How unlucky was this? Having arranged to see this months ago at the Almeida, we got to hang out afterwards with S-L and her erudite visiting American friend Daniel. Daniel's a playwright and so on and so forth. You say something like 'I wanted to bang some sense into her' he says something very complicated and technical and theatrery. It was a great opportunity. If only I hadn't soundly slept through at least half the play, I could have taken advantage of it.

I am curious to know if I would have liked this better if I'd seen the whole thing....

( )

How unlucky was this? Having arranged to see this months ago at the Almeida, we got to hang out afterwards with S-L and her erudite visiting American friend Daniel. Daniel's a playwright and so on and so forth. You say something like 'I wanted to bang some sense into her' he says something very complicated and technical and theatrery. It was a great opportunity. If only I hadn't soundly slept through at least half the play, I could have taken advantage of it.

I am curious to know if I would have liked this better if I'd seen the whole thing....

( )

How unlucky was this? Having arranged to see this months ago at the Almeida, we got to hang out afterwards with S-L and her erudite visiting American friend Daniel. Daniel's a playwright and so on and so forth. You say something like 'I wanted to bang some sense into her' he says something very complicated and technical and theatrery. It was a great opportunity. If only I hadn't soundly slept through at least half the play, I could have taken advantage of it.

I am curious to know if I would have liked this better if I'd seen the whole thing....

( )

My first encounter with this play was when my college put on a production and I had to write a paper about it for one of my classes. I knew the bare minimum about the subject matter and left the school theater that night in awe. It led me to want to spend some time with the play in the written sense and learn more about its author Sophie Treadwell.

Sophie Treadwell is thought to be one of the first female war reporters and was one of the first women to write and director on Broadway. Treadwell brought Freud's psychoanalysis to the stage by bringing the story of Ruth Snyder, the first woman to die in the electric chair, and her lover for the murder of Snyder's husband.

What I loved most about this play is Treadwell's use of language. The way she set up her characters dialogues, with lots of pauses, makes the emotions and characters seem that much more realistic. It's easy to tell that the main character, mostly known as Young Woman, has some sort of mental illness. Her lack of feeling she belongs is always an issue for her until she actually falls in love, and not with her husband. It is very interesting how Treadwell decided to make Young Woman dislike being touched, dislike small places and seems to have an issue with germs. It allows the audience to feel as if they are in Young Woman's mind instead of just watching events unfold.

Reading the words after seeing the play live helped sink in the issues that Treadwell was trying to hit home. Her work raises issues about class, race, sex and women's rights. Although Treadwell's play is a more minimalist approach to the famous case. It is a play that is still shockingly relevant today as it was then, no pun intended. ( )

The best part of this book is the introduction, in which I learned about Treadwell and expressionism. The play is excellent. I am officially off the wagon of depressing literature about women...I'm discontinuing my nightly routine of reading Shirley Jackson short stories (The Renegade mixed with Machinal thoroughly depressed me) and I'm going to read something more upbeat. :)

I recommend Bjork's film "Dancer in the Dark" which is also thoroughly depressing and disturbing in the same way.


P.S. Putting the bookcrossing label on the cover that exclaims, "I'm Free! I'm not lost!" kind of choked me up...very appropriate.
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