Susan Glaspell – Four Plays TITLE OF SOURCE: AUTHOR'S NAME - FIRST: LAST: DESCRIPTION: Visual Text Susan Glaspell's one-act play "Trifles" has survived into the current repertoire. (Based on her short story called "A Jury of Her Peers")<br><br>This collection of four plays includes "Trifles" as well as "The Outside", "The Verge" and "Inheritors."<br><br>an excerpt from "Trifles":<br><br>MRS HALE: What do you suppose she was so nervous about?<br><br>MRS PETERS: Oh--I don't know. I don't know as she was nervous. I sometimes sew awful queer when I'm just tired. (MRS HALE starts to say something, looks at MRS PETERS, then goes on sewing) Well I must get these things wrapped up. They may be through sooner than we think, (putting apron and other things together) I wonder where I can find a piece of paper, and string.<br><br>MRS HALE: In that cupboard, maybe.<br><br>MRS PETERS: (looking in cupboard) Why, here's a bird-cage, (holds it up) Did she have a bird, Mrs Hale?<br><br>MRS HALE: Why, I don't know whether she did or not--I've not been here for so long. There was a man around last year selling canaries cheap, but I don't know as she took one; maybe she did. She used to sing real pretty herself.<br><br>MRS PETERS: (glancing around) Seems funny to think of a bird here. But she must have had one, or why would she have a cage? I wonder what happened to it.<br><br>MRS HALE: I s'pose maybe the cat got it.<br><br>MRS PETERS: No, she didn't have a cat. She's got that feeling some people have about cats--being afraid of them. My cat got in her room and she was real upset and asked me to take it out.<br><br>MRS HALE: My sister Bessie was like that. Queer, ain't it?<br><br>MRS PETERS: (examining the cage) Why, look at this door. It's broke. One hinge is pulled apart.<br><br>MRS HALE: (looking too) Looks as if someone must have been rough with it.<br><br>MRS PETERS: Why, yes.<br><br>(She brings the cage forward and puts it on the table.)<br><br>MRS HALE: I wish if they're going to find any evidence they'd be about it. I don't like this place. COMMENTS: Visual Text "Trifles" is a one-act musical just waiting to happen. We're on the side of the two ignored women, and yet there's also a moral tension about the illegality of the woman suspect. NMI has not read the other three plays -- are they as good as "Trifles"? CANDIDATE FOR ADAPTATION?: --- not set --- Not reviewed Promising Unlikely SOURCE MATERIAL: Fable Novella Play Plot summary Short Story -- Parent -- GENRE: Comedy Comic Horror Detective Drama Fable Fairy Tale Fantasy Folklore Folktale Ghost Story Melodrama Mystery Myth Operetta Other Romance Suspense Young Audiences -- Parent -- SETTING: Africa America England Europe Fantasy International New Zealand Pastoral Rural Rustic Science Fiction -- Parent -- LENGTH FOR ADAPTATION: 10 Minutes 15 Minutes 30 Minutes 45 Minutes 60 Minutes 90 Minutes Two Hours -- Parent -- URL FOR PDF DOCUMENT: SusanGlaspellFourPlays.pdf
