Final Writing

Karoline Leach, born in Liverpool in 1967, author of the play Tryst, has studied in acting and she was an actor and director before being a writer. Her first book, In the shadow of the dreamchild: a new understanding of Lewis Caroll, became a subject of controversy for claiming that the biography of Caroll was far more mythic than true. Her most recent work named tryst was premiered in 2006 and was played in many United States cities and in Montréal. That play reveals much of her understanding of acting. The story is lead by the emotions and the reactions of the two characters to each other and by their own desperate way of life.

First off, Tryst doesn’t have any major action because the play revolves around the emotions of George Love and Adelaide Pinchin. George is a dandy and his way of life consists of seducing women to then steal their possessions. Adelaide works at a hat shop and if George hadn’t chose her for his schemes, she would have been doing that until her death. In the first act, the two of them talks in monologue to describe themselves and what they are doing. Because of that, the audience can know what their thoughts are and why they are answering as they are. It is easy to see that George is a liar and a hypocrite while Adelaide seems to believe everything he is telling her. That is exactly what George wants and everything goes as he knew it would. They get married and go at a resort for the honeymoon. Then, during the second act, Adelaide is not so gullible. She knew George was too good to be true, but it is only then that she confronts him. There is no monologues now, but the awkwardness and the silences gives as much information on what they think and feel. George can’t bring himself to stop being a thief and Adelaide still wants to believe in him and love him. It is because their ways of thinking are so different that this interesting story can take place.

Secondly, even if we can think the contrary, the two of them are desperate, not only Adelaide. She is a mid-life woman and she thought it was too late for her to find love. George, even if he seems to be self-assured and happy of his life, is also feeling he is getting too old for this. In fact, he doesn’t know if he could do anything else than seducing desperate women to take their money. This is why these two are so alike. Adelaide psychologically changed very much during the play. She begins as a seamstress who knows she has no future and then she shows her backbone when she confronts George. Him, on the contrary, he didn’t really change. During the second act, he seemed to be convinced by Adelaide’s dream of owning a hat shop. But he didn’t change. He kills her at the end to go back to being what he was at the beginning, even if he knows he might not get another chance. If Adelaide had not acted differently, George would have gotten away as he always do.

Finally, Tryst is a play where emotions and the thoughts of the characters have the major role. The desperate ways of each of them brought them together and changed at least her. Through all the play, we could know what they were thinking even if there wasn’t that much foreshadowing. That is why this play is so amazing and should be seen at least once.
599 words.