I’ve always enjoyed the personal inferences one could draw from the descriptions in written literature. In the Trojan Women performance, I recognized how differently words could be interpreted. Though the characters were portrayed with the same general characteristics as described in the play, each was given a certain personality by the director which I’m sure differed from every readers’ imagination. For example, in the performance, Helen’s belittling spasms of laughter brought out a more caustic side of her than the play. In addition, Hecuba’s writhing and moaning in the performance prompted a more dramatic response from the audience. However, I thought that the set used confused the events of the play. Most particularly, I was puzzled by the placement of the chairs strewn in the middle of the set. The limitations of the set also affected the clarity of where events took place; for example, the burial of Astyanax occurred in the same place as other events that were clearly supposed to be in different settings. Despite the confusion, the orchestra and other special effects of the play created auditory and visual enjoyment that could not be extracted from reading the play.
I also wrote about the chairs in my blog entry. I don't really understand it either. The chairs were also moved during the performance by the chorus to a different arrangement of what seemed like random chairs. I also agree that Hecuba was a lot more dramatic than I imagined. The director may have done this to play up her emotions. Personally, I did not really notice much auditory effect in the performance. I thought the violin served as an undertone to what going on in the performance, but was not actually supposed to be noticed by the audience. It added to it, but did not take away from the acting.
ReplyDeleteI was also confused by the chairs - perhaps they were used to highlight the chaos in Troy at the time? I could also see how the lack of scenery/set changes could be confusing, but I saw it more as a simplistic statement that allowed the focus to remain on the characters rather than overly dramatizing the actions of the play.
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