Tally's Blood: Writer's Methods and Techniques (SQA National 5 English): Revision Note

In your SQA exam, examiners will test your ability to demonstrate understanding of how the playwright creates meaning. You’ll be required to write about the way ideas are conveyed through the use of language, structure, and staging. 

Ann Marie Di Mambro conveys ideas through several methods and techniques in Tally’s Blood:

• Structure 

• Stagecraft

• Dialogue 

• Setting

Structure 

Chronological structure 

• Tally’s Blood is filmic in style: it covers real-world events across many years:

  • Its chronological structure helps audiences follow the plot

• Di Mambro uses stage directions to signal time and setting changes

• Act One Scene One starts in Italy in 1936:

  • A small child (Lucia), wrapped in a blanket, is handed to Rosinella who is “ready for a journey”

• In Act One, Scene Fourteen, Massimo’s monologue about his time imprisoned in the internment camp takes place in a church:

  • The scene ends as he lights a candle

• Scene Fifteen jumps to 1943: it opens in the ginger store, showing time has passed:

  • Lucia is older now: she and Hughie discuss becoming “blood-brothers”

• Act Two begins in 1955: Luigi stands over some boxes on a hot day, a clear indication that characters are now in Italy

Cyclical Structure

• Di Mambro uses a cyclical structure to highlight themes of dual culture through the family’s connection with Scotland and Italy:

  • The play begins and ends in Italy while main events occur in Glasgow

• Act One begins with a funeral and ends with a marriage:

  • The play starts with Lucia as a baby and ends as she begins her independent and adult life 

• The ending portrays Lucia escaping her father’s house and eloping with Hughie

  • Rosinella reunites with Massimo and reenacts their own elopement: “But my daddy’s locked me up… says I’ve not to see you”

Stagecraft

Sound and Music

• Sound and music highlights cultural themes and key events:

  • Act One, Scene One begins with “Santa Lucia” playing softly to indicate the scene is in Italy

  • There is the sound of a mourning bell in the background to alert audiences to a funeral scene

• Music and singing often accompanies Franco’s entrance:

  • In Scene Two, he enters singing an Italian song and Lucia runs to him

  • Franco and Bridget’s love is marked by “romantic music” also

• Music and sound is used to create dramatic tension:

  • In Scene Ten, as Franco leaves for war, Massimo, Lucia, and Rosinella stand anxiously by

  • Franco comes in singing to show his positive attitude

• When the angry mob attacks Massimo’s shop, the noise of “brick bashing against boards” and “shouting” alerts the audience to the serious events taking place

• The sound of “peasano” music indicates the celebration at Luigi’s house in Act Two, Scene Thirteen

Humour 

• While the play has dark themes like war and prejudice, the marriage in the denouement makes it comedic:

  • The play’s themes of love are often presented with fairytale elements

  • Hughie’s declaration of love to Lucia from the garden of Luigi’s house is similar to Romeo calling to Juliet in Shakespeare’s play

  • Hughie’s rescue (using a ladder) adds comic elements to this romantic scene

• Elements of irony create dark humour, for example, Rosinella loves big Italian families yet she cannot have children of her own:

  • This often highlights prejudice, such as when Hughie behaves in contrast to how Rosinella believes Scottish people behave

• The play’s use of verbal sparring (banter) make the dialogue quick and funny:

  • In Act One, Scene Two, misunderstandings between Massimo, Rosinella, and Franco about “Big Sanny” and “Wee Sanny” creates comedic dialogue

  • In Scene Four, Massimo, Franco, and Rosinella harass Lucia (“like vultures”) to speak English: she eventually does, by swearing in English at Massimo

• Di Mambro uses slapstick comedy to bring light relief to serious scenes, often when characters are in pain:

  • Lucia screams when she encounters a “creepy-crawly” and is “jumping about so much he can’t help her”

  • Hughie cries out, “Haaaaa! Waaaaa! Eeeee! Ah! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” when he is sunburnt

Dialogue

• The play is considered naturalistic in style as it presents real world events and ‘real’ characters behaving in authentic ways, for example, the characters swear:

  • Massimo calls Lucia a “bloody bitch” in Act One   

• The use of Scottish dialect shows Rosinella and Massimo’s integration in Glasgow, alerting audiences to the length of time they have lived there:

  • Their dialogue includes words like “wee” and “lassie”

  • Scottish syntax is used: Lucia says, “I’m great at crying, so I am”

• To demonstrate the Pedreschi’s Italian heritage, Italian is used, too:

  • This appears when characters are distressed

  • When they hear about the torpedoed Arandora Star, Rosinella says, “È vero, vero, vero. È morto”

  • When the mob attack the shop, Rosinella prays in Italian

Setting

• The play is set in Italy and Glasgow: this depicts the Italian immigrant experience in Scotland and world events such as the global recession and World War II

• Di Mambro demonstrates the influence of living in Scotland on the Pedreschis through their experience as immigrants:

  • When his shop is attacked, Massimo states: “Eight years’ work gone in eight minutes”

• Luigi’s home is in Monte Cassino, Italy, the location of a significant battle during World War II:

  • Luigi shows Massimo how bombs have destroyed many of the towns

  • He adds that he has lost his “olives”, “pigs”, “hens” and “grapes”

Sources: 

Di Mambro, Ann Marie. “Tally's Blood” Association for Scottish Literature (opens in a new tab). (Accessed 13 November 2025)

“National 5 English course report 2025.” (opens in a new tab) SQA. (Accessed 13 November 2025)