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| Dramaturgy: A Critical Analysis of the Play This is for you, Anna |
by Miranda Hyndman
The play entitled This is for You, Anna is based on the true story of Marianne Bachmeier, a young mother who goes into a courtroom and kills the man who killed her daughter, Anna. While this is the basis for the play, little is said about Klaus Grabowski, the man who strangled Anna, or about her murder. Similarly, little is said about the murder of Klaus Grabowski. Instead the play seems to focus on Marianne's own life, thoughts, and memories. Four actors, who change roles continuously, play this performance piece. There are always four people on stage, and quite often, they are all playing the role of Marianne. Three of the actors play six roles each, and one plays seven roles. There are eight 'stories' or scenes, including a prologue.
The Prologue, The Story of Marianne Bachmeier (both the first and second), and The Jury Scene are all scenes that have all the 'Mariannes' in them. In the play the characters are named, M1, M2, M3, and M4. Although their roles change, the four are always on the stage together.
It would be difficult to create profiles for these characters, because in theory, they are all one character. However, the actress who plays the role of Marianne 2 also plays the roles of the Accordionist, Arabella, Maria, Victim 2, and Woman 4. All these roles tend to have the same kind of personalities. Marianne 2 seems like a frustrated young mother, often apologizing and telling stories. Arabella is soft and looks for the good in people. Both Maria and Victim 2 appear to be naïve and idealistic. On the other hand, Marianne 3, who is also the Narrator, Allegra, Eena, the Interviewer, and Woman 1, tends to be louder and more hot-blooded. All personalities of the characters played by one particular actor seem to be close in nature.
Because all the Mariannes are technically just one Marianne, and because we are introduced to them first, all the other characters who are on stage together give the impression that they too, are one character. When reading of the Mariannes, we get four different perspectives from the same woman. When I was reading the scene with Amaranta, Allegra, Arabella, and Alicia, I did not feel that they were all the same person, but I did feel that they were all Mariannes. I feel that this is strongly tied in with the fact that all the characters played by one actor are very similar in nature. In this way the characters are developed nicely. The play would be much more difficult to follow if the characters were all very different from one another. In addition, the author creates a helpful effect by creating four roles for one person. There is a scene in the movie Smoke Signals where, just after Victor's father leaves his family, his mother comments that she feels like she is in pieces; that her head's in the kitchen, her body's in the bathroom, and her feet are in the bedroom. When faced with an unbelievable situation, this is exactly how I feel, like I am in pieces. I think that having four Mariannes really emphasizes the wide variety of emotions we experience when we are in so much pain.
The play opens with the four Mariannes in the Prologue. By opening with the four of them, we get a feeling from the start that this is about a woman and the different feelings she has about the recent events in her life. During the scene, The Story of Agate, a mother is telling her daughter a story. I think the daughter is Marianne as a child, and the story her mother is telling her is not an appropriate story for a child. It is about a woman named Agate whose eyes were burned out by a man. Marianne (the child) takes over the story and ends it by telling of how Agate sought revenge on the man who had harmed her. Marianne inherits her mother's inappropriate methods of story telling, as we see when she tells stories to her own daughter, Anna.
When we enter the first Story of Marianne Bachmeier scene, we learn a little of Marianne's life while growing up. Her life was not pleasant. Her father was an alcoholic and she was moved to a home for children. She was raped twice and pregnant by the age of seventeen, a pregnancy that she tried to terminate herself. Marianne also talks about leaving her father's house to live with her boyfriend Herman. Later in the scene, she and Anna sneak out of Ralph's house in the middle of the night. We also discover that she has a boyfriend named Chris. The reader gains a strong understanding of Marianne's many relationships with men. We also read three different Mariannes having three different, one-sided conversations with Anna. An understanding of her difficulties of being a young, single mother come into perspective here. At one point, M2 angrily states: "Ok, Anna, you want a story, I'll give you a story. Once upon a time a little girl was born and she made her mother miserable" (CTR Anthology, 1993, p. 257). Marianne feels guilty for having said this, as we see in her reflection on page 275, but we can also tell from her conversations with Anna, that although she is frustrated, she is trying. Her conversations with Anna vary quickly, from angry to sweet. In a gesture of kindness, Marianne tells Anna she will tell her a nice story, yet the story she tells is one of rape, blackmail, loss of virtue, and suicide. Again it is a story of a woman destroyed by a man. The next story Anna hears is a sad story that is symbolically about Marianne and a relationship she had with a man: "But then the prince fell under an evil spell and turned into a wild beast. The princess lost her appetite and locked herself in her room. She could hear him growling and snarling outside her door. She was trapped inside forever and she cried day after day after day..." (p. 265).
