Show and Tell Post #1: The Outside

The Outside by Susan Glaspell

Basic Info

The Outside, written by Susan Glaspell, premiered on December 28, 1917. The play was first performed by the Provincetown Players at the Playwrights’ Theatre with Glaspell herself playing the role of Allie Mayo (http://www.provincetownplayhouse.com/theoutside.html). Along with Glaspell’s Trifles and Suppressed Desires, The Outside was revived in London by the Orange Tree Theatre in 2008. ("Glaspell Shorts: Trifles, Suppressed Desire, The Outside"). I was able to access this play when I found the Kindle version of Plays by Susan Glaspell for free on Amazon.

Basic Plot

The play is set in an abandoned life-saving station, now inhabited by Mrs. Patrick and Allie Mayo, her employee. As the play opens in the station, two life-savers and their captain try to revive a dead man. Mrs. Patrick is frustrated at the intrusion into her home, but the Captain is determined to save the man. After Mrs. Patrick leaves, the men realize that they cannot save the man and exit.

When Mrs. Patrick realizes that the corpse is still in her house, she starts to pursue the men. Then Allie Mayo, who never speaks, stops Mrs. Patrick and tries to convince her that she cannot keep living in bitterness. The life-savers’ attempt to revive the dead man sparks Allie’s new belief that life will triumph. Allie Mayo reveals that her husband went to sea and never returned, while it is unclear what happened to Mrs. Patrick’s husband. Allie maintains that Mrs. Patrick needs to choose life, but Mrs. Patrick resists. At the height of their debate, the men return for the corpse. After they leave, Mrs. Patrick mocks Allie and the life-savers. However, in the final moment of the show, Allie’s message seems to pervade her.

Dramaturgical Choice # 1 

One noteworthy dramaturgical choice is Glaspell’s decision to set the story in a life-saving station. The setting’s original pupose reinforces Allie’s argument that Mrs. Patrick must choose life over bitterness. Speaking of the woods as a metaphor, she says, “But I’ll tell you something! They fight too. The woods! They fight for life the way that Captain fought for life in there!” The life-savers’ attempt to revive the dead man probably would not have happened in this house if not for the house’s background. This is significant, since this event is what revives Allie’s belief in life.

It seems that this place, like Mrs. Patrick, has a choice—life or decay. Glaspell seems to support this in the stage directions, describing the live-saving station as “a place which no one cares either to preserve or change.” Since the house’s old purpose is abandoned, the life-saving house is frozen in a state between life and something else. When the life-savers try to revive the man in the house, they are giving it a chance to return to its life-saving purpose.

Dramaturgical Choice # 2 

Another significant dramaturgical choice is Glaspell’s decision not to reveal what happened to Mrs. Patrick’s husband. At first, Allie Mayo assumes that Mr. Patrick is dead. The following dialogue is an important moment:

Mrs. Patrick: (with a cry of the hurt) Dead? My husband’s not dead.

Allie Mayo: He’s not? (slowly understands) Oh.

Whatever happened to Mrs. Patrick’s husband is clearly important, since her bitter decision to live alone in the life-saving station is based on this. However, the women never mention the issue again.

I interpret this ambiguity in several different ways. The fact that Mrs. Patrick never says what happened to her husband could be connected to the motif of burying that crops up frequently in the women’s dialogue. Perhaps Mrs. Patrick refuses to reveal her husband’s fate in order to bury her past. Mrs. Patrick’s dialogue seems to support this when she says, “Everything that can hurt me I want buried—buried deep.”

Another interpretation of this ambiguity could relate to the bond between Mrs. Patrick and Allie Mayo. Perhaps since this is something that only Allie understands, this shows the depth of their connection. Even though Mrs. Patrick resists Allie’s message, it eventually gets through to her. Maybe this private understanding of such a crucial event helps Mrs. Patrick connect to Allie’s message of life.

