A Visit to Overtones
by Gerstenburg
A Cory Vincent Column
When I first landed, as Fuchs would say, on the planet of Overtones, many things were clear. Many more were unclear. The play sets up a clear physical representation of both Harriet and Margaret as their true selves. In this world true selves can speak to their bodies and sometimes, it seems, directly at one another. Yet while they do this, their bodies have no idea their inner selves are conversing. It is also clear that the inner selves can fight for control, and if a feeling grows strong enough, can inhabit the body. We are not shown this, but merely told of a past event, where Harriet’s inner self, Hettie, fell in love and began a love affair all of her own accord, which was eventually stopped by Harriet. A closer, reading, however, may prove to show that these “twin selves” are shown physically separate because they are. Such a simple statement requires elaboration.
The final moments of the play reveal the key to the entire world’s set-up. When the two women physically touch (being horribly careful until now not to do so), their subconscious selves pour their most secret desires at one another, and can be heard. So in this world a single touch can reveal everything about you. However, the moment there are no more secrets, and both women are on the same page as their inner selves, Hettie and Maggie are gone. It seems then, that in this world, a separate self may manifest if a person is untrue to themselves or to others, remedied only by the expunging of such truth. Only when there is something to hide does a vessel exist in which to hide it.
A Cory Vincent Column
When I first landed, as Fuchs would say, on the planet of Overtones, many things were clear. Many more were unclear. The play sets up a clear physical representation of both Harriet and Margaret as their true selves. In this world true selves can speak to their bodies and sometimes, it seems, directly at one another. Yet while they do this, their bodies have no idea their inner selves are conversing. It is also clear that the inner selves can fight for control, and if a feeling grows strong enough, can inhabit the body. We are not shown this, but merely told of a past event, where Harriet’s inner self, Hettie, fell in love and began a love affair all of her own accord, which was eventually stopped by Harriet. A closer, reading, however, may prove to show that these “twin selves” are shown physically separate because they are. Such a simple statement requires elaboration.
The final moments of the play reveal the key to the entire world’s set-up. When the two women physically touch (being horribly careful until now not to do so), their subconscious selves pour their most secret desires at one another, and can be heard. So in this world a single touch can reveal everything about you. However, the moment there are no more secrets, and both women are on the same page as their inner selves, Hettie and Maggie are gone. It seems then, that in this world, a separate self may manifest if a person is untrue to themselves or to others, remedied only by the expunging of such truth. Only when there is something to hide does a vessel exist in which to hide it.
This set of laws may answer why Hettie and Maggie can
occasionally hear each other, and respond as such. When Margaret and Harriet are
at their closest with their inner selves: perfectly in alignment and following
all their advice, the veil between their true selves seems to grow thin, and
contact can be made. This is the most true representation of the phrase “seeing
through” somebody. In a staging, it would be important to physically show that
as the women are sucked into the strategems of their inner selves, their inner
selves should take more notice of each other and feed off that energy. Then,
when the women finally touch, they become a single, whole being, and the inner
selves are gone.
