The biggest departure from a well-made play form is the choice to not have a resolution with a nice tied up ending, instead we are left we more of an unraveling of characters and left with more questions. This is significantly different than a well made play because a well made play would have had an ending that was tied with a nice bow on it and all unanswered questions being answered. However, in Children's Hour we are left with Martha dead, Karen leaving Joe, Mary finally confessing it was all a lie too late, and her grandma never being able to really punish her for the mess she has made. Essentially we are left with a bigger mess then at the beginning of Act III when we see that Karen and Martha have lost the court case and now have to live with a stigma over their heads.
I think this play should be done today. I understand why most people would say that it shouldn't be done because we like to think that our society has advanced and are more accepting of the LGBTQ community. However after seeing Five Flights, I don't think the majority of our society has truly accepted this community. I could not believe the amount of people at the production who were grossed out when either Tom and Ed makeout and even when Olivia and Adele kiss. I heard gasps and even people say "eww." I was appaulled that people thought that those relationships were "unnatural" in some way to say or react in such a way. For this reason I believe this play should be done ,and then maybe these people who react like this to a modern play will realize how ridiculous they are acting in today's world when we like to think we have progressed so far from when Children's Hour was written.
I feel the same about the end differing from what a real well-made play should be. The ending loosely falls into it's own messy place that is left to fix itself. And I think the not so "just-in-time revelation" helps it to end this way. I also felt that this would be a good paly to do today. It would definitely make the uncomfortable more uneasy, but I believe that's what theatre is here to do so that we can get a point across to society and get them to open their eyes to what's going on around us.
ReplyDeleteExactly! This play should be done, I am sure some people would be offended, but it seems everyone is offended by something these days. I think this would be a wonderful play to produce as sort of a wake up call to people like the disrespectful ones in Five Flights. It is appalling that our society claims to be so accepting but still has people who react like that to a college production. It is the job of theatre to make people think, and I believe a production of The Children's Hour would do that.
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