Witness for the Prosecution

She's baaaaaaaaack!

Sorry everyone about my absence. Work and other life activities have gotten in the way of daily blogging, but I'm back now, and back with a vengeance! So read on, pass along, use as a study guide, what have you! And if you have any play suggestions for me to read, PLEASE let me know! :) Now, without further ado...I bring you Witness for the Prosecution!

Witness for the Prosecution is a play written in 1953 by Agatha Christie (yes, the Agatha Christie) and is based on her short story of the same name. Now, I happen to love Agatha Christie stories. I think she is one of the most brilliant mystery writers of all time, and even though I have read almost all of her stories, I can never figure out “whodunit” – she is just that good! Not many people though realize that she have also written several plays, non-fiction books, and romance novels (huh?). One of her most well-known plays is The Mousetrap, which is still performed in London today; it is the longest running play in the world! Witness for the Prosecution, though only running for 645 performances on Broadway, was still deemed a success by Agatha Christie play standards.

The play begins at the onset of an important and confusing murder trial. Leonard Vole comes to the office of Sir Wilfrid Robarts, a very important and famous defense attorney, because he is afraid that he will be accused of the murder of Emily French, an elderly spinster who he meets and befriends. Leonard is the prime suspect in the case because he was the last one who saw her alive and is the recipient of her entire will (of which he claims to have no knowledge of). Sir Wilfrid believes that his client is innocent and does all that he can to prove the prosecution wrong, but it becomes harder and harder for him as the evidence is revealed, especially with the testimony of Leonard’s wife Romaine. I do not want to reveal what happens in the end (and if you’ve read any Agatha Christie, you know that nothing is resolved until the very last page!), but Agatha, as always, comes up with a brilliant ending that no one sees coming.

I have never read the short story version of Witness so I did not know how it would end. Agatha Christie’s plays tend to be a little over-dramatic at times, probably to make up for the fact that she doesn’t use her famous characters Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. And her plays often contain more romance or a romantic ending, and Witness for the Prosecution certainly has that element, in a sense. The romances are a bit contrived, and in some of her other plays, the romance begins and concludes in the span of 3 acts! This play, however, is definitely one of her best-written, and shies away from some of the ridiculous situations in her plays based off of her original novels. Perhaps this is because it was only based on a short story. I would also say that along with other famous court-room drama plays, Witness for the Prosecution is one of the best that I have read. The suspense and mystery keep the audience on their toes, and I love that we don’t find out whodunit until the last few lines. Brilliant, Agatha, as always.

The Importance of Being Earnest

(I apologize for the delay in posts...I read this one a couple days ago and have been too busy to write a blog entry. But here it is for your enjoyment!)

I just want to preface by saying that I love The Importance of Being Earnest! I’ve seen it onstage twice, seen the recent movie with Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, and Reece Witherspoon (which was quite good), and have directed scenes from it (once with middle school students!). The satirical themes, witty language, and amusing characters make Oscar Wilde’s play as fun to read as it is to see it performed.

First performed in 1895 in Victorian era London, the play focuses on satirizing the social conventions of the time period, such as marriage, and Wilde himself claimed that the play’s theme was “that we should treat all trivial things in life very seriously, and all serious things of life with a sincere and studied triviality.” The play focuses on two protagonists who each create a fake personality in order to escape from the dull and burdensome social obligations in their lives. However, things get confusing and mixed up when each man uses the name “Ernest Worthing” as his alias.

The play opens with Algernon Moncrieff, a lazy young gentleman, receiving his best friend who he only knows as Ernest Worthing. Ernest has come to London from his manor in the country to propose to Algy’s cousin Gwendolen, with who he is madly in love with. Algy, however, has discovered that Ernest’s real name is actually Jack, and that he has an 18 year old ward named Cecily, who lives with him in the country. Jack admits that he has created a fake brother named Ernest who he pretends to visit in the city to escape country life, and then pretends to go by the name “Ernest” when he stays in London. Algernon admits that he does a similar thing: he has created an invalid friend named Bunbury, whom he uses to get out of social obligations in the city. He tries to discover the whereabouts of Jack’s manor, but Jack refuses to tell him.

Gwendolen and her mother Lady Bracknell come to visit Algernon. As Algy distracts his aunt in another room, Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She accepts, but it seems that she is more in love with the name “Ernest”; Jack decides that he will rechristen himself “Ernest”. Jack and Gwendolen then tell Lady Bracknell of their engagement. Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack to see if he is a worthy suitor for her daughter, and everything seems to be fine until she learns that Jack was adopted after being found in a handbag at Victoria Station. She informs Gwendolen that she is no longer to have any contact with Jack; however, Gwendolen sneaks back and is able to procure Jack’s address in the country. Algy, overhearing their conversation, writes down Jack’s address and secretly makes plans to visit the manor, knowing that Jack will still be in London for a week.

