As they were bringing the plays of Eugene O'Neill to life, one of the famed Provincetown Players found a place to insert her own work. Susan Glaspell, a founding member of the Provincetown group was writing as well. Glaspell was born and raised in the American Midwest. Raised in Davenport, IA, Glaspell's voice and perspective were far different than O'Neill's carefully measured conversations. Unlike O'Neill, Glaspell could provide a truly female voice to the stage.
After graduating from Drake, Glaspell began her writing career as a reporter for the Des Moines News. One night after a show or rehearsal in Provincetown, Glaspell sat looking at the empty stage for a while.
"this stage became a kitchen...Then the door at the back opened, and people all bundled up came in."
While not the most overwhelming thoughts of inspiration, Glaspell had just enough of the setting, sparcity of the stage, and her own memories to tell a story. As O'Neill's early plays were only one or two acts, there was room for Glaspell's work on the bill as well.
"Trifles" opens with five characters entering a simple, spare farm kitchen. Immediately, Glaspell draws the lines that separate them (County attorney George Henderson says "Ah, loyal to your sex, I see.") She also lets us know that in 1916, women are purposely set apart from the men. In short, the County attorney, neighbor Lewis Hale, and Sheriff Henry Peters are busy investigating the scene of a crime. While the sheriff's wife and the neighbor's wife are there in support.
It seems that the farm's owner John Wright has been murdered - choked to death by a rope in his bed while his wife Mrs. Wright slept right through it. As Glaspell stared at that blank stage, she remembered her time as a reporter covering a murder trial.
"I never forgot going into the kitchen of a woman who had been locked up in town."
Mr. Hale recounts all the details of the day he discovered the crime to Henderson and Sheriff Peters as all five characters mill around this quaint, plain and, cold kitchen. There is something nonchalant about Lewis Hale's telling of seeing Mrs. Wright sitting in the rocking chair (before all of them) "pleating at her apron." Mrs. Wright is not quick to reveal any details, yet also not hiding anything. When Mr. Hale asks her to see Mr. Wright, you can almost hear her in that clipped Midwestern voice saying, "You can't. 'Cause he's dead."
Nearly 110 years later, we are still not sure how to receive this data. Is it darkly funny? Or is it meant to shock us? We must remember that as Glaspell is writing this in 1916, Mrs. Wright's nervous behavior and repeated Lady Macbeth-style actions are the same "distracted" characteristics that are de rigueur to crime shows today.
Whether we know it or not, Glaspell is quietly steering us toward her two female characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. The men are casually dismissive of almost everything the ladies do as if they are mere appendages (Lewis Hale says, "Well. women are used to worrying over trifles.") As the men tromp off upstairs to the bedroom for further investigation, we stay with Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters downstairs. Mrs. Hale seems to know Mrs. Wright the best. In addition, Mrs. Hale may even share some of the same household tendencies. At one point, Mrs. Hale takes offense when one of the men characterize Mrs. Wright as a "bad housekeeper." Mrs. Hale defends her first like a neighbor, and then as if these casually plundering men are an affront to women in general.
As Glaspell develops the women, Mrs. Hale evolves in her projected caring about Mrs. Wright moving front-to-front from dirty hand towels, to a half-cleaned table, to quilt squares that lose their uniformity and in an instant become chaotic. Mrs. Peters, is as she says late in the play "married to the law." As she and Mrs. Hale bond over the discovery of details of Mrs. Wright's "shabby" life, Mrs. Peters grows from superego to sounding board. "The law is the law," Mrs. Peters says as a surrogate sheriff to Mrs. Hale as a possible warning that she may be tampering with what could be seen as "evidence."
