One act play-Smokescreens by Herold Brighouse

1. Smoke-Screens
~Herold Brighouse

2. Title of the play
• Conveys the gist and theme of the play
• Difference between one’s apparent appearance and inner personality
• Outer appearance is nothing but a smoke screen which covers or hides
the real or inner self of a person
• Smoke screen is a strategy generally used by the armies who generate a
lot of smoke around their area to hide their movements from the enemy
sight
• Mother in the play behaves as if she has no concern for her daughter and
her business of taxicabs holds more importance for her
• Daughter knows everything about the troubled marriage of her parents
but she never shows it
• Aunt Susan hides Primrose’s bag and tries to hold her at home but in fact
she wants her sister to realize that too much freedom has spoiled her
daughter
• All the characters are trying to give a false picture of their real personality
and hiding the truth behind one or the other smoke screen

3. Context
• The play is a serious social comedy
• Its story is a three-sided conflict
• Primrose, the young heroine is a modern girl
• Her mother, Lucy Aston, is a liberal lady divorced by her charming
husband
• Susan, her aunt, is a conservative
• Lucy does not like to interfere with her daughter's affairs
• Susan tries to warn her against the dangers faced by Primrose
• Primrose wants to marry a footballer, John
• Her mother and Susan are astonished; Susan leaves the house in disgust
but her mother decides to let her marry
• But she says she will keep a vigilant watch over her daughter’s husband
through the smoke screen of her taxi car business
• She does not like to lose her daughter; but she is quite helpless

4. Characters
 Primrose: smart girl of twenty years, take care of her appearance
• she behaves rudely with her aunt because her aunt is too interfering and
she doesn’t want to be the center of attention
• her aunt Susan asks her to give her some time, but she avoids it by saying,
“it isn’t easy to be Primrose”
• shows her disturbed mental state because at that very day she is on the
verge of making the most important decision of her life
• she dismisses the traditional concept of honor and quotes Shakespeare
who calls it “blowing bubbles”
• represents modern mentality where honor and manners are thought to
be useless things
• it doesn’t mean that she is a bad girl rather she proves herself a mature
sensible girl by making a prudent choice for her husband
• learnt from her mother’s bad experience and has avoided the blunder of
falling for a handsome man
• her character is a perfect delineation of a girl who belongs to a broken
family and whose emotional needs are not fully satisfied

5.  Susan: fifty years old lady came from village to visit her sister in London
• living a peaceful life with her two immaculate sons and a husband with
whom she can easily put up
• orthodox lady; wants her niece Primrose to stay in the limits of her own
narrow morality
• she maneuvers to keep her indoors because she thinks that Primrose is
going to the Devil
• hides her bag, criticizes her use of lipstick and cigarette in public street
• sarcastic and often gives unpleasant remarks about things
• talking to Lucy she gives contradictory remarks; first she calls her a
“heroine” then tries to make her believe that she has been wrong
• blames Lucy that she has made her daughter a mess and that she is
unable to control her
• gives evidence of her hypocrisy when she callously asks Lucy to disinherit
Primrose and leave her money to the International Peace Society
• Overall Susan is a narrow-minded homespun lady who doesn’t understand
the demands and ways of the modern times

6.  Lucy: good looking and capable lady of forty years
• She fell in love with a handsome man; married him but unluckily he
cheated her
• strong sense of self-respect and refused to take the alimony from her
husband
• she said she would have scrubbed the floors instead of receiving any
assistance from her ex-husband
• she brought her daughter up with much trouble
• her business activities didn’t leave her with much time to spend with her
daughter so they were not close to each other
• even she couldn’t react properly when Primrose told about her decision to
marry John
• Though she was much concerned about her future and in her aside she
threatened to shoot John if he wasn’t kind to Primrose
• she adopted a smoke screen behind which a loving mother was present to
assure her daughter’s well being
• On the whole Lucy’s character highlights the problems and tragedies
faced by a lonely working-lady.

7. Basic ideas
 All the characters in the play have duel personalities:
• characters hide themselves behind smokescreens
• Primrose pretends to be a rude and spoiled girl
• However, later she begs her aunt’s forgiveness; tells her that she behaves
just like a cuttlefish that squirts out a flood of ink to hide it from attack
• Aunt Susan pretends to have the Victorian morality. However, surprisingly
she tells a lie about her headache just to stop Primrose from going out
• Lucy pretends that she does not have any care or love for her daughter,
but actually, she is a loving and caring mother
 Secondly, bad effects of broken families on children:
• they are rude and disrespectful to their elders and do what they like. They
are confused and do such things as are not good for them.
 Thirdly, the generation gap:
• old generation is hard and harsh towards the young generation and has
the Victorian morality
• However, the young generation is rude; he people of this generation want
to live according to the demands of their society

8. Conclusion