The author uses this statement to introduce the reader to the subject of domestic violence. When the three friends Eena, Maria, and Jenny sit and talk with Marianne 1, they discuss the physical and emotional abuse they have each suffered at the hands of their husbands/boyfriends. There is a dark sort of satire here, mixed in with the women's justifications for staying in their relationships. There is a clear sense of helplessness in this scene, coupled with the apparent deterioration of these women, especially at the end of the scene, when the women emit a sense of acceptance in regards to their situations.
This deterioration continues into the scene entitled How to be a Victim. I had thought, from the title of the scene that it would be about an event of victimization. Instead it is a seemingly disoriented scene that incorporates the behaviors caused by trauma. I felt another person controlled all the Victims in this scene, like when Victim 1 is giving instructions to Victim 2 on how to pose and when to smile. Once the Interviewer was pelting the Victims with questions, I felt as if the Victims had no reprieve in their lives. This feeling was further enhanced when the Interviewer began ordering the Victims to dance. The Interviewer is volatile, and soon the Victims destroy a picture, as a means to placate the Interviewer. However, the Interviewer disapproves and the Victims apologize "profusely" (p. 273), and hurry to clean up the stage. They are trying to please the Interviewer by doing and responding in a manner that they think the Interviewer will approve of. I truly felt these women were victims, identity-less and waiting for guidance.
The themes of this play revolve around the difficulties women have with men: abuse, rape, child rearing, helplessness, and revenge. The themes and the characters work together wonderfully. The author uses the characters to develop the theme and uses the theme to further develop the characters.
This play was greatly developed by three areas: the actions, props, and dialogue. The jerky movements and poses of the characters brought more meaning to the dialogue, such as the slamming of the fridge door, and the putting on and removal of the sunglasses. The characters turned their backs on each other and to the audience, releasing a sense of anger and isolation. The way the actors clap and move their heads in unison show, in my opinion, how many of our actions when under duress, are simply robotic reflexes. The props were also a very powerful tool in this play. For example, the accordion playing faster and faster helps build the scene up to a climax. Action is propelled when the Narrator drops seven nails onto the cloth, representing seven bullets. Similarly, the use of the slide projector, used to take mug shots, reminded me that Marianne is considered a criminal for having killed Klaus Grabowski. It is so hard to pinpoint what made this play such a strong one. In my eyes it is a culmination of the dialogue, characters, theme, actions, and props. Although the play was a powerful read, I think it would be much more invigorating to watch.
I do not feel that there was one main action in this play. I did however, feel that the two lines that really summarized the play for me, were the last two lines spoken. "I did it for you, Anna" (p. 281). To me, this statement is an apology for not being there for Anna, for not being able to save her. This statement is coupled with the guilty feelings that perhaps she was not a good mother. This statement is an apology. Marianne avenged her daughter in the way that nobody avenged her. She said she wanted the world to know, because Anna deserved that much. Anna was accused of flirting with Klaus Grabowski. Anna's virtue was being threatened, just as Lucretia's virtue had been. I think Marianne felt she had a duty to protect Anna's honor.
The line, "I only wish I hadn't done this myself" (p. 281), really has two meanings for me. When someone does a great injustice to us, we want the world to know, and we want to world to help us. Many people sympathized and sent letters of support to Marianne, but no one did anything. When something horrific happens to a child in our society, especially a child who is close to us, we expect a sort of "vigilante justice" that never seems to happen. I can understand how Marianne could have wanted someone else, or a group of people standing behind her, waiting to kill Klaus Grabowski too.
To me, "I only wish I hadn't done this myself" also means that while there were many characters on stage, representing the many different personas and views of Marianne, she was really just one woman. It seems as if all those characters in the play understood, but the truth is, she is the only one who truly knew how it felt to lose a child, and to kill her child's killer. She was the only one on stage.