Characters & Acting
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Text source: Find Me by Olwen Wymark. Short script wording is used only where it supports performance analysis.
Select a character from the web to view their acting profile.
Sharing Verity Between Performers
The Protagonist | Multi-role | Fragmented Identity
Wymark uses multi-roling, and several performers can represent Verity; in the swimming-gala monologue, OCR specifically notes five actors sharing her voice. Do not turn those performers into five permanent diagnostic or personality “types”. The useful question is how focus passes between actors and what the audience understands from that choice in a particular moment.
Five ways to stage a shared role
If five performers share Verity in a section, vary the staging moment by moment. These are strategies, not five character labels that must stay attached to particular actors:
1. Single Focus
Choice: One performer carries the text while the others hold or reduce movement.
Use it for: making a precise thought or change of focus easy for the audience to read.
2. Shared Voice
Choice: Divide a speech between performers or use carefully selected moments of unison.
Use it for: building rhythm, emphasis or a sense that several actors are presenting the same character together.
3. Physical Contrast
Choice: Give performers contrasting pace, level, direction or tension while keeping a clear shared focus.
Use it for: showing competing impulses or changing pressure without assigning permanent personality types.
4. Direct Address
Choice: Let one or more performers turn attention directly towards the audience while others frame or observe the moment.
Use it for: foregrounding Verity’s perspective and changing the audience’s relationship to the scene.
5. Role Handover
Choice: Make the transfer of Verity between actors visible through eye line, gesture, position, costume signifier or a clean vocal handover.
Use it for: keeping multi-roling legible while preserving pace.
🗣️ Choral Speaking
Unison, echo and overlapping speech are available choices when several actors share Verity. Decide exactly where the technique begins and ends, vary pace or volume only when it serves the moment, and explain the audience effect rather than assuming it represents “voices in her mind”.
Jean Taylor
The Mother | Overwhelmed | Guilt-ridden
Jean is pushed to her absolute breaking point by Verity's behaviour. She feels deeply inadequate ("Other mothers cope. I feel so inadequate") and is secretly jealous of the calmer bond Verity shares with her father. Unable to cope with the trauma, she eventually leaves the family home with her younger son, Nicky.
🗣️ Vocal Skills
A tight, strained voice. Often speaks with a fast pace, reflecting her constant anxiety and exhaustion. Her tone might snap sharply when she loses patience.
🚶 Physical Skills
Tense body language. Shoulders hunched, arms frequently crossed defensively. She physically distances herself from Verity out of exhaustion and, sometimes, fear.
Edward Taylor
The Father | Bureaucratic | Repressed
Edward has a slightly calmer relationship with Verity than Jean does, but he struggles to emotionally connect with the reality of the situation. He channels his grief and desperation into writing endless letters to institutions, trying to find residential care for her, only to be met with bureaucratic brick walls.
🗣️ Vocal Skills
A measured, controlled pace. He tries to sound reasonable and calm to balance out Jean's panic, but his voice might waver or crack to reveal the stress underneath.
🚶 Physical Skills
Stiff posture. Often uses a desk or paperwork as a physical barrier between himself and the chaos of his family. Heavy, defeated sighs.
Mark & Nicky
The Brothers | Defensive & Traumatised
Mark is the older brother who is fiercely protective of his mother, Jean, often acting as a barrier between her and Verity. Nicky is the younger brother who is deeply traumatised and frightened by Verity's outbursts.
🗣️ Vocal Skills
Mark: Aggressive, sharp tone when defending his mother.
Nicky: Quiet, timid volume with a trembling pitch.
🚶 Physical Skills
Mark: Confrontational proxemics, stepping in front of Jean.
Nicky: Making himself physically small, hiding behind furniture or flinching.