Performance Treatment - the Skin of Our Teeth

Performance Treatment- the Skin of Our Teeth

The Skin of Our Teeth Treatment

        On October 16th I went to the Krannert Center to watch my The Skin of Our Teeth. This was not my first time watching a theatrical play. Back in high school, there were many theatre productions performed by my fellow classmates. Even though they were not professionals, they were just students, their performance, was respectfully professional. I had always enjoyed watch the theatre production in my high school. Therefore, I was very thrilled to be watching a play performed by professional actors.

        The Skin of Our Teeth is performed with presentational acting. The definition of presentational acting is when the actors on the stage using any form of language, gesture or attitude to acknowledge the existence of the audiences. Throughout this play, there were many examples when the actors revealed this type of acting. In the beginning of the play, when Sabina was in her monologue, there was time when someone in the back stage, whom I assume was the director or playmaker, was directly talking to Sabina. I think this is an example of presentational acting because when the director was talking directly to Sabina, this action reminded me that I am an audience of a play while I was so into the play that I thought I was a part of the play. Moreover, later in the scene, Sabina talked directly to the audience that she forgot her line. Again, I think when she talked directly to the audience, she acknowledged that us, the audience was separated from the play. I think the use of presentational acting made the play more interesting as we as audiences did not expect the actors to communicate directly to the audience.

        As for the central conflict of this play, it would be surround with Mr. Antrobus. Throughout the play, the character Mr. Antrobus experience several transformations. Mr. Antrobus is a character that serves as leader of the world. His responsibility is to lead all species in the world through all difficulties such as Ice Age, severe storms, end of the world, and disasters. At first, he was able to kept his mind on his responsibility. However, as the play developed, he began to deviate from the trail and became side tracked. Mr. Antrobus started to have arguments in his family. Moreover, he had become obsessed with Sabina. From the audience’s perspective, it was clear that Mr. Antrobus wanted to leave his family and go on his life with Sabina. At the end, however, Mr. Antrobus came to realization of his responsibilities and got back on track. He was able to lead his people through disasters that would have ended the world.