Caryl Churchill's Beautiful Eyes is a short play about a family divided by politics. It was first performed in the week of Donald Trump's inauguration as US President, as part of Top Trumps at Theatre503, London, on 19 January 2017. In one brief scene, a mother tries to come to terms with her son’s decision to marry someone who voted for Trump, while the younger sister makes the point that ‘Most people in the world don’t even care’ (Churchill).
Preliminary Sketches/Ideas:
Because this play centrals around politics, and specifically the three sides of politics: for, against, and neutral, I wanted the costumes to be undefinable and neutral. I thought about who is right and wrong in these kind of circumstances and who dictates who is right and wrong; we are entitled to our own opinions whether or not they are agreeable by others. Thus, the costumes in this case should not define their characters, rather they should appear universal so the audience can focus on each political opinion and formulate their own understanding.
I also wanted to completely erase and conceal the identity of each character and by doing so, I introduced masks as part of the equation. These masks are designed to appear emotionless and again, neutral. My initial thoughts were to think of the three characters as entities representing the three oppositions in politics (pictured below).
I envisioned the narrative to take place at home, either in the kitchen or living room, where the characters are in day-to-day modern and comfortable attire, around evening time. Ensured that they are in home attire, and the silhouette reflects that; socks, loose and patterned clothing for the Mom who is middle-aged, and tighter, more expressive patterns, jeans and flannel, for the Son and Sister whom reflects a younger or different generation. A dominating white color palette reiterates my ideas of meaningless so it does not define or restrict the opinions of the characters in any way.
As you can tell, each character also has a spotlight as part of the design, this is not a scenography design choice but rather an artistic choice to highlight the illustration and story. Each spotlight is representative of their character's personality, for instance, the Mother appears more stubborn and rigid (thus rigid, straight spotlight) in the conversation compared to her Son who is convincing, moving, and more open (non-rigid line). The Sister on the other hand, has nothing because of her lack of opinion, she is portrayed to be pretty open with any opinion and careless when it comes to political oppositions. She is also, the only character who has colors outside of white as per her costume design; the pink bubblegum and blue music player is a choice to incorporate both the red of the Mother and the blue of the Son as a means to show she resembles/is in favor of all opinions.
The background colors also play a similar role like the spotlights. Red is chosen as it ignites more authoritative behavior, more anger and frustration, while blue is a cooler color for the Son who is in a lesser position of power and more docile in nature. And finally white, a color with no definitions, for Sister's openness and indifference.
Churchill offers no descriptive attributes and characteristics for the three characters; the choice of illustrating them as African-Americans is due to the racial and ethic bias faced by black Americans in the US system. Through Mother's dialogue, the tensions between her and Son, and Sister's lack of attention, I thought it was more appropriate for the cast to have experienced systemic racism to its peak in a country they are citizens of rather than another minority where race relations are a problem but not the biggest problem alive.
Works Cited
Churchill, Caryl. "Beautiful Eyes." Caryl Churchill Plays: Five. London: Nick Hern Books, 2019. 217–221. Drama Online. Web. 5 Dec. 2023. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781784605506.00000016>.
Furthur Resources:
Jernigan, Daniel. “Traps, Softcops, Blue Heart, and This Is a Chair: Tracking Epistemological Upheaval in Caryl Churchill’s Shorter Plays.” Modern Drama, vol. 47, no. 1, 2004, pp. 21–43, https://doi.org/10.3138/md.47.1.21. Pdf
Kenton, Tristram. “From Top Girls to The
Skriker: the best of Caryl Churchill – in pictures” The Guardian. Sept. 16, 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/stage/gallery/2020/sep/16/from-top-girls-to-theskriker-the-best-of-caryl-churchill-in-pictures-tristram-kenton
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