This proposal idea of stripping this down to the bareness of
having a blank set has benefits in some ways but it also would loose some
effect in my opinion.
Areas of gain: if a director decided to go with the idea of
such a blank environment the production would be full of symbolism, not that
you have to have a blank set in order to show large amounts of symbolism, but
it would be forcing the audience to use their imaginations.
I think the show would lose more than it would gain because
the show is about all of the minor details and also about feminism. Stripping it down to such a blank environment
would take away from all women’s Trifles throughout the show. And since we never actually get to see Mrs.
Wright all of her belongings are the only windows that the audience has into
her life. The set of her kitchen helps
you better to understand her and if nothing is there it’s as if she was never
there. Also, it puts the men and women
on an equal level and they are not, because this show is about showing how they
aren’t on an equal playing field. The
Attorney makes that obvious with how he treats and how condescending he is
towards the women of the play.
By the director taking away the small details of the play
they are taking away the most important details, that lead to the answer of the
case, and just like the men in the script they are overlooking the “Trifles.”
So, yes, I think it loses a lot of significance by stripping
it apart into such a blank production.
John Michael Moore
I completely agree with you that stripping down the set would lose the effect it has on the reader. I think the set was designed to be in such detail for a reason. The play would not make as much sense and the reader would not get the same feeling if you were looking at a bare set when the attorney criticizes Mrs.Wright for not tidying up her house like she should. I think the the script references objects and the way the world of the play is meant to be too much to let that be minimalistic and still work as well as it was written to.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting the way that you connect feminism to the actual setting of the show, using the trifles as a symbol for the separation of men and women. I certainly agree that a bare concept would detract from the overall feel of the show, but I had not thought of the set dressings as representations of the detail that the women see and the men overlook.
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