Trifles Response

While I can entertain the idea of minimalistic theatrical designing in the case of many plays I’ve read, Trifles is not one of those, for many reasons. As the story began unfolding, it was quite obvious that the play falls into the category of a “feminist drama,” meaning that the playwright must have wanted to use this piece of literature to say something about the personal and public lives of women and how affected they are by men. Although the play was written in the early 1900s, I found the script easily relatable to today’s time, just maybe replace a bird to occupy a woman’s time back then with an Ipad today. Thinking back to proposing this play in a lab season with neutral design, I think much would be lost.  One of the less tangible but very important conflicts in the play is the idea of man vs. woman and the thought of dressing the male and female actors in neutral colored clothing would, in my opinion, be meshing the two genders together and making those conflicting forces less obvious to the audience. I think back to the neutral body suits worn by the actors in Lab Show 6 and while the actors in this show would not be wearing full body suits, I really think those costumes minimalized the gender of the actors in show. This worked for Lab Show 6 because gender was not one of the themes highlighted on in the show, but gender is highlighted in Trifles. One positive I could see from the production using neutral costumes would be the focus shifted from the gender roles and to a more objective look at fact of the matter, which is that a woman killed her husband and justice should be served. However, the role of gender is so interwoven into the whole script that this separation would cause the play to lose meaning. I have less of a problem with the props being symbolic of actual items, but I still think it is not the wisest decision as a director and for this reason: this play relies heavily on the idea of a person’s “things” and how those things are a huge part of the person. The mention of Mrs. Wright’s fruit jars, apron, quilting supplies, birdcage, etc., gives the audience a window into her life. These belongings are the only “gifts” the audience is given to understand who this woman was. A piece of paper to illustrate this sad woman’s quilt would not have nearly as much meaning as the quilt itself. As people, we often forget how much our belongings are a part of us. I also think Mrs. Wright’s objects gives the play a more eerie vibe because as an audience member watching the two women go through Mrs. Wright’s things, I feel this sense that they are doing something wrong because of how personal these things feel. Overall, I think realistic props, costumes, and set would allow the audience to most effectively focus on the important themes in the play.