TS1101e Play Critique (ELECTRIFY MY WORLD/2021 OCTOBER)

In ELECTRIFY MY WORLD, there is a clear divide between actors who engage in realist and non-realist acting as observed through gestures and movement. The psychologically complex human characters such as Tesla, Edison and Mary Stilwell are mainly performed in line with the realist presentation. Meanwhile, the fictional book characters such as the Pigeon and Mary Shelley as well as Kenneth, the biographical fiction writer, are portrayed through non-realist modes of acting which is appropriate in showing that they are not real in the world of the play. For example, when Edison tells Tesla that the prize money was just a joke, he mockingly laughs at Tesla for being so gullible and not understanding “American humor”. On the other hand, Tesla remains still, but his facial expressions connote betrayal and hurt as he realizes that he had been used by Edison. This detail shows Tesla’s dynamic with Edison as he had respected him as a mentor all along, and his lack of immediate retaliation shows his disbelief at the dismissal of his hard work. Here, the actors adopt elements of Stanislavski realism in their acting as they engage with the emotional truth and follow a linear storyline and conversation. In the next scene, the book characters appear on stage on console Tesla. Through exaggerated gestures of mining and digging and with their large movements around the stage, they portray Tesla’s grueling journey towards developing his own motor. Their actions are non-realist in the context of the play as they jump around the stage in sync with their exclamations: “He dug!”, “He wrote!” and so on. They appear to be narrating directly to the audience, which breaks away from the real world of Edison and Tesla where the audience was shielded by the fourth wall. In other words, Brechtian elements are introduced in the play to differentiate the book characters from the characters in the main storyline who tend towards Stanislavskian acting.

The individual characterization of each actor is also accentuated by the costume design. When the actors put on the costumes on stage at the beginning of the play, it conveys the deliberate purpose of the costumes, which drew the audience’s attention to the unconventional costume choices. For example, Thomas Edison had a typical-looking grey suit which shows his status as the main character and the most relatable individual onstage since the audience can relate to the realist style of the costume. Nikola Tesla’s costume is reversible and effectively conveys his transformation as a character, from a naive idealist to a shrewd industry player. The walking cane also communicates his maturity over time. On the other hand, J.P. Morgan’s costume was dual-sided on the front and back, which accurately portrays her two-faced nature as she helps Edison create the electric chair to frame Tesla, and then turns against him once Edison is exposed by Harold Brown. Her hat also obscures her face, which aids the audience in determining that she is a shady and morally grey character. Meanwhile, the Pigeon wears a petticoat with free hanging sleeves which appears to be the wings of a bird and characterizes her as a free-spirited commentator in the play. The costumes are thus designed in a manner that departs from our conventional ideas of clothing, and establishes that the play is more presentational than it is representational in terms of how it asks the audience to read its mise-en-scene. Therefore, the costumes symbolize the ideals and nature of each character, and allows the audience to interpret their motivations and to follow the play’s storyline.

Given that ELECTRIFY MY WORLD is a play about the invention of light, it made sense for lighting and sound design to feature prominently in the mise-en-scene. The light and sound design in the play was instrumental in setting the tone of the scene on stage. For example, through the clever use of atmospheric lighting in contrasting blue and orange colors, the space is divided into Thomas Edison’s office and his home with Mary Stilwell. This allows the phone call scenes to take place on the same stage while clearly demarcating the separate spaces. The contrasting colors are also effective in showing the emotional distance of the characters. This is intensified by Mary Stilwell’s use of morse code to communicate, which disconnects both Thomas Edison and the audience linguistically. Here, the lighting works together with the actor’s gestures and movement to convey Mary’s isolation from her husband. Lighting also plays an actantial role in the play. It is used to place emphasis on the lightbulb, and the entire theatre dims so that the orange glow of the lightbulb can be seen, which reinforces the significance of the lightbulb in the story. Furthermore, whenever the characters break the fourth wall to ask for a cue for ship sounds, the lights on the opposite side of each audience fades in and out together with the sound, which creates the effect of an actual massive ship approaching the dock. The traverse stage helps in amplifying the illusion of there being a ship approaching using the audience on each side themselves, who are seated on a dark fan-shaped raised platform that almost looks like a ship under low lighting. Finally, the use of electronic interference sounds throughout the play were used during moments of tension building, which cleverly ties into the overall theme of electricity and new technology. All of those examples come together to create the world of the play, where light and sound are an inseparable part of the theatrical text.

In conclusion, ELECTRIFY MY WORLD weaves its linear plot into a story that includes Brechtian elements where narrators convene to reflect on the ethics and the dangers of science, with many memorable scenes and moments. Personally, the scene that advertised the electric chair was unforgettable due to how it juxtaposes sadistic humor with the gravity of the death penalty, which successfully made me feel uncomfortable and alienated during the show.

(991 words)