TRIFLES

Okay, so I'm going to break this down into two parts.

1. Gains: I think that the production would gain some things. First and foremost, the audience is not immediately separated from the world of the play via costumes and set design. This "place" or "world" can be any world or every world. Therefore, the production gains an entirely new "relatable" factor. No longer is the audience going to say, "Well, those are just unintelligent Southern men in a different time." Suddenly, that can be our dad, our mom, or our neighbors. The other thing that I see as a gain is the fact that the audience gets to create their own view of the play. When the women pick up the quilt and it is suddenly a beige color instead of a log cabin print, that person gets to imagine their very own quilt and stick it into the play. That is immensely cool to think about.

2. Losses: I think that the play would probably lack cohesion. The writing and speech patterns suggest a specific group or region, so that element would be completely gone. It would be strange to listen to these ways of speech and not have any other indication of place or time. I think that the audience would likely spend much of the performance trying to "figure out" the show as though it were a puzzle. This would obviously be a huge distraction. 

To answer the last question, I cannot imagine a production of Trifles done as Dr. Fletcher described without it losing ANYTHING significant. 

OVERTONES

Clearly, Harriet and Margaret can always be seen and heard. Maggie and Hetty have different rules; sometimes they can only be heard by Margaret and Hetty respectively, and sometimes they can hear one another. The general rule seems to be that Maggie and Hetty can hear each other when the discussion between Harriet and Margaret omits the desires of Hetty and Maggie. It is difficult to say how an audience would react to this. My instinct is that an audience would pick up on these conventions fairly quickly because people are often in tune to what another person's body language says about their true feelings. This is a familiar situation. These rules are typically consistent throughout, but occasionally, Margaret and Harriet's conversation leads the reader to believe that they are in tune with the other's "inner self." These moments create huge suspense because the reader begins to wonder if and how Maggie and Hetty will almost emerge, in a bigger way, into the world of the play.