Emily Lawless Professor Julian Theatre 3 April 2017 Tallgrass Gothic Critique The production Tallgrass Gothic, directed by Melanie Marnich, takes its name from the Gothic novel popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, a fictional romance tale characterized by an atmosphere of mystery and horror. In this production, theater students of The University of California State-Fullerton put on an extremely successful show, demonstrating the issues of lust, desire, boredom, sexuality, loneliness, marriage, and religion set in the middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma. At the center of the story is Laura, whose need to leave her small, rural home and controlling husband is sparked when she falls in love with a man who offers her escape and a future. The costumes, …show more content…
Not one character wore any color other than neutral which was a key contribution to the gothic idea. The color of everything on set was symbolic and correlated with the gothic atmosphere was well. The costumes were a great representation of what the lifestyle was like in the town. The most symbolic of all was Laura’s. She wore a floor length loose gown which she put on to cover her sins, yet still accentuated her womanly assets which most men in the town knew her for. When she committed her acts of adultery, or was abused by her husband, she was seen in a still dark colored risque sleep set. Her costume was an important factor for her character because she didn’t want people to see her as an adulteress even though she committed multiple scandalous acts continuously throughout the production. Even when she downright wished death upon another being, she simply put her dress back on to hide from being haunted by her terrors and played the victim. Overall the cast and crew did a great job of keeping the audience on their toes. Each character contributed to the scandalous acts of one another. The ghost like sound effects, the lighting, scene changes, costumes, characters, all worked so perfectly together to make the production believable. The audience gets a glimpse of what love, lust, desire, boredom, sexuality, loneliness, marriage, and religion all look like tied in together with a gothic twist. 10/10 recommend! Especially if you’re looking for a run for your