Day 1: The Changeling, by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.

I chose this one to start because it was on the suggested audition piece list for Birmingham School of Acting - one of the schools I went for last time and *nearly* made, and I'll admit right now is probably my first choice still. I'd never read any Elizabethan-era material that wasn't Shakespeare before today, so it felt like a little bit of a stretch and challenge.

My first impression was what felt like over-use of contracted words, which made reading a stumbling affair. I hadn't actually realised 'em as a shortened form of Them wasn't a modern thing, so it felt a bit awkward. As I got into my stride and was able to start to draw the story out the text, I gradually began to see pretty much every trope of Shakespeare... almost as if he were being sent up somewhat. We have disguised infiltrators, murder fuelled by loving the wrong person, a ghost who makes a 10-second cameo and is never seen again, secret lovers committing suicide in front of their families... it goes on. Even the final line is an echo of the closing of A Midsummer Night's Dream, after we saw earlier in the play a poet gone mad reciting lines which could easily be paraphrasing of the same.

However, Pixar-like allusions aside, my intent had been to get into the head of the character suggested, which is Beatrice. She is a surprisingly deep character who I defintely felt like I could sympathise with, and would be more than willing to play. She's hasty with her heart and a bit gullible. In a modern setting she'd probably be played up to look like a bit of a ditsy blonde. She's obviously got a bit of a mean streak given how quickly she agrees to let Deflores kill someone on her behalf just to get out of an arranged marriage. But under all that she's got some intelligence, sneakiness and stubbornness to her character. Her lengthy confession death along with Deflores was a little sudden and unclear on first reading - leave comments if you've read this and can shed some light on what was going on there!

I will almost certainly revisit this, I'd enjoy seeing it performed and once I have, will likely go back to the script to start working on some character development for Beatrice as a possible audition piece.