Reading Response to Glaspell's "Trifles"

For a play as reliant upon on images and descriptions as Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, directors face the unique challenge of how best to stage the production in a way that remains true to the nearly one hundred year old script while still being widely accessible to modern audiences. Essentially, directors can either stage the script with period sets and costumes or with minimal staging and props and simple costumes so as not to distract audiences from the words, emotions, and actions of the actors on stage. The first option makes the play more true to life since it gives audiences a definite setting in which to place the scene. The small “trifles” that abound throughout Minnie Wright’s kitchen would give members of the audience a better understanding of how she kept her house and what life must have been like in the harsh Nebraska environment. However, the latter option is equally plausible because the dialogue spoken on stage gives audience members all of the information they need to know that is relevant to the plot, including descriptions of the jars of preserves, the birdcage, the quilt, and the appearance of the farmhouse in general. Personally, I find the first option to be more practical for several reasons. To begin with, the play is already fairly dated, but performing the play as a “concept” production might disinterest audience members even more since it combines surreal staging elements with a script that relies heavily on an understanding of what life was like for rural women during the early 20^th century. If the play is staged with full sets and costumes, the production then fuels the audience’s collective imagination and brings the material to life before their very eyes.