(to the audience) My mother used to read...

(to the audience) My mother used to read me stories. Stories about great kings and beautiful princesses and magic fairies. As I got older I started to read my own kind of stories about horrible teachers or an adventurous group of friends. And I was called names for being such a swot but I didn't care. Reading gave me a different world to explore. One story, or a play rather, that I enjoyed at school was Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde. Bet you didn't think I know who Oscar Wilde is, did you? There was one line in particular that always stuck with me: "We're all in the gutter, only some of us are looking at the stars." What a load of sh#te. The trouble being, Mr. Wilde, that there's only so much room in the gutter, so we all end up squashed one on top of the other, us at the bottom being pressed into the concrete and the only people able to see the stars are the ones already closest to them! In the stories my mother read me, the poor people never stayed poor. They always ended up alright. When I had my first child alone, age 15, I couldn’t stand reading any more.

This is one of Bev's asides to the audience. She is not in any physical place and she is trying to figure out how she has arrived at this point in her life. This is the opening of the play - the very first words we hear and so it sets up the direct address as a convention. We are about to see her lose her temper with the staff at the job centre and so this is the audience getting a little insight into her character beforehand.