Prompt 2: Trifles

I first imagined the possibility of a production of Trifles with an abstract, minimalist design with skepticism. This play has so many details that are all important to the plot. The story is meant to show their significance when most people would miss them in comparison to the big picture. The men overlook so many things that are learned to be critical in determining Mrs. Wright’s motive. I thought of a version of this play without the visual details, and, at first I thought that it would lose this effect. The more details that the production contained would make the women’s discoveries less apparent. I then thought more about the text, itself. In the proposed production, the simple set would put more emphasis on the actual words and the descriptions that they provide. This would leave what is not shown to the imagination. If you read the script, you can see that every important detail is described thorough words. The physical details of the world are merely supplementary to the script and are not necessarily integral to the audience’s experience.

The only reason that I would have trouble with this alternative production is the intention behind it. If the stage was more simplistic in order to add to the audience’s imagination, the austere set would serve its purpose. The director, however, wants his production to, “Focus on the people, not on things," and that goes completely against Glaspell’s intentions. The play is supposed to make the audience concentrate on the details most. I can imagine a production with a stripped-down set, but not or the reason that the director wants.