Blondie, by Hayley Squires.

Reading the extract we were given, I managed to make out that it was about a female (blonde) politician, who had won the country's votes. They all loved her and she was seen as an angel. However, she comes into power only to create mass suffering. The play is powerful because even though the plot itself is somewhat twisted, the emotions and her reasoning behind her actions are powerful and touch me, personally. The gratuitousness of the descriptions of violence in the play unfortunately undermines the power of the images Squires is attempting to create, alienating audience members in the process. 
         "The blonde was a good idea." This quote could be interpreted one of two ways. The first few lines are discussing her hair colour. This is a very materialistic subject, and so this could mean that her outside/materialistic features won her the vote, rather than her true self, which is evident, she didn't portray to the nation. 
           "Women appreciate, Men want to stroke it." This quote shows how she knows the blonde helped her win the vote, and how confident she is in herself, as supported by "Do you think so?" She knows so, but she wants to provoke a conversation and hear it from someone else. However, the first quote goes to show how apparently everyone finds something about her positive. Even if it's in different ways, everybody loves it. The women are grateful for it and what it's done for them, and the men want to feel it (or it's consequences.)
            From the begining of the passage, you can already tell that character C is trying to suck up to "Blondie." All the other characters are listening to what Blondie has to say, as you are meant to be doing in an interview room. However, C is asking unnecessary questions, constantly, which have nothing major and will lead them to no clear answer/evidence that may be needed. "And sensual?" B: "What do you think?" There is obvious tension, a little of of it being sexually. Quite often when blondie says something shocking, C will sit and smile, asking a question completely off topic, carrying on from earlier, indicating that he is still pondering on the sensual tension in their previous question, trying to elongate this by bringing back questions despite the moving on. This technique has obviously worked, as "B smiles at C" quite often. He does the talking, and she accepts this, signalling so to C. "They lovED to look at you. I love looking at you." The first half of this sentence is in the past. As oppose to the second half, which is present, and relates to him. He is trying to encapsulate his desire for you, and say that despite people loving you before (and do not now) he still does.
        It is obvious that B knows she has power within this intense situation, despite the other characters official power.  She starts off by not being affected within this intense situation, but also making sure that everyone else knows this, by having full confidence in herself.  "It's nothing to be ashamed of." (Voting for her.) It blatantly is, otherwise they wouldn't be in this situation. The fact that C got slapped for admitting something, despite it's confidentiality, shows the delicacy of this situation, and Blondie only carries on with the previous quote to provoke more, and prove how little she thinks of the situation. However, you can tell that A is the most powerful of the men in this situation, not only when he slaps C, but when he retaliates instead of just listens to everything Blondie says. "But not just because of the way you looked." You can tell here that he is doing everything he can to stop her from being so confident, and maybe she can actually think about what she's done. This quote maybe represents him as trying to be the good cop in order to get something out of her. "You created an Apocalyptic state in this kingdom." This quote again, supports the fact that A is in desperate need of gaining back power, or more so, intimidating this woman. He gives her little to react to. No questions etc, but a harsh (but probably true) statement, said neutrally. However, the fact that Blondie reacts only with an "I did." shows that this means nothing to her, despite it meaning to have a strong effect, and so from then on, come the explicit insults, which again, only provokes her long speech, which even though is very true, does not, in my opinion, justify her actions.
        The ending to this extract is very powerful, because of the great intimacy, it is shocking because of the situation they are in, and is so unexpect, we feel exactly how this man feels, enabling us to empathize with him. Not only this, but she asks a question which is evident that she knows what the answer is, and so is left on a cliff hanger.