Why is there a man laying on a table on a LED screen right center in the middle of the set? While sitting in the audience watching Little Foxes, this question just kept running through my mind. As much as I loved the performance, I kept getting distracted by this screen. Why was this screen placed here? Was there a point to having a frozen image in the middle of the set?
I really enjoyed the overall performance of the Little Foxes, and I must say that it would be one of my favorite plays that I have ever seen, except for the fact that this LED screen just didn’t seem to make much sense tome. I absolutely loved all of the other aspects of the play. The actors did an amazing job of getting into their characters. For example, the actor who played Birdie did a phenomenal job of expressing her emotions through all of Birdies lines and actions. The actor who played the Ben did an exceptionally well job in his role. They way he conducted himself, for example the way he walked across stage with his confident stride and broad shoulders just showed how he really believed that he was the alpha male.
Okay so the actors did an amazing job, but what else did I love about this play? Well I loved the fact that the stage was so simple. The set design didn’t have too much going on. Because it was so simple I wasn’t able to get too distracted by the props that were present on stage, but instead I could focus more on the actual plot and characters. The only thing I didn’t understand which was already mentioned is why if the set was so simple, why would there be a LED screen to draw our attention away from everything that was occurring on stage. At times I would notice that something was moving on the screen, and so I would focus on this image in anticipation that something extraordinary was going to happen, and instead the image would freeze again, and all that it had accomplished was distracting me from what was occurring on stage.
The sounds I felt did a really good job of suiting the emotion that was present within the play. The music followed the plot, in that whenever something serious or dramatic would happen there was music to express this. Another aspect of sound that was present in the play was all the screaming that was done. How could someone fall asleep during this performance? The answer is they couldn’t have. Whenever there may have been a few moments of silence, or soft spoken conversation, it would quickly come to an end with someone starting to yell and before you know it everyone was screaming again. This really helped to keep the audience awake and keep them focused. At times it kept me so awake, that whenever a scream would come I would sometimes even get scared.
When first watching the play without really understanding the plot, I was really confused about a few things. One was why they had chosen a purple wall for the set, and another thing was why everyone kept laying down and rolling around on the floor. At first I just thought that these things were extremely strange, but after careful thought and finally understanding what the play was about, I was finally able to realize that there was meaning behind these things. The purple was the color of the walls because its supposed to represent wealth, power, and luxury. Several times throughout the play you see the characters utilizing this purple wall by banging it and expressing their anger through hitting this wall. Once you understand the plot of the play, you soon realize that this is supposed to resemble the characters struggles with obtaining wealth and power. As to the characters rolling around on the ground, this could be seen as the childish aspects of the characters and how, in particular Regina, they wanted to obtain this money so that they could have their dreams come true.
Another thing that bothered me about the play was the scene on the LED screen that showed the sacrificing of the sheep. Although this may have had a purpose in the plot of the play, and definitely was bringing up a very important issue, this was an extremely powerful image that I would have preferred to not have been in the play. Since I’m very big on animal rights, this was a very hard thing for me to watch, but since the screen was placed in the center of the set, it made it very hard to not look.
Initially I thought that there was no way I would enjoy sitting in a theater while being damp from the rain, but after the play had began I found myself getting more and more interested in what was going on. I truly enjoyed the overall production, and I felt that everything was very well thought out and planned, and in the end it all payed off.
