Trifles is a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. It is actually based on a real murder that Glaspell extensively investigated. The play takes place in a rural house, the home of the murder victim, John Wright, and his wife, Minnie Wright. The main characters include the county attorney (George Henderson), the sheriff (Henry Peters), Lewis Hale (a neighboring farmer, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale.
I believe the idea of producing a minimalistic rather than a naturalistic version of this play would be extremely effective. I honestly think that with so many little props and doohickeys around the set, the audience and/or readers can be distracted. I know I was. By focusing mostly on the character's actions and emotions, I feel the play would be much more powerful. Especially so would be the part near the ending in which Mrs. Hale frantically tries to hide the box containing the killed canary. Rather than being distracted by the patterned quilt and her shuffling through all her clothes and her bag with this lovely little box, the audience could truly feel that anticipation of the approaching group and wondering why the bazooms this chick has been trying to defend this lousy woman. Guilt for not visiting her sooner? Maybe. But the fact remains, she's a sucky person because she killed her husband. I digress... If I were ever to direct this play, I would definitely assume the minimalistic approach.
So, with this in mind, why did Glaspell choose to include all of the naturalistic items on the set? Aside from being "distracting," what effect do these items have? Examine this textually.
ReplyDeletei think in some plays you need the extra stuff and doo-hickeys because this is the kind of play that is easily relatable with the audience because it seems like real life, and keeping it as real as possible only adds toward the big picture, and there are certain directing choices that you could make in order to make sure the set wasn't a distraction. and if you take the set away you take away any connection to Minnie, leaving her as just some random person they mentioned rather than the persons house they were in
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree about the props and the story. I can only imagine how a director can manipulate those props so that an audience member is not distracted by each little thing, but your focus changes as the story goes on.
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