‘Bold Girls’ by Rona Munro
Revision Notes
These notes are a guide for revision only. You should be carrying out your own revision as well e.g. past papers, making your own notes on key areas etc as well. This booklet is for reference and should be used to support your other revision.
Plot Overview
On the surface the play is about 4 domesticated women coping with their lives in Northern
Ireland during the “Troubles”. However, if you dig deeper it’s about 4 women longing for some form of escape from the lives they find themselves trapped in. For some characters the play is about the desire to have the truth revealed or for others it’s about the desire to keep the truth concealed. It’s also about relationships – between family members (Nora and
Cassie), friends (Marie and Cassie), past relationships (Marie and Michael; Cassie and Joe), future relationships (Marie and Deirdre).
Scene 1: In Marie’s house. Marie is trying to do laundry, Nora is helping. Shootings occur outside. The women talk about going out that evening to the club. We learn that Marie is a widow. Deirdre arrives giving information about what is going on outside. She steals Marie’s clothes and Cassie’s money from behind Michael’s picture.
Scene 2: In the club. Scene starts with a minute’s silence for the young man killed in the shooting of scene 1. The women sit and chat and Marie wins the opportunity to play “The
Price is Right”. Marie and Nora have an argument about Cassie’s behaviour and dress which occurs while they are trying to give Marie the prices of the items that come up. Deirdre is the waitress at the club and tells Cassie that she saw her in a car “with him”. Cassie goes into a blind rage and tries to get Deirdre. Marie takes her outside to get a taxi.
Scene 3: Outside the club. Marie and Cassie are waiting for a taxi. Cassie confesses to Marie that she is “bad” and that she wants to escape. She reveals that she is so desperate that she would leave her kids behind. She tells Marie that she’s saved £200. We now realise that this is the money that Cassie hid behind Michael’s picture that Deirdre has now stolen. At the end of the scene, Deirdre comes in with stolen handbags and rummages through them. She finds a knife and has Nora’s peach polyester which she destroys.
Scene 4: Marie’s house. Nora and Cassie talk about Cassie’s marriage and Nora believes
Cassie should be grateful for her life and that she should just make the best of it. Nora mourns the loss of her peach polyester. Nora leaves hurt after Cassie tells her she is leaving.
Then, Cassie tells Marie about her affair with Michael. Marie tells Cassie to get out. While she is seeing to the children, Deirdre comes in with her knife. She tells Marie she’s brought the money back and gives her back her clothes. She demands to know about Michael and tells Marie that she is Michael’s daughter. Marie says she can’t tell her anything that would

benefit her. She sees bruises on Deirdre’s body and asks how she got them. Deirdre tells her it’s her mum’s new boyfriend. When Deirdre goes to leave, Marie makes her stay and makes breakfast for her.
Characters
The relationships between the characters is quite difficult to follow so here is a break down.
Marie - - - married to - - - Michael (deceased)
best friends father / daughter
Deirdre Cassie - - - married to - - - Joe (in prison)
mother / daughter
Nora - - - married to - - - Sean (deceased)
Marie
 Main character (or protagonist) in the play.
 “she is cheerful, efficient, young” – scene 1, opening stage directions.

Mothering nature – she feeds everyone, looks after them: “the kettle always hot for tea” – scene 1, opening stage directions.

Lacks confidence, doesn’t like attention – doesn’t want to dance at club in scene 2.
 Lives a lie – doesn’t want to face the truth about her husband / her situation.

Loved her husband dearly – look at her soliloquy.

Tells her children their daddy was a good man: “I bring him into the fire and I hold him and I say – (getting dreamy) 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 and when you’re good he’s happy, he’s smiling at you and that’s what keeps us all together, keeps me going, keeps me strong because I know your daddy can see us…” – scene 1.

She knows the that her husband wasn’t great but wants to keep the illusion going for the kids: “he’s a child; it’s good for him to hear it like that. … I know he was no saint
– but I miss him.” – scene 1.

Feeds the birds – shows desire for freedom / escape.
 Attempts to maintain peace within her house, contrasting with the conflict outside.
Cassie
 Marie’s best friend and Nora’s daughter.

Described as “sceptical, sharp-tongued” – scene 1.


Desires escape – saves money to run away with.

So determined to escape that she even considers abandoning her children – selfish.

Hides the money behind Michael’s picture – shows she trusts him.
 Unhappy in her marriage: o “NORA – …we’ve a lot to weigh us down … one man dead and the other in a prison cell.
…
CASSIE – And here’s me never stopped dancing since they took mine away.”
 Behaves promiscuously (tarty) – has a bit of a reputation for cheating on her husband.

Seems to enjoy attention. In scene 2 when she’s up dancing: o “Marie glances round nervously.
CASSIE – What, are they looking? … Let them.”

Doesn’t get on well with her mum (Nora). Her mother disapproves of her behaviour.
Often argue e.g. in the club in scene 2: o “NORA – I noticed that dress!
CASSIE – Good.
NORA – There’s nothing good about it.”
 Feels her mum favoured her brother Martin over her. “Do you know you never put a plate of food in front of me before he had his.”

Cassie’s soliloquy (when she speaks to herself with no other characters) reveals her feelings on the way she was raised: “Spoil the wee girls with housework and reproaches … They’re bold and bad and broken at fourteen but you love them as you love yourself… That’s why you hurt them so much. (Pause) Ruin the boys … tell them they’ll always be your own bold wee man … and you love them best of all – that’s why they hurt you so much.”
 Stands up for her dad. Thinks it’s her mum’s fault that she was beaten. o “NORA – I never got any answer at all but the bruises. Sean was never much for conversation.
CASSIE – (in a low voice) That hardly ever happened.
NORA – that happened every time he had enough drink in him.
CASSIE – You should’ve left him alone.” – scene 4.

