Music and Play Production

Eric Grimes

Sweetman

Intro to Theatre

October 7, 2013

Mill Fire: The Review

Mill Fire the play happened to be a really interesting play. At first, it was hard to figure out some of the elements, but it all came together in the end. From my perspective, the play did include all six of the main elements—plot, theme, character, language, diction, and spectacle. Throughout my essay, I will explain how the six elements played a huge part in the theatrical performance.

I will first start off by explaining the plot to Mill Fire. The play was set up into two acts. Act I included the exposition, rising action, and climax. The play starts off in the present, where Marlene, the wife of Champ, refuses to get dressed for her husband’s funeral. She keeps reminiscing from the past and wishing that he would return. Then the story takes us back to the past, where were introduced to the rest of the main cast. The next scene, were introduced to Sunny and Bo. Bo happens to be a sister to Marlene and a coworker to Champ. This scene shows Sunny being verbally abused and feeling abandoned by her husband, Bo, which causes her to drink excessively. The scene after that shows Champ going over to Sunny’s house on his way to work to keep her from leaving because she had been drinking. Later on, Champ arrives at work to be notified that he has to go down in the pit to work for the night. At the end of Act I, we find out the mill had caught on fire and that Champ had been injured. At the beginning of Act II, we find out that the Champ had been severely burned and that he was barely living. Champ later dies and Marlene blames her brother Bo for his death. She is also offered a settlement from the company that she refuses to take. In the end, Marlene ends up happy and not grieving so much over her dead husband. She forgives her brother and they continue their lives.

As the sequence of events continues, we see the characteristics of the actors unveil. There were a total of nine main...