The Little Foxes was written by Lillian Hellman in 1939. The play takes place in the South, where
Hellman grew up. It follows the Hubbards
family who continually fall victim to a greed that costs Regina Hubbard, the
main character, all but money in the end.
Through murder, blackmail and deceit she manages to push everyone in her
family away, obtaining money but ultimately losing everything. Lillian Hellman was said to have based the
family on her own extended relatives who she observed throughout her childhood. 
Through this play Hellman once again explores the idea of “good versus
evil characters” and pushes the definition of both. Each members of the Hubbards family appears
more venomous than the next one, so when they are blackmailed and lied to we have
a difficult time defining what we may call sympathy. The only true victim could be Horace, who
simply denies Regina investment money and then begins to have a heart attack
while Regina simply watches.The voice of reason heard at the end is Regina’s daughter, Alexandria. While reading the play, the young girl seems to be a catalyst for Hellman to speak to the reader. Alexandria explains the importance of not sitting idly by while watching evil occur. Hellman wrote this as a direct criticism of America at the time who was watching Hitler reign in Germany and failing to take action, like she thought we could. Like most of Hellman’s plays, she used a simpler plot to expose a much larger problem.
This sounds like a really interesting piece of theatre! You gave a nice description of it. I love the idea of using a specific situation to represent something bigger! I'll definitely be putting it on my reading list!
ReplyDeleteI was really interested to compare the Playbill photo above with the current marketing being used by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, who is producing Little Foxes this season.
ReplyDeletehttp://goo.gl/bLU4CW
This graphic was part of the initial marketing by the Goodman to accompany their season announcement. It very much resembles the Playbill photo above. There is definitely some malice in the actresses expression, but it is calm and calculated.
http://goo.gl/7RkxjU
This current image that is being used as for the show marketing depicts a much stronger sense of malice from the actress. This image definitely wants to communicate the darkness of the production.
This play sounds very interesting! I like the idea of a playwright exploring a complex topic in an easy to understand plot. I also love the idea of her looking at the questionable definition of evil. I am currently in a Constitutional Law class where we concluded that there are competing interests on every side of an argument, and each person can seem correct. This reminds me of that since one character may seem evil, but another is worse and yet even this does not deter the audience from feeling compelled to not sympathize with the "less bad" character.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to put this play into a modern setting, like Wall Street, to see what happens, since the concept of greed and money being more important than anything is still very much alive in our society today.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to put this play into a modern setting, like Wall Street, to see what happens, since the concept of greed and money being more important than anything is still very much alive in our society today.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think of characters who are used as a catalyst for the author to speak to the reader? I researched Athol Fugard who talks about staying away from authors using their characters like that. I wonder what kind of debate they'd have if you were able to put them in a room together? :)
ReplyDeleteI think characters like that can add a really interesting level to the play that can really be useful to the reader!