The Verge: A Play In Three Acts by Susan Glaspell

The Verge: A Play In Three Acts Reviews

• 
  Brooke

  WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED
• 
  Martiu

  mucha planta
• 
  Keith Moser

  Doing a staged reading of
  The Verge this week, and so read this with the cast in preparation.
  
  What a strange play—moreso after seeing it was written in the 20s! I was in another play of
  Susan Glaspell's in college—
  Trifles—however, I have no recollection of that story at all. I wish I remembered more about it to compare these two Glaspell works, but all I remember about that play was being the detective (I think) and writing a bunch of nonsense in my notebook every night while on stage.
  
  The Verge is all about Claire, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She spends most of her time in the greenhouse, building new—not better, just different—plants. One winter, with guests in their house, she diverts the heat to the greenhouse, much to the dismay of her husband, Harry. Since the greenhouse is the only place with heat, Harry invites their friends—Dick & Tom—to eat breakfast there instead of the house. Claire's daughter from her first husband, Elizabeth, and her sister, Adelaide, both visit, as does a doctor of the nerves, Dr. Emmons, while it comes out that Claire has possibly slept with Tom, Dick, and Harry and it all devolves into a crazy climax with death and destroyed flowers.
  
  Maybe I was too tired at our reading at 10am on a Saturday, but I just could not follow Claire's train of thought from one line to the next. Her speeches often went off on tangents unrelated to the scene, and her emotions flipped back and forth and back again. Perhaps on second reading later this week, with an audience, I'll get the play a little more, now that I know all the characters and some history, but on first reading, I wasn't quite sure I knew what I read...
• 
  Avital

  Claire is locked up in a greenhouse, trying to create a new type of plant, something new, but not necessarily better, only different from everything that already exists. In her obsession she tries to leave her daughter, husband, sister and lover outside, in the cold, so they won't disturb this new creation. Their attempts to bring her back to the familiar push her toward complete madness. Impressive, especially knowing it was written in the 1920's.
• 
  Thegirlintheafternoon

  I know this makes me a bad critic, but if I can't find something sympathetic in a main character, I honestly don't care about any other merits the work may have. I just don't. And so this play really didn't work for me, even though on paper it should have been a really great fit. I'm giving it three stars for being interesting and giving me a lot to think about, but I didn't enjoy it at all.
• 
  Aryn O'Connor

  Very interesting read on the subject of gender equality and female creativity. Also discusses the issues of social conventions, particularly those towards women in the 1920s. Little difficult to fully understand without reading commentary and analysis on it as well, but overall a rather powerful piece.
• 
  Frannie Cheska

  I know this is supposed to be amazing, but it was really confusing. Every time that Claire would break into prose, I never understood what she was really saying. Original af thats for sure.
• 
  Jane

  Interesting Victorian perspective with language difficult to follow and an ending disturbing and unbelievable given Glaspell’s characterizations.
• 
  Knight Of

  It was quite an interesting play.
• 
  Madeleine

  women in stem 👍
  male characters trying to control women 👎
• 
  Lily Magoon

  Absolutely loved it.
• 
  Anna

  Intelligent, creative, ahead of her times. I got every reference so naturally it blew my mind. Forever one of my favourites.