6 characters: 9 questions

1. Who am I? I am known as Father but my true name is John Smith. Currently I am 55 years 9 month and 2 days old. I reside in a quiet area of Selhurst along with my estranged wife Amalia known as the Mother, our Son, her daughter and my Stepdaughter, along with her two younger children. Physically I stand at 6ft tall and weigh roughly around 13 stone, my weight having dropped considerably due to age, stress and a lack of nutrional foods. My frame has become slightly gaunt and frail and my hairline is beginning to thin and recede. I have also been smoking for the past 35 years which has had a steady and rather damaging effect on my body. As much as it damages me smoking is one of the few likes I have left on this earth, alongside classical music, literature particularly Tolstoy and Hardy, and short walks in the brisk mid-winter. My dislikes are many yet there are few that really test my patience. A lack of obedience is one, people who lack a strong sense of good moral health is another, disruptions to my plans, ignorance, and finally, people who seem to gain power over others. Due to my Catholic upbringing, mainly induced by my father, I have come to believe in always having sound moral health. I feel that doing something to not only benefit yourself, but others too, is something that will always be a large part of my being. Speaking of my father, my parents were and are also a large part of my being. My father felt that it was best for me to gain a good education from a young age, partly due to my fortune of being brought up in a relatively wealthy family, and also due to his wanting to give me a better chance in life than he started with. As such I was educated in a boarding school from the age of four, up until age fourteen, where I then took studies in law, medicine, business affairs and other valuable endeavours, until the age of 20 whereby I was old and experienced enough to inherit the management of a factory on the south bank from my father. In regards to any enemies I may have, it is saddening and ironic that my enemies are my loved ones, albeit not from personal choice. My Son, Ex-Wife and Stepddaughter, all bare resentment towards me, for actions that I took out of necessity and for their benefit, this only differing in the case of my Stepddaughter and the events that happened with her.

2. What Time Is It?: it is 9 am on Monday the 15th of January, in the year 1965. It is significant that it is 9 am as it is an hour later than the time where I normally get ready for work. This is due to the fact that I am taking the other "characters" to find an author to complete our story.

3.Where Am I?: currently I am in my bedroom, in front of the mirror inside my wardrobe, dressing and preparing for our search for an author. I am in my home in the suburbs of Selhurst, in the South-East of London in the United Kingdom. My home is located in Selhurst due to a want for seclusion and space, as well as a somewhat, easy route to the centre of London and my factory.

4. What Surrounds Me?: Directly in front of me is my wardrobe and wardrobe mirror, laden with several suits, coats, a few jumpers and sweaters, shirts and trousers. Another section to the right has my summer clothing, short sleeved Shirts and shorts. A collection of shoes lies below the clothes in the wardrobe. To My left is my mahogany desk and study, with which I have a large ledger filled with tasks and the profits from the factory. It has two drawers fitted to either side of the desk; the right hand drawer contains my cigarettes and cigar case alongside a matchbox. The left hand drawer contains another book, this serving as a spare ledger as well as a journal, as well as hiding a secret compartment contains some funds and a gun. Further to my left is the door leading to the rest of the house, in this case it leads out onto the first floor landing. Behind me is a large King sized bed with white pillows, purple sheets and a mahogany base. Beside it is a bedside table with a small lamp, a book of Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd" and a smaller cigarette case.

5. What Are The Given Circumstances?:  The circumstances are as follows; an author long ago created 6 characters; Myself, the Father, a Mother, a Stepddaughter, a Son, a Young Boy and finally a Little Girl. For some reason unknown to us, halfway through fully fleshing out lives out, the author stops, leaving is in a perpetual state of re-living the pre-written events over and over again. 

These events are as follows; during our young lives, the Mother and I met and formed a relationship, one we thought was based on love. Eventually however it became clear to me that we were incompatible, her upbringing meant that her mannerisms and her persona were simple, far too simple for me too have any sort of loving relationship. I was also beginning to notice that my secretary was similar to my wife; simple yet compassionate. It became apparent that they're similarities were beginning to create an attraction between the two of them. Naturally I sacked my secretary for showing an interest in my wife, yet it caused my wife to become lifeless, similar to a walking husk. I couldn't bare to see her live like this and so, with nothing but her best interest at heart, I sent her to my secretary and left our marriage at that. I made sure they were well provided for and happy, and silently continued to watch over them. Sometime before this, I had also decided to send or Son away to a boarding school in the country, again for his best interest and to ensure that he had the best education in the country. This resulted in him becoming estranged from me, when he returned home he refused to communicate with me and grew up on his own. 

I began to feel a loneliness that I had not experienced before. My home felt like a ghost town without my wife, and I found myself walking around  the house with no sense of purpose. At that point, an interest sparked within me, an interest to watch over and observe this little family I had created. I found the school where their first daughter, and my Stepdaughter, attended, and would walk after her after school, to see how they were doing, and the make sure she was safe. I gave her a ribbon some time later as well, to let her mother know that I was still watching after them. However, suddenly and unexpectedly, my secretary moved away, some miles away that it was impossible for me to find them. The loneliness returned, and this time there was nothing for to escape to. For years I was tormented by this loneliness and it served to bring out the carnal desires within myself. Being too old to love again yet too young to not need female company, I took to prostitutes to feed my desires. Quick, painless and no emotions involved.

