‘Peter’s Fact File:

‘Given Circumstances’:
 Name: Peter Lawrence
 Age: Teenager
 Date of Birth: 19th August 1955
 Address: 25 Abbot’s Road, Poplar, London SN1 2KF
 Favourite Memory: He is going to the disco with all his mates and getting
drunk, having fun and trying to get all the girls sympathetically attached to him
because he thinks he’s wonderful.
 Family: abusive father, dead brother
 Career path: no qualifications, unemployed, lazy and arrogant (doesn’t want
a job)
 School: Onga Comprehensive
 Fashion choice: wears leather black clothes – dirty, old, baggy short jeans,
brown leather shoes (gift from a long time ago)
 Physical analysis: very tall, skinny
 Hobbies: likes to go out (partying), flirting with girls and trying to get them
interested
 Hair: Shaggy, long, fringe down to his eyebrows
 Manners: mean, cruel, inconsiderate towards others
 Past life: traumatic and depressed – no mother, abusive father that was
mean, and of course about his dead brother.

Implied ‘Given Circumstances’-

 What are ‘Peter’s intentions in the play?
He is a young teenage boy with a rough time growing up in 1955, around the
relationship with his family which is traumatic as his father is abusive towards him
and he had a dead brother which depresses him.
 How is he separated from his relationships to his family?
Sometimes, throughout when he is with the Girls such as ‘Betty’ or ‘Shirley’ he thinks
slightly towards the death of his family and how it affects his everyday life.

 Why is he always around ‘Girls’?

I can see him as always trying to find away round him trying to love a girl and
immediately have ‘Sex’ with them as he wants a happy connection with himself, I
think this is because his ‘Father’ was abusive towards him and his brother his dead
he wants to find someone special that can be with him always.

What does he want to gain around people?

 He wants to find a relationship with a ‘Girl’ that he falls in love with and
doesn’t reject him, even though this is the case he doesn’t want to give up
looking around to have ‘Sex’

How is he known as a ‘Teddy Boy’?

 He is young, and the way he talks with the Girls about ‘Sex’, language to
others in the play and how they are responding to him

 Also, he tries to be cool and pretend to be chilling with himself

 When he is having fun, sometimes it’s not always seen as if he is really, he

can be depressed about his family’s relationships that he has encountered in
the past and how that effects his boundaries he is risking with ‘Betty’ on how
he loves her.

Character/Self Questions-
 What objects do you always carry?
a glass bottle of beer, paper receipts in pockets, silver chain necklace
 What is your best physical mannerism?
running backwards shouting towards his mates
 What don’t you like about yourself?
Doesn’t like being rejected by girl – he is a disgrace, he is pushy.
 What makes you most depressed?
Doesn’t have a family. Thinking about the happy childhood that I could have
had.
 What are your strongest prejudices?
Women – especially Shirley when she tries to reject him.
  What is your greatest extravagance?
When he dances in an overly sexualised way. Keeps going – very persistent
towards women, even though it has the opposite effect.

Research List-

Context-

History of 1955- East London:

The play is set during post war and there is another town that is set in ‘East London’
around 1950-1955. It is known as the town of ‘Poplar’ which is a district in East
London, England, the administrative centre of the borough of Tower Hamlets. Five
miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.
It is identified as a major district centre in the London Plan, with its district centre
being Chrisp Street Market, a significant commercial and retail centre surrounded by
extensive residential development. Poplar includes ‘Baths’, a ‘Blackwall Yard 'and
‘Trinity Buoy Wharf’ and the locality of ‘Blackwall’.

The borough around the town of ‘Poplar created in 1900, soon gained a reputation
for political radicalism, especially for the Labour council’s demand that London’s
wealth should be distributed more evenly among its constituent parts. The borough’s
determination to adequately relieve the suffering of its poor was nicknamed
‘Popularism’ by the Glasgow Herald in 1922 and the term became generic for
allegedly spendthrift Labour councils.
The district now consists mostly of council-built flats and houses dating from the
1950s to the 1970s, notably on the Lansbury estate. Only a few structures – mainly
churches, pubs and public buildings – pre-date the Second World War. The photo
below shows the former Sabbarton Arms (built c.1869), Upper North Street, which
closed in 1999 and was converted to residential use.
(The photo here shows the former ‘Sabbarton Arms’ which is a hotel (built c.1869),
Upper North Street, which closed in 1999 and was converted to residential use by
local people.)

Forty years ago, public housing accounted for 97.6 per cent of Poplar’s dwellings.
The new world that soon afterwards sprouted on the Isle of Dogs brought some
private residential schemes here but there was at first little scope or appetite to build
the kind of apartment complexes that have transformed nearby localities like
Blackwall. After all, poor people must live somewhere in Docklands.

