In her production of Arden of Faversham, Polly Findlay modernizes the tale of the adulterous, murderous wife, placing it into a farcical society focused on class division and consumerism. A factory serves as the background for this adaptation, creating a stark contrast between the members of the upper class and the workers within the factory. Findlay incorporates elements and images of commodification from this factory setting into the murder scene of Arden of Faversham, objectifying and belittling this human life. Findlay condemns the people’s lack of regard towards Arden’s death by adding a song performed by the lower-class members who witness all that occurs. Findlay adapts the epilogue of the play in order to demonstrate the sobering reality behind this tale. Polly Findlay’s adaptation of Arden of Faversham highlights the industrialization of society, incorporating elements of commodification into the death of Arden and the aftermath of this murder in order to condemn society for belittling human life.
Findlay incorporates images of mass production into the scene of Arden’s death, turning him into a commodity and emphasizing the little regard the other’s give towards his personhood. Before her play even begins, Findlay riddles the stage with boxes that feature the logo of Arden’s factory and his wife’s face. These boxes return in the scene when Arden dies, becoming a makeshift coffin for his body. Alice and Susan roll Arden’s dead body into one of these product boxes and use one of the factory’s pulleys to raise his body into the air. Within this scene, Findlay uses the company’s packaging and mechanical system to turn Arden into one of its products. While the audience feels a sense of uneasiness watching Arden’s body suspended in mid air, many of the characters ignore its presence. Colin Anthony Brown, who plays Bradshaw, humorously demonstrated the people’s ignorance toward Arden’s death. While Arden remained suspended, he swayed to the music and laughed with a glass of champagne in hand. Other characters, such as Mosby and Alice also demonstrated this carelessness toward Arden, neither look up at his body, rather they focus more at each other and have a lustful touchiness throughout the scenes surrounding his death. For example, once the two think Arden dies they begin to fervently make out with one another.
The only two characters that appear in tune with the atrocity of the murder of Arden within the murder scene, Franklin and Susan, also demonstrate the lack of regard for Arden with their ridiculousness in response to his death. When
Franklin declares, “I like not this; I pray God all be well. -/I’ll seek him out and find him if I can” (xiv.310-311). Geoffrey Freshwater moves parallel to the hanging Arden and looks all around, but never at the large suspended box directly next to him. He also delivers these lines rather slowly paced and monotone in comparison to his usual voice, making it sound as though he did not feel a sense of urgency within the situation. Even though his character cares for Arden deeply, the downplaying of his concern and the irony with his positioning on stage demonstrate how even those who seem to care do not with the fervor that they should. Although Susan has an emotional response to Arden’s death her character demonstrates the focus on industry rather than personhood, again showing that the characters do not value life as greatly as they should. After Susan fails to clean the blood after Arden’s death, Elspeth Brodie silently enters the stage with a bag of packing paper. Once again, Findlay incorporates elements from the first scene in order to turn Arden into an object rather than a person and muddle the importance of his murder. Brodie’s clown-like makeup along with her silent pantomime like actions add a comedic element to this scene, as she silently enters with a frazzled look, crazy makeup, and begins to throw the packaging paper from other boxes over his blood. Her role in the scene makes the actual murder of Arden less prominent in comparison to her craziness.
In addition to these ways, Findlay also shifts the focus to industry through the music choice within the scene. Instead of a serious tune, the same elevator music from the first scene of the production plays throughout this scene. Also, after opening night Findlay adds a moment where Mosby puts down a bottle and glass to capture blood dripping from the box with Arden’s body. In this moment the characters once again package Arden and cover up the human part of death with industry in the same way as the box and packing paper. Overall, the elements of mass production within the scene with Arden’s death tied with the characters’ lack of real concern for his personhood demonstrates the industrialization of society and its destruction of the importance of human life.
After the murder of Arden occurs, Findlay adds a haunting scene, in which the factory workers stand overlooking the stage and one sings, before the plot continues. On the opening night of the production, Findlay only used one of the women workers and had her stand on the platform on the right of the stage alone. On the second night Findlay brought all of the workers on stage positioned on the platform directly above the center of the stage. The high pitch and slow tempo of the song, paired with a dim lighting, gave the scene a troubling feeling. Findlay purposely added this scene to the play for that purpose. While the written text progresses from the murder scene to the discovery of the murder, Findlay allows this solemn moment of introspection. It allows for the reality of the crime to set in with the audience, demonstrating the little care that the characters gave to the murder up unto this point. Using the workers once again incorporates elements of industrialization and class divide into this moment within the play. Their positioning demonstrates the judgment tied to the terrible acts of Alice and the others. Throughout the scene each of the workers looked down upon her from their higher position, demonstrating the terribleness of the act.
Lastly, Findlay’s adaption of the epilogue creates a sobering atmosphere for the audience, revealing the true story behind Arden of Faversham and condemning society for its belittlement of human life. In the written text of Arden Franklin delivers the epilogue. In this performance the character that plays Alice says the epilogue. Additionally, Findlay separates the actress who plays Alice from her character to show the real life connection within this play, and serve as a warning to society. At the start of the epilogue Sharon Small, who plays Alice, sits in a chair amongst all of the other parties involved in the murder of Arden. Just before she begins to speak all of the lights in the theater come on and the music stops. She takes off each of her shoes and wipes the snow off of the sole as she begins to speak. This allows the audience to separate the actress from the character, demonstrating the connection of the play to real life. Findlay also adds to the epilogue to make this same connection. In Arden of Faversham Franklin begins by describing what happens to Blackwill and Shakebag. He then decrees, “But this above the rest is to be noted” and discusses how Arden’s body remained lying on the ground for so long that his imprint in the grass lasted for two years. Sharon Small begins the same way and finishes the same way, but she mentions the specific date that the real Alice faced her death sentence. Small also discusses Arden’s body, as the actor remains in the position he lies in from the death scene directly in front of her. By mentioning what happened to the real people that had a part in these events and highlighting the difference between the actors and characters, all while physically depicting the actions in the epilogue, Findlay portrays to the audience the gravity within the humorous play. The dark tone that she creates through this scene condemns people for ignoring the importance of life because of industrial purposes, leaving the audience with a dark warning within this comical portrayal.
In her production of Arden of Faversham Polly Findlay highlights the industrial desires within the play through a factory setting and by “commodifying” Arden during his death. She then adds in a haunting scene of condemnation, further emphasizing the class divide and the business focus of society. Lastly, she highlights the real world story and part to this play, condemning the people within the play and warning audience members.