Trifles

     When I first read Dr. Fletcher's prompt, I could not understand why anyone would propose that particular design concept for this piece. I (like many of you, I'm sure) imagined a quaint country home with a cozy living room and modest kitchen as the set, as this is how text suggests the setting is to be. Black boxes and minimalist props just don't seem to have anything to do with the story, characters, or play as a whole. On second thought, I realized that any average onlooker, be it a reader or the characters themselves, would naturally view the house as any basic twentieth-century farmhouse, with the appropriate domestic touches scattered around. But Minnie Wright only sees black boxes and plain white quilts. Her world is full of bleak nothingness, and the mounting torture of having all the colors and textures of her life stripped away by John is ultimately what compels her to kill him.
     I think this design proposal is brilliant, as it allows the audience and actors alike to experience the world through the perspective of Minnie Wright. Without all of the unnecessary fluff, the audience is able to more heavily focus on how troubled Minnie truly is and how miserable her life must be to consider murder, as there would be nothing else to be distracted by. While I believe an audience would be understanding of the concept after the play is over, the abstract surroundings wouldn't make sense at first and stir confusion, which is exactly how the characters approach the situation until Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin to decipher the true story of Mrs. Wright's life. Although the spectacle of detailed set pieces and intricate costumes would be lost, the production would gain an artistic approach that would bring the mystery of the story to an even higher level, providing an out-of-place puzzle piece for the audience and actors to use as a key to unlock the desolate world of the play's central character.