“The Yellow Wallpaper”

Huss Center Production Coordinator, Eric Severson, alongside assistant director Akie Kutsanai, brought Jennifer Blackmer’s adaptation of Charlotte Perkin Gilman’s short story to life from the onset. The first thing audience members saw were seven large panels spanning across the stage of what initially appeared to be simple wallpaper, with variations of the top of a bird cage adorning the top of each rectangular frame as well as a simple old-fashioned bed. As the main character Jane (senior Annika Brelsford) entered the stage, an actor appeared behind each of the frames, which became transparent with a change in lighting. These performers included a nun named (junior Parisa Ghavami), Queen Elizabeth (junior Maggie Fields), Gloria (senior Sevy Hayes), a survivor of sexual assualt, and 21st century women Seniz (junior Alison Mitchell), Betty (junior Rachel Swenson), Ellen (ninth grader Madeline Kim) and Gloria (senior Sevy Hayes).

John (senior Davyd Barchuk) and Jane perfectly captured the power imbalance and brokenness of the two characters’ marriage. John, a physician, restricts Jane to bed rest due to her postpartum depression and insists she not write. Helen (junior Mimi Huelster) represented Jane’s inner conflict over whether or not she should disobey her husband and write. Helene constantly tells Jane that writing is the only way to get better, but Jane resists. A turning point occurs when Helene dramatically cuts off Jane’s corset, setting her free from the confines of society and marriage. Following this event, Jane begins to listen to the voices and movements coming from the women behind the wallpaper and starts writing again.

Severson beautifully expressed the themes of the importance of self-expression, the flaws of the “resting cure”, and the subordination of women in marriages evident in Gilman’s original work. Severson’s use of mesh in each of the panels was the perfect way to make the audience understand what was going on in Jane’s mind. From thinking one could see movements in the wallpaper to thinking one is hearing voices in their head, the audience was fully transported into the mind of Jane.