here's a quote by quote guide to the play bold girls by Rona Munro number one it's furniture that's bald with age this is mentioned in the stage directions before a word has been spoken on stage immediately introducing the audience to one of the challenges that the bold girls face in their everyday lives namely poverty the use of the word bald suggests that the fabric on the chairs or sofa is bare of fibres it is old and worn babari has no money to replace them because as the audience will soon discover she has been widowed and is a single mother bringing up two children on her own number - sure he was hardly here when he was alive Cassie says this about Marie's late husband Michael when she and her mother Nora are discussing Marie's reluctance to go out even though Michael has been dead for some time Cassie's reference to Michael not spending much time with Marie even before he died hints to the audience that he was not necessarily a good husband it also foreshadows the revelation that Cassie knows from personal experience precisely the sort of things Michael got up to when he wasn't with Marie number three the skies full of rain and the sound of the helicopter I want to get inside these lines spoken by Deirdre almost as a stream of consciousness are useful in highlighting two aspects of the play by mentioning the helicopter der tree is reinforcing the setting of the play in Belfast during the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles the words I want to get incite underline dear trees isolation and her yearning to belong she wants to be inside the flat where the woman who was married to her late father lives along with her two half-brothers this is what motivates Deirdre to knock on the door number four there is a thunderous knocking at the front door this stage Direction marks an important moment in the play as it heralds the arrival of Deirdre the character who is the catalyst for much of the action that follows at that time Catholics would assume that a heavy knocking on their door might mean a raid by British soldiers but this time it's someone unexpected a young girl of about fifty the word thunderous is effective here as Deirdre survival creates a metaphorical storm in that she will change the lives of the other three women to a greater or lesser degrees significantly in the case of Marie and Cassie but only temporarily in the case of Nora number five a wee bit of hard truth you could hold in your hand and point where you liked Deirdre fantasizes about having a knife because she once saw a man threatened someone using a knife and demanding the truth this explains why the knife symbolizes truth in the play it's an object that can be used to make people reveal or face truths moreover just as a knife can hurt a victim so too the revelation of a truth might hurt those people who are affected by it number six your daddy was a good man and a brave man and he did the best he could and he's in heaven watching out for you this line epitomizes Marie's self-delusion the audience hears her say to Cassy that Deirdre looks like Michael but Marie still pretends to herself that he was a perfect husband and father she keeps up this facade for her children's sake but also for her own as it's the only way she can cope with what has happened to her it is ironic that she mentions Michael being in heaven as he may well have been a terrorist and she later learns he has cheated on her with Cassie and with Deirdre smother he's no saint but she tries to convince herself that he was moving on to seem to which is set in a local social club number 7 the greasy grinning beer-bellied smell of him wriggling his fat fingers over me like him a poke of chips Cassie has her faults not least that she slept with her best friend's husband but when the audience hears her description of jewel they feel a degree of sympathy with Cassie the alliterative word choice of greasy grinning beer-bellied and fat fingered emphasizes how repulsive Jill is asked us the simile comparing the way he treats her to eating chips so we can understand why she isn't looking forward to him coming out of prison and back into her bed yet Nora mother can't understand this she thinks that Joe is an alright husband as he doesn't beat Cassie which is what Cassie's father did to Norah number eight hard white light floods everything oh Jesus it's a raid the stage directions for lighting at this point in the play prepare the audience for something dramatic a police raid on the club the fact that the light is described as hard to highlight the arrival of the police and is then cut at the end of the raid delineates the duration of the raid and the fact that it is a disturbing harsh experience for the woman this along with the account of the soldiers tramping through Nora's garden elsewhere in the play exemplifies the way in which the outside conflict the troubles affects these women's lives daily Marie knows what's about to happen because she says it's a raid which suggests that this experience is familiar to them all number nine I've a man to see about 15 yards of pale peach polyester mix as we saw in the bold girls overview video Nora sets her standards low when it comes to dreams and consequently hers is the only one that is likely to be fulfilled in the play because it's more realistic the alliteration of the letter P in pale peach polyester adds an almost comedic effect yet with Nora's characterization depicting her as a woman who focuses intensely on domestic matters her slightly pathetic dream sounds entirely plausible now we move on to scene three where Marie and Cassie are chatting outside the club ready to head home number 10 he was like my best friend Marie says these words when describing Michael to a very skeptical Cassie Cassie skepticism adds poignant irony to Marie's words as after dirt Ruiz comment about seeing Cassie with a man with him in a blue car the audience may well suspect by now that Cassie has been involved with Michael Marie's idealistic memory of what her relationship with Michael was like hints at what a good relationship between a man and a woman could be like however as were later to discover the husband she regarded as her male bed friend has been cheating on her with her female best friend moving on to scene 4 when the bold girls have returned to her ease flat after their night out number 11 we were both lying to you for years this is the dramatic moment when after they've both been drinking and tongues are loosened Cassie simply cannot listen to Marie's deluded portrayal of Michael any longer Cassie knows that Michael was a lying worm like other men and she also knows that Deirdre had seen her and Michael together so she confesses to Marie that they had had an affair now the truth is out there and like a knife it wounds at first it seems that Marie isn't going to react but the tension on stage builds until she screams at Cassie get out of my house the fact that these words are all written in capital letters emphasizes the pain that facing up to reality has caused Marie number 12 a heavy plate raised to smash down Marie lures her arm Marie has been depicted as a gentle caring and kind person throughout the play until this point and seen forth the sheer despair that she feels on having the truth about Michaels philandering confirmed is clear when she behaves so differently from her normal self she is on the point of committing a violent act smashing a hard object down on her friend's head and the audience is on the edge of their seat but then suddenly Marie lures her arm creating an immediate anticlimax this dramatic climax aunt anticlimax make scene for highly memorable as we can see how the uncovering of truths can be undesirable under certain circumstances this seems counterintuitive to an audience as we are generally brought up to tell the truth at all times number 13 I want the truth out of you Deirdre doesn't care that the truth can hurt and she's obsessed with finding out more about her father even though it is bound to upset Marie however Marie already suspected the truth as is clear when slightly later she admits to Deirdre I knew who you were the first time I saw you given what Cassie has just confessed to her and the fact that Deirdre even looks like Michael Murray can no longer be in denial number 14 they don't want to be raging and screaming and hurting more than they can ever forget in the booze or the crack or the men beating men this marks Murray's epiphany about the relationship between men and women all over the world that they need each other and they need to understand each other men may be violent and come into conflict with women but Murray acknowledges that men's lives aren't easy either which is what gives rise to their frustration number 15 your daddy was a man like any other this is what Murray responds when Deirdre asks her after the day knew more what her father Michael was like Murray has now changed her description of Michael from what he used to respond to her two sons and this shows she's accepted that Michael was no saint and that he has deceived and betrayed her not just with Cassie but also with dear Drew's mother however Murray seems to come to terms with the realization and invites Deirdre to stay for a cup of tea and feed the birds with her she has grown and is able to face the truth calmly in the other bold girls videos we look at an overview of the play and previous eight mark questions see you next time if you found this or any of our other videos useful it would be great if you could subscribe to the YouTube channel thanks for your support