In Alice Gerstenbergs “Overtones”, she presents two deceitful women, bothinsanely envious of the other, who meet one day over coffee. Two other actorsliving out their true feelings and being honest show the jealous, rude, buttruthful, side of each of the women.
The real women put on an act, saying ordoing nothing that they actually feel towards each other; they are entirelydishonest. The play illustrates how envy leads straight to hatred andunhappiness, which I believe to be the theme. How can you love yourself when youare longing to be someone else, wanted everything they have and hating them forit? The message I got from the play was that deep jealously has only negativeeffects and to be happy you must be your true self and true to yourself. Theplay made me see how silly it is when one puts on phony layers to impressanother. Because there were two different mindsets of the women, I would havetwo of everything, one on a lower stage and then a set just like it on a raisedstage.
The women hid their true feelings, so I would place the primitive ones onthe raised stage back from the audience, behind a layer of sheer material. Theraised stage can be thought of somewhat like a mind bubble. As everyone shows afake side of himself sometime, I want the audience to relate to the play and tosee themselves in somewhat of a similar situation. I want there to be knowntension between the real women, but I also want to create humor between thecounterparts as a relief of the tension between the two different women, using alot of sarcastic language and actions. I want the audience to leave feelingthankful for what they have.
