Bone China gives the audience a personal view of two sisters’ relationship with
each other. The story centers around the sisters cleaning out their parents’ attic, going
through their late mother’s belongings. A melancholy mood is developed when the older
sister, Lainey, mentions the already known fact that she is going to die soon, leaving her
daughter motherless. The older sister, Mary, tries to lighten the mood by changing the
subject and the two reminisce about their childhood together, and eventually bring a sort of
closure to Lainey’s inevitable death.
The development in the plot gradually makes us feel more sympathetic for Lainey
and her daughter. We discover that Lainey has a terminal illness and that her daughter will
…show more content…
This conflict intrigues the audience, and
in addition childhood memories are mentioned, connecting the womens’ lives to the
setting, the attic.
Mary and Lainey are believable because they are average people with generally
average experiences, save for Lainey’s illness. Their normality makes them relatable to
audiences. Their dialogue also shifts as it would in normal conversation. These aspects
make lines easy to read and perform. Overall, Bone China is a lighthearted, feel-good play with very human elements. The
play is one that provokes emotion. It sometimes takes blunt realization to accept one’s
circumstances and understand true happiness and