Act 2 begins at Jack’s manor in the country. Cecily is studying with her governess Miss Prism. Algernon appears pretending to be Jack’s brother Ernest, and Cecily quickly falls in love with him, having previously created a relationship with “Ernest” in her mind. She too, is mostly in love with the name “Ernest”, and Algy also decides to change his name to “Ernest”. Jack then arrives in mourning clothes to announce the death of his “brother”, and is shocked and furious when he discovers Algernon there pretending to be “Ernest”. Gwendolen arrives at the manor having run away from home, and meets Cecily. They both claim to be engaged to “Ernest Worthing” and look ready to start a fight, but then Jack and Algernon enter and the women realize that they’ve been tricked. The tables turn as the women unite together against the men who have lied to them.

At the beginning of Act 3, Gwendolen and Cecily have decided to forgive the men, provided they change their names to Ernest. Lady Bracknell arrives in pursuit of her daughter. She is horrified to learn of Algernon’s engagement to Cecily, but quickly changes her mind once she learns about Cecily’s trust fund. However, Jack informs her that Cecily cannot get married without his consent, and he refuses to give it until Lady Bracknell allows him and Gwendolen to marry. Everyone is at a standstill until Miss Prism arrives. Lady Bracknell recognizes Miss Prism as a former nursemaid, and asks her where the baby is that she had been watching twenty-eight years ago; Miss Prism took the baby for a walk one day and never returned. Miss Prism explains that she distractedly put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the stroller, and the baby in a handbag, which she left at Victoria Station. Jack immediately sees the correlation and fetches the handbag he was found in. Miss Prism tells him it is the same handbag, and Lady Bracknell reveals that Jack is her sister’s first born son, and therefore Algernon’s older brother. Jack is thrilled to learn that he has a family and can now marry Gwendolen, but wants to know what his true name is. Lady Bracknell tells him that he was named after his father, who is revealed to be General Ernest Moncrieff. Everyone can now get married, and Jack (now Ernest) tells Lady Bracknell that "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of being Earnest".

I enjoyed reading The Importance of Being Earnest again. It is a very light play, and the characters are not deep or particularly influential. Still, the play is well written and if done right, very enjoyable to watch onstage. I look forward to reading more Oscar Wilde after this!

The Blue Room

The Blue Room is a 1998 play written by David Hare. It is a play written in 10 acts, each act having two characters, and the entire play is performed by two actors. The play is loosely based on a 1921 series of sketches by Arthur Schnitzler, which were deemed too sexual and controversial for the day. David Hare takes this material and puts a modern spin on it by setting the acts in an unnamed contemporary city, which can be interpreted by the reader.

The most interesting concept about this play is that all of the characters are linked together. Each relationship leads to the next, until it comes around full circle. The play starts off with The Girl and the Cab Driver and ends with The Aristocrat and the Girl from the first act. Hare connects these characters together in such a realistic and believable way, that you never feel that their relationships are contrived. The biggest seller (in terms of ticket sales, probably) is that each scene features a sexual act. You never see any of the sex acts; in the script the stage directions show the lights going out and a slide is projected with the amount of time the sex act takes (ranging from zero minutes to two hours and twenty-eight minutes!). The only scene not to feature a sex act is the final scene. It was a little difficult to visualize this and the quick changes between each scene (they seem very fast!), so I wish I had seen the actual performance to get a better perspective on that (not, as you might be thinking, to see Nicole Kidman naked).

The most powerful scene for me was The Married Woman and the Politician scene. Up until this point, the relationships and sexual acts have been casual, conventional, and relatively guilt-free. In this act, we learn about a married couple who discuss their own relationship and the past sexual relationships of the politician, while knowing all along that the married woman has had an affair in the previous scene. With this scene, Hare reaches a more meaningful relationship, one that is actually driven by the love that the politician has for his wife, and the obvious doubt that his wife has about their relationship. It is the turning point of the play: every act after this is darker and more desperate.

I enjoyed reading The Blue Room. I like the way that David Hare uses dialogue and not as much action to propel his scenes. I have seen several performances of his plays and have enjoyed all of them. I think that if I had read this play when it came out (at the tender age of 16) I would have been horrified, or at least put off, by many of the situations in this play. However, now being almost 30 and having read more explicit materials, I appreciate the honesty about love, gender, sex, and betrayal that this play evokes.