(An example of women rights in the 1950s was extremely horrible compared to a
man's civil rights.)
However, private developments have begun to appear more frequently in recent
years – especially at former industrial sites – such as New Festival Quarter on the
bank of the Limehouse Cut, which was completed by Bellway in 2014 and contains
502 homes.
Language- what ‘Peter’ says about others:

He loves to be around ‘Girls’ a lot in the play for example he doesn’t like ‘Shirley’ as
she is masculine and says ‘piss of’ to him as she doesn’t want to be anywhere near
‘Peter’ at all as she feels he is in desperate love for her.
 Talks to ‘Margaret’- she is innocent, so he acts as if he is a gentleman around
her.

 I believe he is quite formal in the way he thinks about the characters in the
play.

 He can obviously see in himself that he is hurt by his brother's death, the
sense of having him to mention in the play is quite harmful. I think he gets
quite serious around ‘Margaret’ as she is foreign and an immigrant from
‘Jamaica’. This he is seen I think as quite defensive about his brother’s death,
and we can understand this by how he is very much affected to the suicide.

 As when he talks to ‘Margaret’ he is not only defensive, however I can notice

especially when around people he is aggressive. He wants to take on anger
out on everyone who caused this suicide. But he notices this is wrong of him.

 Talking to ‘Betty’- He would like if ‘Betty’ tried the dress of here on him which
is ‘sexual’ as she can notice that he loves her

 Is lays looking behind her at her dress, posture and how she is admired

 He is very firm and sexually hyper. And wants to have more of it he decides
not to give up. We can see that ‘Peter’ is controlling his ‘Girls’ around him and
he is rising his size and power that he has to sexually harass ‘Betty’.
 He knows though what he is doing and tells her it’s going to be “alright and
ssh”
Language- what others say about ‘Peter’:

 “Anything for you Baby”- this comes from scene 4, page 8 where he is talking
to ‘Betty’ about loving her

 “What I ain’t racist”- comes from page 10, scene 4 defines that he says some
very cruel and nasty things to ‘Women’ about their gender and who they are

 “Was the bloke white?”- comes from scene 4, page 17 we definitely can see
here that is violating another person's culture and nationality by asking about
their skin colour

 “Stupid Bastards”- page 30, scene 6 he is talking to people about when that
can go away and leave him alone

 “Only your guy in the sky”- page 9, scene 4 highlights that he thinks he is the
perfect man over everyone

 “No, and he didn’t die peaceful- page 31, scene 9 we realise that he misses
his brother a lot about his suicide and his life generally

 “Who do they think they are bastards”- scene 4, page 7 we recognise that
‘Peter’ is annoyed with a group of people pissing him of and wonders what
they are doing

 “No, their quite mysterious people” - scene 6, page 8 we see here what he is
wondering about other people and why he thinks they are being strange

 “Yeah, it’s beautiful. Turn around” page 37, scene 10- Here we notice that
‘Peter’ is desperate for a kiss of some kind or a gentle rub of ‘Betty.’
  “They haven’t got a brain, have they?”- page 37, scene 6 we can understand
here about him talking to ‘Betty’ about other people that he doesn’t get along
with well

 “Please face the wall”- page 37, scene 8 highlights that he wants to
immediately dive onto ‘Betty’ at Christmas time in her room and have ‘Sex’
with her

 “Very refreshing to talk to a girl who looks like a Girl”- page 17, scene 5 here
we can symbolise that he wants to start a relationship with ‘Shirley’ and have
a chat together

Imagination-

For me personally I think that ‘Peter’ is always thinking he’s cooler than everyone
else he knows of in the play and that is why he loves to have ‘Sex’ with the Girls.

I believe ‘Peter’ for me would be quite a sweaty character, with a very loud, booming
London accent and loves to run as if he is a madman out of control. I would also
believe If I were to be him, I believe it would have a dramatic impact If I was violently
assaulting to the ladies in the play.

And of course, I would be very rude as the one of the most important relation to
himself. I would think that I want to move very quickly from one place to another
having fun in while walking swiftly in any way possible from his surroundings to
where he is.

The way he looks to me is quite dirty as he is poor and he is situated in 1955 when it
is ‘Post War’ still, I would for proxemics really think he should have some old, ripped
up receipts in his pocket as I believe it could show greater character depth on where
he has been to and what makes him go there.

Lastly, to add on to how he moves there would be times where I would want to move
slowly or pause silently for a moment to think about where I am and what thoughts
and emotions are going in through my brain as going back to when his brother died,
he had an abusive father there would be a greater chance of effect to see how his
reactions would interfere from him having fun to being annoyed, sad and pissed off
about everything that is happening around him depending on what situation I think
his emotion should be suitable for which role and how this can impact his fears and
desperations of what he wants to gain in his life and what he needs to do to try next
and get a ‘Girl’ to love him eventually.