An Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Opening of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice Anonymous 12th Grade

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is in many ways a ‘la piéce bien faite’ (translated as ‘well-made play’), which consists of a four point structure: an exposition; a complication and a climax followed by a denouement. Certainly, the exposition can be identified as the first scene, where the audience is introduced to the actors and the play’s main themes. Indeed, Little Voice’s inevitable tragic fall can be inferred from the title, but the exposition suggests that she does not possess Greek Hubris, since Mari mentions that she ‘hardly ever speak[s]’. Moreover, Cartwright uses Realism, through use of colloquial diction, such as ‘damn stinking’ to highlight the ordinarity of Little Voice’s life before her short-lived fame.

The play opens in complete ’Darkness’ , which is generally used to symbolise the evasion of truth and reality. Perhaps Little Voice causes ‘blackout[s]’ , since they enable her to escape her reality, where Mari considers her records ‘bloody shit’ and live in a world where music is paramount. Furthermore, the repetition of ‘Darkness’ suggests the regularity of the blackouts, which is corroborated by Little Voice’s comment ‘not again’ when the loudness of her records cause the fuse to blow. However, the unstable...