Trifles Response

Personally, I hate simplistic and minimalistic shows.  This year, I went to my old high school’s production of Our Town, in which the students wore their school uniforms, mimed props and utilized regular furniture they found in the shop. I was bored to tears.  The props, costumes and additional features, to me, enhance a performance and add meaning and interest to the overall production.

However, I could see a simplistic show working in the case of Trifles.  Although I particularly wouldn’t enjoy it, the show is simplistic by nature.  There aren’t a lot of props and the costumes could sort of be timeless in a way, meaning a farm today could hold the same situation as to what would happen in 1916, when the play was written. 

On the other hand, I would stage the play with props and an actual setting.  Having a box as a chair and a piece of paper as a quilt completely takes away from the potential detail that could offer so much to the play.  For example, the dirty kitchen says a lot about how the house was kept. If you put a piece of paper as a dirty dish, you could think it was a towel or a knife or a salt shaker.  Mrs. Hale brings out a “fancy box” in the stage directions (342).  How would we, the audience, know that the box was fancy if it was a simple white box.  The elegance and fanciness of the box shows Mrs. Write’s appreciation, love and compassion for the bird.  The quilt that Mrs. Hale is re-stitching together was originally sewn poorly. How could we tell that the quilt was horribly stitched if we couldn’t see that actual quilt?  How horribly the quilt was stitched can say how nervous (or tired) Mrs. Write was (169-170).  The bird is especially the most necessary prop. Seeing the dead bird would actually make us feel for Mrs. Write.  The attachment to animals is much stronger than if we saw a piece of cloth tied up in a funny way to represent the bird.

So overall, I think that making the show minimalistic would take away from the detail that aids the motives of Mrs. Write. We’re more sympathetic towards Mrs. Write when we realize her motive but we can be more convinced it is her through the items surrounding the women.

Overtones Response

In Overtones the specific stage directions and characteristics of the four women easily aided in the visualization on stage while reading.  Although Harriet doesn’t see Hattie and Margaret cannot see Maggie, I do believe that the two inner selves can see each other.  Their catty remarks towards each other seem to spark their desires even more, thus edging them on to make their purpose for being there stronger and stronger.

            However, the situation could go either way, depending on how the director stages the show.  On one end, Hetty and Maggie could just assume that the other is there, but not be able to see or hear what the other is saying. The two inner selves never actually respond to each other, but it seems as if they understand what the other is trying to do.  An example of this lies on page 11 when Maggie says, “She’s taunting you. Get even with her.” 

 On the other hand, if the two could see each other, it would make their purpose a little stronger and their hate more intense.  I could see the two being nose to nose, attempting to rip each other apart emotionally, on page 17 in this bit:

Hetty: [to Maggie] I hate you!

Maggie: [to Hetty] I came for your gold.

Hetty: [to Maggie] I am going to make you and your husband suffer

Maggie: [to Hetty] He has forgotten all about you

One thing that stuck out to me that sort of broke the rules of Harriet and Hetty not seeing each other was at one point when they physically interacted with each other.  The stage directions state on page 5 that Harriet drapes a scarf on Hetty.  Clearly this indicates that the Harriet has to see her inner self in order to put the scarf on her.  This inconsistency takes away from the separation between the inner and outer selves. 

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