The Children's Hour

On Friday, October 4^th I attended Elon University’s main stage production of “The Children’s Hour” written by Lillian Hellman and directed by Professor Kirby Wahl.  A work that first debuted in 1934, the play told the story of the fatal consequences of a string of lies initiated by an angry little girl fed up with the life at her all-girls boarding school.  Blaming her unhappiness on a mischievous accusation of a lesbian affair between her two female headmasters, the boarding school goes up in ruin, taking the relationships, livelihood, and futures of the teachers down with it.  Illegal on stage and off at the time, the mention of a lesbian affair, or any homosexual topics proved to be quite controversial.  Interestingly almost 80 years later, this topic is still in fiery debate.  With such a rich, and provocative plot line, there are a multitude of critical elements to maintain in modern productions like that of Elon’s in order to pay respect to Lillian Hellman’s original work. 

Unlike many other theatrical productions, Director Kirby Wahl chose to present this controversial material in a unique fashion, using narration to begin and end each act or scene.  The audience was given a serious presentation of the historical contexts and background behind the given material by an ensemble of schoolgirls.  The serious nature of the presentation allowed the narration to support the ensuing seriousness of the play, instead of distracting from the plot.  The schoolgirls were seen around the stage throughout the production watching the play with solemn, almost unchanging expressions, which focused the audience to the intended action on stage and served as a link between past and present.  The presentation of this play was unique and took a risk that seemed to support the audiences understanding of the important principals and morals that Lillian Hellman originally intended for this work.  It was informative and academic in structure, but just as emotionally enticing as the play itself without the narration.   The play did run very long due to the added narrations.  This aspect had an apparent effect on the audiences attention and interest, and if done again, would be a critical note to pay attention to. 

It was my opinion that the overall production of the play itself was successful.  The gravity of the controversy was very tangible throughout, and the actors who specifically played the characters of Mary Tilford, Amelia Tilford, Rosalie Wells, and Lily Mortar provided beyond excellent performances that portrayed raw emotion, truth, and strong objectives based in the historical contexts.  I felt that the two actors portraying the headmasters of the school, did not pull me as deeply into the story as the afore mentioned characters, however their performance was still extremely intriguing.  Touching on topics such as homosexuality, dishonesty, bullying, family responsibility, depression, and suicide, this work riveted audiences and in a sense, left them inspired to keep the reality onstage from ever happening in their own lives or their own world.  The production did not contain any personal bias, which also allowed the audience a vast freedom of thought on the controversial topics.  It told the story of human emotions and consequences, something that everyone could relate to even though the main themes may have been at the center of controversy.