Stage Directions
The first direct confrontation with irony in the script occurs in the very opening minutes of the play in a conversation about why Coral has ended up in the facility. Melanie suggests that she must have done something in order to wind up there to which Coral responds by asking “What?” In one of the very few such examples the playwright indicating how an actor should read a specific line, Melanie repeats herself:
MELANIE : [ironically] Ya musta deserved it.
The Physician
The male institutional physician charged with examining the women for the most private and sensitive of concerns is not referred to by his actual name. He has earned a nickname charged with ironic unprofessionalism for which he has come to be infamous: “Doctor Fingers.”
Marlene’s Mantra
Marlene has a piece of self-guided advice she repeats to herself to the point of it being referred to as her mantra. The content of this repetition seems to be sincere to her, but it is clearly ironic under the circumstances:
“If I behave myself I’ll be fine. If I follow the rules they’ll treat me fairly.”
The Dungeons
A recurring element in the play is Gayle’s insistence upon the existence of dungeons that she remembers to which Judi always responds in the same way: there never any dungeons and Gayle’s memory of their existence is a just perceptual trick her memory is playing on her. The issue will ultimately be resolved by the end steeped in irony: there were dungeons in the form of vacant rooms “from when it was an orphanage” but any girl who was never taken to them would never know of their existence and thus have no memory of them.
The Mock Trial
The mock trial moves relentlessly toward ever more absurdity relative to the charges the girls face and the crimes they commit. This absurdity climaxes with the ironic address to the judge summing up the situation complete divorced from actual facts:
“Your Honour can see what happens when a rebellious spirit is housed in the female body and that is coupled with the disadvantage of a none-too mentally acute mind.”