Link & Bibliography

http://www.amazon.com/Plays-ebook/dp/B0084CA27W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1380238748&sr=1-1&keywords=Susan+Glaspell

Glaspell, Susan. "The Outside." Plays. 2012. 

4000 Miles

In Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, I noticed a consistent pattern of misunderstanding. There is a good amount of overlapping dialogue, indicated by a slash (/) in the script. This overlapping dialogue often seems to happen when tension is high and there is some sort of disagreement, misunderstanding, or miscommunication. In my opinion, there can’t be any kind of true understanding when each person can’t hear what the other person is saying. Take this part of Scene 3, page 68, for example:

            Vera: She said in the beginning of the summer, when you were home for a little while in St./Paul—

            Leo: Oh my God, she’s/still—

            Vera: That you tried to kiss your sister.

Leo and Vera have very different perceptions of Leo’s kiss with his sister, Lily. Leo thinks that they did nothing wrong. On page 68, Leo says that it was “a kiss expressing real mutual love” while Vera sees the reality that it sent Lily into therapy. Later in Scene 9, when Leo and Lily talk via Skype, the Wi-Fi connection makes it hard for them to understand each other. The literal misunderstanding in the Skype call mirrors the deeper misunderstanding of the kiss.

Even Vera and Ginny’s relationship seems to have misunderstanding. The last time we hear them interact before Ginny’s death, Vera is angry with Ginny for giving her a wrong address. Ginny hangs up on her, then Vera calls her to say that they don’t need to call each other anymore. Leo then points out that Vera could simply knock on Ginny’s door. I think that face-to-face communication could have reduced the amount of miscommunication in their relationship. However, Vera refuses, and Ginny dies in the next scene.

There seems to be a slight progress in understanding toward the end of the play, although not a definite improvement. For example, in the last scene, Bec and Vera seem to come to an understanding about Bec’s sadness. Then Leo comes in, “unaware of what he is interrupting,” according to the stage directions on page 77. While Leo still misses the boat, Bec and Vera seem to improve even though they do not always see eye to eye. 

Judith

In my opinion, Howard Barker’s Judith can have many possible Major Dramatic Questions, each suiting a different interpretation of the play. My MDQ for Judith is, “Will Judith be able to fill the shoes of the biblical heroine?” While this choice of MDQ may be forcing outside conceptions onto the world of the play, I think it is still valid. In my opinion, the play is challenging the trope of the righteous biblical heroine by delving into things that Judith may have thought or felt.

At the beginning of the play, Judith knows what she must do, but she stammers as her determination wavers. At this point, “Will Judith kill Holofernes?” is a valid question. As the play unfolds, Judith begins to love her enemy in her own way. When the two characters talk, they forge a raw connection for a brief moment in time. The exact nature of their relationship is hard for me to put into words. Judith’s hesitation to kill Holofernes makes the question of “Will she kill him?” more pressing than ever. However, Judith eventually kills the general in a moment of rage. Now there remain at least six pages in the script, so there must be another MDQ at work.

In the aftermath of her deed, Judith comes to a fuller realization of her feelings for Holofernes. Judith then succumbs to a state of paralysis. At this point, Judith definitely doesn’t fit the picture of the gleaming heroine of Israel. Toward the end, Judith does begin to assume the role of savior of her people…but with too much zeal. When the Servant worships Judith, this shakes her out of her paralysis. However, Judith then begins to abuse the Servant. She is almost drunk with her triumph, essentially becoming a tyrant or a goddess, as the Servant calls her.

In the end, Barker’s portrayal of Judith is darker and more ambiguous than what we might expect from the biblical trope. In this portrayal, Judith is not the blessed, virtuous heroine. On page 61, the Servant shouts, “Immaculate deliverer! Oh, excellent young woman! Oh, virgin!” This is the image that the Servant and biblical tradition expect Judith to assume. However, I think that Judith’s struggle has changed her in a way that prevents her from achieving this ideal.