Who Watches Whom?

[Priestess of Neptune]

Here's my entire fourth essay (it's only one page double-spaced, so I think it should be easily manageable). While I don't request feedback on these, I would appreciate thoughts and opinions, even if one doesn't have very many constructive things to say- anything that helps me to improve is worthwhile.

Prompt:

~Write a review of a play.

Requirements:

~NO MORE than one page, size 12 Times New Roman, double-spaced

~No sources required.

~Play must be of an adequate mental and reading level.  

[Priestess of Neptune]

Most plays are tailored for the audience to experience ‘fully’ the actions and dramas of those on-stage, but this is often done in a limited or hesitant manner. Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand questions the idea of including the audience as part of the play quite literally: audience members are volunteered to take part in the play, determining final proceedings. But, Rand does not conclude her exploration of a social norm with this; the main character never appears on-stage, and is revealed to the audience as dead within the first moments of Act One. Historically, this is also a play that defies what might be expected, in that “Night of January 16th” has never been performed, even though it was successfully performed on Broadway for six months. Ayn Rand’s original play, Penthouse Legend, had been signed with A. H. Woods, who changed the content, title, and meaning to Night of January 16th, which in Rand’s words was “not merely a mangled body, but worse: it was a mangled body with some of its torn limbs still showing a former beauty and underscoring the bloody mess. […] By the time the play opened on Broadway (in September of 1935) it was dead, as far as I was concerned. I could feel nothing for it except revulsion ad indignation.”

Each character within the play fulfills a very particular role, and is a member of one of two ‘sides’, from which the audience members must choose one or the other when deciding their verdict. Character motivations and personality are revealed through the progression of plot, namely the examination of witnesses during the trial, and ‘flashbacks’. This requisite attention to traits and ideals creates an experience that the audience participates in, in which they discover not only who the players are, but who they are themselves.