Motivated by jealousy? She seems set on destroying Marie’s image of her life. Overly critical e.g. the woman on blind date.
 Can’t stand the fact that Marie seems happy – perhaps wants everyone to miserable like her.

Describes Marie as ‘good’ and herself as ‘wicked’ and ‘bad’.
Nora
 Cassie’s mum


Described as “down-to-earth, middle aged” – scene 1.

Disapproves of Cassie’s promiscuous behaviour

Attempts to escape from the harsh reality of her life by constantly renovating and redecorating her house
 Very concerned about her image – puts up a front e.g. scene 2 when Cassie is dancing: o “NORA – Oh Marie get up with her!
MARIE – What!
NORA – We can’t leave her on her own there, performing for the whole town!”

Was beaten by her husband (Sean) (See scene 4 for her conversation with Cassie)
 Soliloquy at the end of scene 2 suggests that there’s a lot she could say but chooses to keep quiet.

Peach polyester is her symbol of hope/escape.
Deirdre
 Michael’s illegitimate daughter.
 Fulfils different roles within the play: o Ghost – Marie thinks she is a ghost at the start, she dresses in white, she
“haunts” Marie by always being there. o Catalyst – because of her, the truth about Michael and Cassie is revealed and about Michael’s past. o Link – she connects the past, the present and the future; she connects Marie,
Cassie and Nora to the outside world after the shootings.
 Desires a knife because she thinks it’ll bring her the truth.

Wears Marie’s clothes – perhaps creating a link between them? Marie says in scene
1 “She looks like Michael … Then other times – she looks like me.” She wears the same dress that Marie wore on her wedding day, she stands in the same place Marie stood when she first saw the house. Marie says to Cassie “You know how me and
Michael always wanted a wee girl” – Deirdre fulfils this desire for Marie.

Wears white: o Adds to her “ghostly” role. o Suggests innocence – she’s young but steals; doesn’t actually do anything wrong to cause the fall out between Marie and Cassie; it’s not her fault she’s
Michael’s child.
Themes and Symbolism
The Truth and the Knife
The truth is a major theme in the play and it is symbolised by the knife that Deirdre uses in the last scene. She tells us in the first scene that she wants a knife:

DEIRDRE: I need a knife. A wee blade of my own. … A wee bit of hard truth you could hold in your hand and point where you liked.
Deirdre threatens Marie with the knife in the last scene in an attempt to get the truth from her but to an extent it fails as Marie doesn’t know the truth that Deirdre wants to know.
After discovering Cassie’s affair with Michael, she feels like she no longer knows him. When
Marie uses the knife to destroy Michael’s picture it shows the destructive nature of the truth. Her illusions of Michael have been destroyed by the truth and so it is apt that she uses
Deirdre’s knife to destroy the perfect image that has dominated her life.
Marie prides herself on the fact that she and Michael had an honest relationship. When she is talking to Cassie about her relationship with Joe:
MARIE: No, but I couldn’t have stood that, just the lying to you, the lying to you. (Scene 3) but, when the truth is revealed Cassie tries to comfort her saying:
CASSIE: And did he always tell you the truth, but there’s only so much of the truth anyone wants to hear. (Scene 4)
Marie, to an extent is avoiding the truth as much as possible. She tells her children what a good man their daddy was anytime they are upset but Cassie makes her realise how it really was. Just before Cassie tells Marie about the affair Marie tries to defend Michael but Cassie dismisses this.
MARIE:
CASSIE:
… He was a good man!
Good!? He was a lying worm like every one of them! (Scene 4)
Cassie perhaps wants to destroy Marie’s impression of the truth because she know the reality and is acting out of guilt.
Escapism and the Birds
All of the characters to some extent are looking for escape.
 Marie feeds the birds, which for her symbolise her desire to escape her life. She identifies with the birds when she says at the very end:
MARIE: I like the common wee birds … it’s easy to build a great wee nest when you’ve a whole forest to fly in, but you’d need to be something special to build one around the Falls.
Marie feels that she, like the common wee birds, has made the best life she could for herself in difficult circumstances.


Cassie wants more attention and love from her mother but doesn’t receive it. When
Marie is trying to talk Cassie out of leaving she says “It’ll tear the heart out of her
Cassie.” Cassie responds saying “Mummy’s heart is made of steel.” (Scene 3). She desires physical escape having saved money to leave the country and start a new life.
However, the £200 she has saved is quite inadequate to do that but her desperation means she seems willing to try regardless.
Cassie escapes from her husband by having affairs with men. She tells Marie how much she hates him in scene 2 when they are dancing:
CASSIE: I tell you Marie I can’t stand the smell of him. The greasy, grinning, beer bellied smell of him.
She says to Marie in scene 4 that her escape route “doesn’t work”:
CASSIE: …Grabbing onto some man because he smells like excitement, he smells like escape. They can’t take you anywhere except into the back seat of their car. They’re all the same.
 Nora escapes through domesticity. By renovating her home and by constantly redecorating she distracts herself from her reality. Her desire for the peach polyester symbolises her desire for escape. The fact that she is going to get this is what keeps her going. However, when it is robbed from her, her “escape” is denied.
All of the characters have their “escape routes” cut off – Cassie’s money is stolen, Nora’s peach polyester is stolen, and in a way, Marie’s idealised image of her husband is destroyed by the truth of his affairs.
Relationships
The play questions the ‘truth’ behind all relationships:

Nora remembers her husband Sean as drunk and boorish (uncouth)

Cassie sees a man pushed beyond endurance. Her disgust at Joe is countered by
Nora’s respect for his lack of violence.
 Marie believes her husband was always honest with her and that if he had cheated he would have told her.