Judith: A Parting From the Body

 This blog's read really is one that should be read with caution. There are many uncouth and disgusting images, and they are not for the faint of heart.
Judith: A Parting From the Body by Howard Barker is a retelling of the Apocryphal(or deuterocanonical, depending on what you believe)story of the Jewish Judith, who goes to the enemy general Holofernes' camp and beheads him while he's drunk. 
In this retelling, Judith develops feelings for Holofernes, and the play explores what she must do and overcome in order to motivate her nation to win the war. 
I think a good question that is answered from this play is "Does Judith gain control?". 
Control means over her country, her people, and most importantly herself. After developing feelings for this man, brutally murdering him, and then attempting to have sex with his carcass, Judith comes out the other side of this event a changed woman. In a way, Judith consumes Holofernes and becomes like the general she has just killed and defiled.
Judith is timid and scared to carry out her task at the start of the play, but is almost a foaming from the mouth  barbarian by the end of it. She gains control, but it comes with a price.

'night, Mother

Determining the Major Dramatic Question of 'night, Mother by Marsha Norman can take some serious thought. The play follows a woman who is intending to commit suicide. You may assume the question would be "Will Jessie kill herself?". The suicidal Jessie seems unwavering in her decision to end her life. Despite her Mother's attempts to persuade her, by threatening, begging, or bartering with her, Jessie's resolve is unshaken. Our question now could evolve into "Will Mama convince her daughter to stay alive?".

Towards the end of the play, when we discover that unfortunately Jessie has no plans of changing her mind, we come to what i think is the true Major Dramatic Question, "Will Mama accept Jessie's decision?". I suppose it could be worded in a different way, using phrases like "make peace with" or "give her blessing". 
Jessie felt trapped and alone in the world and circumstances she was living in, and thought the only way to free herself was by ending her own life.
Our Major Dramatic Question is answered when Jessie kills herself, and Mama gets on the phone to start doing the tasks that Jessie asked Mama to do. She starts checking off the list, and the play ends.
This play was a good read, but to anyone who plans on reading it, prepare yourself for a rough, depressing time.

"Trifles" by Susan Glaspell

Trifles is the second play in our Reading Rainbow!

It's a great story with a murder-mystery feel to it.
The play is about a murder in a small town. We enter the story when the investigators come to the house where the murder took place to figure out what happened. It is assumed that the husband, Mr. Wright(dead guy) was murdered by his wife.
The couple's neighbor, who first discovered the unfortunate event when he came to visit, starts explaining his side of the story as the County Attorney and Sheriff begin their investigation. The men instruct their wives who are along for the ride to gather belongings for the incarcerated Mrs. Wright, while they do the "hard work". There is a common theme of putting the women's worries and cares below the men's important tasks.
As the play progresses, the men are mainly upstairs investigating while the women are tending to the mess that is the abandoned kitchen. We soon discover that the women are the real ones uncovering the mystery just by looking through Mrs.Wrights things. The women start to identify and understand the wife's rough circumstances.
Minnie Wright is not a character in the play so she isn't able to speak for herself, but through the discoveries the women make in the "trifles" that she had lying around her house, they are able to personify and identify Minnie. They eventually discover Minnie's motive for killing her husband, and in the end hide it from the investigators to protect Minnie Wright.
The play really has a theme of the women ending up being the clever ones and the men assuming that they are the smart investigators. They dismiss the women's worries when the true clues are staring them in the face.

I read "Overtones" by Alice Gerstenberg!

Overtones is the first play I read for this blog. Luckily, it's not a long read, so I was able to get through it in one sitting even with my horrible attention span!

This play is about two women, Harriet and Margaret. I mean Hetty and Maggie... wait! I mean... uh...

What I mean is that this play is indeed about Harriet and Margaret, but is also about Hetty and Maggie. Harriet and Margaret are both cultured women, and Hetty and Maggie are both the "primitive selves" of these women, respectively.

So, once again, to make this clear:

Harriet. Cultured. Hetty! Primitive!

Margaret. Cultured. Maggie! Primitive!

This play centers about how the civilized Harriet and Margaret keep a civilized and polished front when in actuality their "primitive selves" are screaming inside of the bodies they're trapped in about how they wish they could do whatever they wanted, no matter what the cultural standards require. It's almost like a little angel and devil on your shoulder troupe, except that the angel is the one making the actual decisions. The facades that these women are trying to put up are ones of class, success, and intelligence.

These two women do not like each other, and as the play progresses the inner thoughts of these women are shown through the "primitive selves". We find out that these women lie to anyone and everyone, including their own husbands in order to get their basic needs, or at least what they think are their basic needs. The play is very cleverly written and shows the standards that these women had to live up to, and also reminds us of the sometimes too high standards we set in our society.