Speaking and Listening

The pain of silence

Is there really such a thing as meaningless speech? Certainly, some conversations appear on the surface to be thoroughly inconsequential. We talk about the weather or ask others how they are when we're not particularly interested. Talk such as this is called 'phatic communion'. What's more important in this type of talk than what is actually being said is the reason for talking at all. Sometimes the purpose is simply to be sociable; sometimes it is because the alternative of silence is just too painful.

Activity

• Skim through the play and find at least three incidents where characters are talking but actually saying very little. Discuss why you think they are talking at all. Are they, for example, just trying to be friendly to each other? Are they trying to work something out in their own minds by speaking aloud? Perhaps they are talking trivia because they can't face saying what they are really thinking or feeling.
• Read Adie's speech on page 54. He appears to be talking to Dumb Dumb. Imagine that you had a friend like Dumb Dumb who never said anything. On your own, improvise a speech that you might make while waiting for someone else to turn up. It would be interesting to record your speech then play it back and compare it to the way Peter Gill has written for Adie.
• Now look at Gary's speech on page 74. Read it aloud to yourself. Take a blank sheet of paper and set yourself a strict time limit of five minutes. In that space of time the task is to fill the sheet of paper. Write whatever comes into your head. This is called 'automatic writing'; the results of simply connecting your mind to your hand without consciously planning what to write can be revealing and powerful. Compare what you write to Gary's speech.
• In pairs, rehearse readings of Adie's and Gary's speeches. Play them out 'back to back' then talk about the different effects each would have on an audience. What does each speech suggest about the character who makes it?