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.
I really like that you say with the minimalistic approach that the show would gain a relatable factor. This, to me, is a play about issues relevant mostly to our modern world (it's not like anyone is killing their father and marrying their mother). With this, the time period and setting would indeed separate the audience from the show itself to which people may find it difficult to relate or disregard it as "unintelligent southern men". <Haha, That's very true though. But, if we stripped these walls away and presented it as its base, the audience could most likely relate better or see it in a very blunt light, which would give it more of an effect.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first thought about this prompt, I felt like this show would suffer much more losses than gains, but I likeyour take on it! I figured it was such a very specific and distinct time period in this piece, that it would not work as well without all the detail, but you do have a point! Without all of the period pieces and set, the text and play would be very relatable! The audience would not be thinking about how it is set in such an older time period, but how relatable these women and their thoughts are! Nice points!:)
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