again like the browns and yellows.This is because most old people wear old colours, like brown and grey, why I don't know, but maybe its because it used to be fashion colours in their times. Her behaviour would be angry, but not aggressive, as she knows she is to old to cope with aggression and when she is speaking she would speak with deep breathe and be acting all stiff, hot, and bothered. What I mean is that she will be tired, after the fall, and feel odd.
The play is monologue based though other people are mentioned like the boy who is taking a pee in her garden and the religious people.The key moment of the play for me is the part when she calls for help and no one replies. This is because she shouts out loud but the person just goes away, could be because they didn't hear or maybe they didn't care. But in the end there is a part where, from what I recall, her neighbour ask her if she is ok and she replies yes. This again I do not understand that maybe she wants peace now or she wants to be left in peace.
The pauses are for when she has to take deeps breathe because she is speaking too much at once.She tries to clean because her believes that Zulema doesn't clean properly. We don't find out what happens to Zulema, from when she tells her that she could report her if she was to tell her she found a cracker. At the end we don't know whether she dies or just goes to sleep.
But I do know that I want the viewers to feel sad and think that they should never leave there elderly alone, mainly the oldest of the elderly, they are fragile and need to be cared for.
