Writing, Directing & Performance – Observation Task

I decided to base my character off a rather strange experience I had recently, where an unusual man knocked on my door on the farm where I live and asked if I wanted our fields ‘ferreting’. The whole experience was pretty strange and his characteristics stood out to me.

Character: Nervous, unkept looking man in his mid 40s.

Let’s call him ALFRED

Characteristics: He seemed very wired and filled with angst, his nose twitched and he shuffled around like one the ferrets he bred. His speech was heavily accented (Cornish) and he raced through every word like his life depended on it. However, he remained very polite.

Appearance: Hunched back, long nose, quite tall and lanky. He has straw hair and wears clothes that are slightly too big for him

How I imagine his world: I imagine he lives in a small barn conversion on the edge of a dairy farm. All open plan and messily kept, cages of ferrets line the walls making an ear-piercing rattling noise all night. Although his home is very dingy, his small argyle patterned bed seems totally neat and untouched with his fridge also left completely empty. There is something very ‘off’ about this situation and I imagine there is something more to him than that meets the eye.

I imagine he usually strays away from social interaction where he can, crowds make him extra nervous, and he strictly never entertains a guest past 7:45pm. Unfortunately, he is from a big loving family and was quite the extrovert in his youth, so he is often dragged into these social occasions. Life was totally normal until he hit the age of 23 when he became the creature he is today..