Tuesday 21 May 2013

Ralph Darling Backstory

Ralph-Robert-Darling was born on June 18th at 3:00am on a Sunday. He is the only child of Cara Darling and Francisco Darling. He was born tall and heavy, weighting in at 10labs 9 ounces.  When in his youth he was brought up as a class 4, his parent both worked hard .Cara Darling was a midwife at the Buxton maternity unit, and Francisco Darling was a Soldier in the army and so was away from home a lot of the time. When younger Ralph attended Buxton primary school, he found this difficult and was tormented by the other students as he was class 4 and many kids were class 3. He would have to stay late after school with teachers until his mum finished work, because of this his relationship with his parents was not very strong, he often felt alone. He was a quiet kid whilst in juniors with not many friends, he had one friend named ‘Jon’, the pair where often known for being mischievous and causing problems within the class. After Ralph finished Infants the family were demoted from class 4 down into class 5 due to Francisco Darling being killed in the war, this meant that Ralph’s mum could not keep the house tidy and run on her own. Due to being moved into a class 5 section, Ralph was no longer allowed to attend Buxton school, and Jon’s parents also requested that Ralph was kept away from there class 3 son.  Ralph would spend most of his time outside in the countryside, this was government land and so he would have to be careful not to be caught whilst doing this.  Ralphs mother attempted to get Ralph home schooled and therefore had to give up her job in order to do this. Because of this there was no income for Ralph or his mum. When Ralph turned 14 he was caught on the golf course without having a pass, due to this he was given a criminal record for entering a class 4 area without permission. At 16 Ralph felt he was at a loose end and so he decided it was belt to follow in the footsteps of his farther and join the army. When he joined he found it difficult as he was not a social person, he often kept himself to himself and other soldiers found him difficult to get along with. He completed training and was first deployed to the war aged 19. When at war he found the common problem that people had to stop fighting in order to take water out of there backpacks to keep hydrated. He tried to tackle this problem himself by creating a pipe that would venture from his backpack up to his mouth, allowing him to drink without having to stop at all.  His fellow soldier buddies saw what Ralph had done and asked him if he could do the same for them. Ralph had a business head and decided that he would do so at a small fee. He made a lot of money and respect within the army for his drinking straw system. After serving 10 years within the army, the minimum that can be served for a class 5 citizen he left to pursue a career in his drinking straw system. Ralph went back to class 5 living and had to beg his army general to let him take a copy of his drinking straw system to show people. When he arrived at home he realised he wasn’t allowed into the city where the investment companies would be. Ralph was walking in the class 5 sections with his drinking system one day when a judge was coming through to inspect the class 5 lands to see if it was suitable as a sewage waste site. She was amazed in what Ralph had built and asked to purchase it for her self. Ralph instead asked her if she would like to invest in his product and he could make her more, she agreed and funded Ralph the means to his business.  After a few years of selling his single product from his class 5 regions he was began to build up a name for himself and money in his pocket. For this he was awarded class 4 status rather than 5. Cara Darling moved with him and he gave his mum her own bedroom providing that she kept look after the house. It was in class 4 that he met Lucinda whilst out in the town; she also was a class 4 woman. Ralph said he remembers saying ‘I saw her, I wanted her, and I got her’. He later took his business further, and instead of just selling one type of drinking straw he specialised in all types, from children’s birthdays to hen nights and parties.  He was even given a slot of TV under the slogan ‘Suck up darlings’.  In 2001 he married his wife Lucinda and bought his first car, a Range Rover, with heated seats and leather interior. His business was progressing and he was awarded class 3 statuses. His mum however had to remain in class 4. His wife was allowed to live with him in class 3.

1 comment:

  1. Creating a backstory is always a really useful tool for actors to develop their character outside of the script. This is a detailed account of how you imagine Ralph's life to be before the play starts & hopefully will be very helpful in rehearsals - it may be interesting to share this with Eva to see how it fits with her vision of Lucinda?
    Good work, Brad.

    ReplyDelete