Algernon's Use Of Sound In The Play

The casting of the actors for this play were well suited with the talents of each of the performers. They drew the audience into the action and provided the audience a balance of character development and comedic content. This was reinforced through the play with actors monologs directed toward the audience, revealing a characters internal conflicts. One area that was a bit of a contradiction came with the choice of using Amanda Tavarez and Belinda Boyd in the roles of Gwendolyn and Lady Bracknell. Being that the story line was to take place in the 1890s in England; given the characters were upper class, it would seem improbable that the marriage of John and Gwendolyn would be acceptable. Once the audience looks past the outward physical appearance, …show more content…
In act I, sound was used to give the impression that Algernon was playing the piano in the other room, badly. "I don't play accurately--any one can play accurately--but I play with wonderful expression." In act II, sounds of birds chirping is played throughout the act to give the feeling of being outdoors. In act III, the sound of objects being thrown around, the sound of objects breaking and the sound of a cat being hit, give the impression of John searching through storage to find a handbag. These impressions are made through sound because the action the sound represents would be too expensive, too difficult or too short to include in the performance. The piano sound used in act I, was probably not included into the actual scene because a piano is very expensive and it would not be worth the price of the piano for just two parts of an act. The bird sounds used in act II, were probably not included because using animals on a set can be very problematic. Animals tend to make sounds when they are not supposed to and require attention food and housing. Using a sound bite of birds is a much more efficient method for adding the sounds of nature into a scene. The sounds of John moving a lot of boxes and breaking things as he is searching for a hand bag, gives the audience an image in their mind of what John is doing, without having to change the scene to a storage room for such a short time. The sounds proved to be very beneficial to the …show more content…
After the act started, the light became much lighter, brighter and whiter to help the audience see the performance better. The lighting at the beginning of act I acts similar to sunlight and peeks in through the window above the door. The lighting at the beginning of act II is used to simulate the outdoors. White light comes from behind the lattice, blue light comes from the image of the sky and clouds and green light illuminates the stage from above to simulate grass on the floor. The lighting at the beginning of act III is used almost exactly as it was in act I except light is also shown through the windows on the left and right