Mrs Cratchit is a character from the novel 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. Mrs Cratchit is one of the main female characters in the novel. She is the mother of Tiny Tim and Peter and the beloved wife of Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit. Mrs Cratchit first appears in the story when Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present visit the Cratchit's house and we see Mrs Cratchit bad mouthing Scrooge. Mrs Cratchit is not a fan of Scrooge's because of how badly he treats her husband. She is very vocal about her opinions on Scrooge and does not hold back when talking to Bob about him. Despite this, Mrs Cratchit is a wonderful mother and cares for her children deeply.
Previous performances of Mrs Cratchit
Mrs Cratchit has been interpreted by many, many different people.
After finding out that I had received the role of Mrs Cratchit I completed quite a fair amount of research into how she had been interpreted in past performances.
On YouTube I found a short video that showed multiple different performances of Mrs Cratchit.
I noticed that almost everyone had a cockney accent when playing Mrs Cratchit's character which is obvious considering she is a character from London. I won't lie, some accents are better than others and I think that when the accent isn't nailed it takes away from the performance because the actor is focusing more on trying to get the accent right rather than making the portrayal of the character as effective as possible.
Mrs Cratchit is a middle aged character, so I have picked up on the fact that people seem to slouch their posture when playing her to symbolize that she has the weight of the world on her shoulders due to having money troubles and many children to look after. Mrs Cratchit also walks with purpose. What I mean is she has a fast pace with everything she does and is very organised which you would be if you had as many children as Mrs Cratchit does.
Mrs Cratchit has been through a lot in her lifetime which means her face is bound to be aged and tired. I took this into consideration when performing as Mrs Cratchit because she also has a son who is very ill so, she is expected to be upset and drained constantly. I have noticed that when watching other performances of Mrs Cratchit people also seem to embody these emotions which is perfect for her character.
Finally, costume. As I have said many times, Mrs Cratchit is poor. Her costume has to look as worn as can be because she would never have time or money to buy new clothes. Her focus is on her children only. If I were to design a costume for Mrs Cratchit she would wear a pair of black, worn character shoes with a long, grey checked skirt. All of the colours I would wear would be dark for two reasons; the first being that Mrs Cratchit's thought process would be that dark colours don't show stains and dark colours foreshadow the darkness in her life.
Comments
Post a Comment