Glaspell is "reporting" on the different roles of men and women, while being extremely careful to grant these two women their own perspective on the situation leading to the crime. As the men are upstairs bumping around looking for the missing clues to reveal a motive, both women are seeing the perspective of Mrs. Wright while sitting at her kitchen table. Mrs. Hale is strangely growing more "nervous" the more time she is in in the house. At first, Mrs. Hale is immediately regretful that she was not a more frequent visitor - even poking holes in her own logically stated reasons for not coming over ("I stayed away because it weren't cheerful" marks her breakthrough.) Shortly after that revelation, she characterizes John Wright as "a hard man - like a raw wind that gets to the bone." A fitting description of both a man we will never know and the scene that their men have pulled them into.
There is more to be revealed in this short one-act play. Yet if you get the chance to re-read it, there are so many clues hidden in the early conversations that one might regard as unnecessary. In addition, Glaspell finally gives Mrs. Wright a first name (Minnie) midway through the play, thus changing our perspective on her life. "Trifles" was an immediate success and it helped establish The Provincetown Players and even move them to Greenwich Village in the Twenties. In 1922, Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook moved to Delphi, Greece to fulfill his dream of becoming a shepherd. Cook passed away in 1924. Glaspell continued to write short stories to make ends meet even as her plays were growing in popularity in England. After her play "Inheritors" premiered in 1925, a theatre reviewer wrote "This play will live when Liverpool is a rubbish heap." The same can be said today.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New music this week
AVETT BROTHERS [BLUE 2LP/CD](Ramseur/Thirty Tigers/The Orchard) • Moving back to their homegrown label, Americana stars Avett Brothers keep Rick Rubin as their producer and broaden their sound for the first time in years. So far the only real "Country" one hears is in the childhood tale "Country Kid" where the Avetts sound more true to form in a while. Clever and melodic, this well-written tale bodes well for the latest patch of writing. AAA Top 10 hit "Love of a Girl" is their most uncharacteristic choice of single in a while, possibly signaling a return to the songwriting prowess of old.
CAGE THE ELEPHANT - Neon Pill [CREAM LP/CD](RCA) • Matt Shultz has apparently been through it. On their sixth album, Cage The Elephant sounds farther away from their "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" beginnings and more like everyone's current obsession, The Strokes. Produced by the band and John Hill, "Neon Pill" is closest to singles that dominated 2019's "Social Cues." "Good Time" has some interesting stops and a crushing sarcasm that is new (despite its wanton need to sound like Beck.) Their streak of #1's (6 on AAA and 9 on Alternative) may continue thanks to earnest songs like "Out Loud."
ZAYN - Room Under The Stairs [LP/CD](RCA) • As the first from One Direction to go solo, Zayn Malik is the first to dramatically alter his sound. Working with Grammy-winner Dave Cobb and inspired by Chris Stapleton and Willie Nelson, "Room Under The Stairs" swerves into Bluesy guitar Pop. Zayn's vocals have not changed much ("What I Am") but he does show a willingness to grow lyrically. "Alienated" is rooted in the familiar (which again is a stretch for a Pop star) and benefits from his R&B-style melismatics. We have already seen Justin Timberlake fall a few rungs while trying to satisfy all the segments of his audience. Zayn is asking that his audience simply accept him as he is.
BILLIE EILISH - Hit Me Hard and Soft [LP/CD] (Darkroom/Interscope) • As always, the major artists keep it under lock and key. You can see the titles finally. However, they offer no real hints other than that their terse titles are about to become code for their revealing content ("Lunch" was premiered in a DJ set at Coachella.) As always, its Billie and Finneas working without interference. The snippets are more mysterious than the titles. "Do you know how to bend?" We will all find out together on Thursday night at 11PM.
KERRY KING - From Hell I Rise [LP/CD/CS] (Reigning Phoenix) • While King announced that his official solo debut would be a continuation of the last Slayer album, "Repentless," "From Hell" sounds almost exactly like a Slayer album. Drummer Paul Bostaph (who was in Slayer in the Nineties) is joined by bassist/vocalist Paul Osegueda (from Death Angel) who rips into "Residue" like Tom Araya. Nonetheless it is a welcome interpretation especially when King tears into riffs and lights up solos. The help from Phil Demmel from Lamb of God is also welcome.
