Overtones Response

First off, I want to say that Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones was an attention grabbing first read and yet one I had to be checked in completely to understand. The intriguing part about the play is that there are some characters present on stage who do not see each other and also, the interaction a character has with another may not be mirrored by that other character. The two cultured characters, Harriet and Margaret, can see and hear each other, each character can hear their respective primitive inner selves, and the primitive characters, in my opinion, see and talk directly to their respective cultured selves in very few parts of the play. The question of whether or not the primitive characters hear and see each other is not explicitly stated in the script but my argument is based off evidence in the script. Because these primitive characters are the inner thoughts of their cultured selves, they can sometimes know exactly what the other is saying, just as we as humans can sometimes tell exactly what the other person is thinking and wanting to say through subtle facial expression and body language. There is a bit of dialogue at the end of the play where Maggie and Hetty seem to know exactly what the other is saying and in my opinion, the play should be staged as such. The primitive characters do seem to become more connected and even have more connected thoughts as the play moves on, I think, because both characters’ strong objective causes them to become less concerned with social graces and more concerned with the object at hand. While the stage directions in this play are extremely helpful because they often tell the reader exactly to whom the line is to be delivered to, even if those stage directions were not present, the dialogue is written well enough that the director wouldn’t have a hard time deciding if a primitive characters’ line should be directed either to “the abyss,” to the audience, to their cultured character, or to the fellow primitive character. I find this to be true because much of the dialogue is adding onto a previously stated thought or answering the question. Overall, there are some thought-provoking concepts in this play and it leaves much opportunity for interesting staging choices.