Act Reviews 2024 / 2025 Season

supposed to sympathise with her as the victim in an abusive relationship with June and feel for her as she tries to keep June placated while still attempting to maintain some of her own identity. However, as the play goes on, we start to see more and more the function of the relationship for her (June allowing her to maintain her child-like demeanour and “mother” her dolls, presumably in an attempt to help her work through her trauma at the loss of her own child) and also how she can, in her own way, be as manipulative as June. Perhaps due to its modern setting and to make Childie more believable/ identifiable as a woman in the current day, Jodie and director John Mills seemed to have made the decision to make Childie more of a feisty character from the start, rather than initially appearing more vulnerable and downtrodden (as per Susannah York’s portrayal in the film). This meant that the scenes where June was making derogatory demands of Childie (such as kissing her shoes) and Childie acquiescence came across as somewhat confusing and perhaps indicated to the audience from an early point that this was part of a consensual relationship playing at power dynamics rather than an abusive one. This did

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