Besides their full-length
productions, The Shaw Festival offers a lunchtime feature. It often is an hour play, offered at
11:30 AM. This season the
selection is two one-acts by different authors, who have a professional
connection and feature a connected theme.
The program contains TRIFLES by Susan Glaspell and Eugene O’Neill’s A
WIFE FOR A LIFE.
TRIFLES
Susan Glaspell, who lived
from the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth, is noted for her
semi-autographical stories and plays which dealt with such issues as gender and
ethics, which is represented by characters with principled stands. She was awarded the Pulitzer-prize and,
with her husband, George Cook, founded the Provincetown Players, one of the
first American theatres dedicated to modern plays. Ironic for the coupling of the two Shaw presentations, she
is noted for having discovered and nurtured Eugene O’Neil. The duo are recognized as founders of
the American realistic theatre movement.
TRIFLES, an example of early feminist drama, is
loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, the subject of a series of
articles published by Glaspell, while working for the Des Moines Daily News.
Hossack’s wife was accused of killing her husband, who claimed that an
intruder had killed him. She was
convicted, but the sentence was later overturned on appeal.
In TRIFLES we find Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale,
friends of the reclusive woman, empathizing with her and suspecting that her
lack of socializing was caused by an abusive husband. While searching the kitchen they find a strangled canary,
the most prized possession of the woman, hidden in a sewing kit. The canary was killed in the same way
as the husband.
The male investigators, displaying their
chauvinistic attitudes, overlook all of the kitchen area. As the sheriff says, “Nothing here but
kitchen things,” thus characterizing women and their environment as irrelevant
and overlooking an important clue.
Glaspell uses the caged bird and its death as a
symbol for her view of male dominance and the subordination of women in
society.
Shaw’s production, under the direction of Meg
Roe is well done. The backwoods
setting and language are nicely etched.
Jeff Irving (County Attorney), Kaylee Harwood (Mrs. Peters), Graeme
Somerville (Sheriff Peters), Benedict Campell (Lewis Hale) and Julain Molnar
(Mrs. Hale) are all effective in developing clear characters.
A WIFE FOR A LIFE
Eugene O’Neill, one of the most important of realistic
modern American writers, led a life of depression and alcoholism. The Irish American playwright was a
Nobel Laureate in Literature who wrote of characters on the fringes of society,
much like himself. These people
often slide into disillusionment and despair. Most of his works were dramas. These included ANNA CHRISTIE, DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS,
MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA, and THE ICEMAN COMMETH. He won numerous Pulitzer Prizes.
A WIFE FOR A LIFE was one
of O’Neill’s earliest works, which the writer often referred to as a vaudeville
skit and once said that it was the worst play he had ever written. Ironically, it set the tone for many of
the writer’s later works, which usually centered on male characters.
The script is also
unusual as it falls in the theatrical genre of “frontier play,” a mode which
O’Neill never used again.
The play concerns a young prospector who is in love
with a young woman who turns out to be the wife of his older gold mining
partner. The older man is unaware
of it, but he soon acknowledges the relationship, but does not let on. At the end, the young man leaves to
pursue his love, leaving the partner behind.
The script ends with: “THE OLDER MAN—(sits down by
the camp fire and buries face in his hands. Finally he rouses himself with an
effort, stirs the camp fire and smiling with a whimsical sadness and softly quotes:) Greater love
hath no man than this: that he giveth his wife for his friend.”
Though not necessarily biographical, a few months
before he wrote A WIFE FOR A LIFE, O’Neill was in a similar situation when he
went on a mining expedition and fell in love with the young wife of the
engineer of the group. It appears,
however, he never acted on his feelings.
Shaw’s production is well conceived and nicely
acted by Benedict Campbell (Older Man) and Jeff Irving (Jack, the younger
man). The simple set works well.
Both plays concern marriage and turn on the actions
of an absent wife, a wife for life. As the director’s notes in the program
states, “both plays speak of longing, absence, isolation and searching.” They
both derive from the writers personal experiences. They differ however in the way in which the husband treats
his spouse.
Capsule judgement: --TRIFLES
is an interesting quick venture in the theatre which presents two pillars of
theatrical writing in early works.
It’s worth seeing this production to experience how Susan Glaspell and Eugene O’Neil give
glimpses of their talents in these early endeavors.
TRIFLES runs through
October 12 in the Court House Theatre. For
more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.shawfest.com or call 1-800-511-7429.
