Prompt 3--The Conduct of Life

The dramaturgical choices in The Conduct of Life that stand out to me tend to be the ones in the stage directions.  Fornes describes the rape scenes using the phrase “pushes his pelvis against her” many times, which has an unsettling effect on me, personally.  It makes the reader consider the biology of the situation, which makes it much more difficult to avoid the horrifying aspect of it all.   It makes me wonder if Fornes found the phrase “he rapes her” to be too unbearable, or perhaps too crass, but if this is the case, then it is at odds with the fact that she is writing a play where rape happens twice onstage.  In fact, this topic is actually a bit too disgusting for me to consider at the moment, so I am going to change the subject.

At the beginning of Scene 1, Orlando is doing jumping-jacks; Fornes describes it as “he continues doing jumping-jacks as long as the actor can endure it.”   From a production standpoint, this sounds terribly boring for anyone watching or working on the play—after all, how many jumping-jacks can a healthy man perform before he can no longer “endure it”? It does create an interesting effect on the character (actor, really) and the audience’s perception of him, though.  After all, the play is largely about Orlando’s physicality and aggression, and Fornes decides that the first thing the audience will see onstage is Orlando extensively working out.  From the actor’s perspective, he is guaranteed to be exhausted when his first monologue comes up, which accentuates the weariness and resolve in his words.  Orlando is so tired that he cannot bear it, but he still has the strong resolve of wanting to succeed, receive his promotion, and not be addicted to sex.  For that one scene, we might just believe him.