 I had been doing this for several years when one fateful, day I took again to Madame Pace's backroom. There I encountered one that was far younger than the ones I was used to. I soon realised that she was in mourning for a prior loss, but my desires had the best of me and I told her to take off her dress. It was at this point that my ex-wife ran into the room, horrified. It was then that I realised that this young prostitue was in fact my Stepddaughter. It was at this point that I found out that my secretary had died some months prior to this encounter, and had left the family in absolute poverty. My ex-wife, searching for work found Madame Pace's shop and offered her services. Madame Pace however, was more interested in my stepdaughter, and forced her to work for her, due to her mothers "failed" works. I decided to take responsibility for my previous actions and offered to take all of them into my home. 

At this point we have reached the present, us the "characters", about to begin our search for an author to finish our story. In the future we will find a director, putting on a play in London. We describe to her the beginnings of our story and, despite the protests of her actors and actresses, she agrees to put on our story. Through many creative and philosophical differences, we display to te director our passions and story, the scene between myself and my Stepdaughter, and eventually, the fateful garden scene. This scene, in which the Little Girl drowns in the garden pool, accidently, causing the Young Boy, traumatised by the events that have happened to his family, commits suicide, shooting himself with a revolver. Unable to discern the truth of the experience, the director will cancel the rehearsal, leaving us the "characters" on stage, notably without the Young Boy and the Little Girl.

6. What Is My Relationship?: My relationship to these events is all inclusive. I feel that every event that is shown to the director is in some way influenced by me. From the children and Mother's trauma, to my Stepdaughter's madness, to my Son's estrangement, I feel that it is my responsibility to fix these events and find an author to end our tragedy. 

My relationship with the Mother is very strained. I feel that at one time we may have felt something akin to love, but it didn't last long. Due to my decision to send her away and due to her mental deafness, she feels that I threw her away and discarded her when I was bored with her, which is entirely not true. I did it because I felt that she would be better off with another person. At present I feel that it is now my responsibility to help and to protect her now that her husband is gone. I feel that that is the best thing to do as a man of good moral health and also as a man who once had a connection with this woman.

My relationship with my Stepdaughter is complicated. Before the incident with Madame Pace, my only interest in her was to create a link between her and the family I had effectively created. However since that incident, the bestial urges I felt that day come to haunt me whenever I look at her. I'm sure she is aware of this as she uses it to her advantage, little teases here and there to get me to do what she wants. I would say her madness is what is causing her to do this, yet even so my responsibility to her as well as these urges compel me to obey her. It sickens me and sometimes my morality returns and I can control both the situation and her, yet these moments are few and far between, I am ashamed to say.

In regards to my Son, our relationship is something I am disappointed in the most. I felt that sending him to boarding school was the best option for his future and I felt that in time he would come to understand that, just as I did when I was younger. Yet he is now a man and still harbors a hatred towards me, due to my actions in the past, in particular, my sending him away and my use of prostitutes. It disappoints and saddens me that he feels this way, even with the education and wisdom I bestowed upon him. I find it childish that he feels that he is not a part of this story and that this family is not his own. His ignorance is frustrating yet is also something I fel that I have contributed to, and something I hope to rectify.

My relationship with the Little Girl is that of a simple father-daughter relationship. Even though she does not communicate to me or the rest of the "family" I feel it is my duty to help care and provide for her, as if she were my own. My relationship with the Young Boy is similar to that of the Little Girl, yet there is a difference. I can see a resemblance between this boy and his father, my old secretary. They share a meekness, a quiet and a shy and hidden persona, which makes it somewhat difficult for me to care for him as I do the Little Girl. Although I rather liked my old secretary I cannot help but remember his blissfully ignorant simplicity and his foolish mistake of leaving the town, making me unable to help his family. With all of these memories I have found that I somewhat hate the boy, yet my moral and responsible nature means that I can push that aside and help care for this Young Boy.

My relationship with the Director and her assistants, is one I would refer to as incredibly frustrating. They have the potential to be the authors we need to come alive; they have the equipment, the people and the knowledge to do so. And yet they cannot fathom that we are characters, and not "people" as they are. They fail to understand that life can be born in many ways, and being born as a character is one of them. Our debates cost us time and resources that we could be using to generate the piece.

7. What Do I Want?: My primary objective is to be free of the guilt and remorse that I feel from my previous actions. To do this I need to find an author who can finish our story and bring my character to a cathartic end.

8. What Is In My Way?: Some of the characters I.e the Son and (at points) the Mother and Stepdaughter, do not wish to finish the story for their own reasons. The Director also, cannot accept our existence as characters, and therefore wishes to use actors and props and other materials that do not correlate with our story. If it is not completed correctly, the story will not bring our characters to rest properly.

9. What Do I Do To Get What I Want?: I use many methods to try to achieve my objective. I Confess my prior actions in the hope that it will bring me closer to releasing my guilt, I Order the other characters, especially the Stepdaughter, to bring them back into line and to speed up the creation process. I Negotiate with the Director and the other cast members in order to make it easier for them to bring or story to the stage.