Sarah has it all, but although she is good looking, and smart, her parents have always expected more from her. She is a perfectionist in all she is and does. She finds it relatively easy to jump the bar when her parents raise it but she lives in fear that one day she won’t make it over. Her behaviour stems from her father taking away what should have been hers to control. She is confused and disempowered by this relationship, which threatens her emotional survival. When she first cuts herself, it is an accident, but she realises how good it makes her feel, and that she can control how she feels. She copes by keeping on cutting, but eventually, this also fails.
Production Note[]
I have tried to use the group scenes and some stage directions to give the audience wherever possible insights into what she is like and what is happening to her. However, this is shown through what she is not saying and doing, as much as what she does say and do. She is shown at three stages of life: When she is 10 or 11 ("Young Sarah"), when she is 14 (Act One) and when she is 17 (Act Two).