Style
While there are some depictions of unrealistic events, such as Loomis's "possession" and Bynum's stories about his shining man and inner song, style of Joe Turner is based in realism. In a relatively simple definition of realism, David Rush describes it as
"a style that attempts to depict life on stage as it is actually lived by the members of the audience. It shows us so-called everyday events happening to people like us who live in a world like ours and tells its story in a way that makes it appear logical and believable (191).
Joe Turner is exactly that, a linear story line with depictions of everyday life for the residents of the boardinghouse. While modern audiences can’t necessarily relate with all aspects of this culture, it is definitely plausible in the context of American history. Later Rush goes on to qualify realism by "three unities: time, place, and action (192)". Again this play follows this definition of realism in that it is linear plot, remains in the place- the boardinghouse in Pittsburgh- and effectively tells the story of the few people that live in this house.
In a review of the Ethel Barrymore staging of the play, Clive Barnes comments on the language, idiom, and mix of naturalism and symbolism are beautifully staged and the cast is excellent at depicting the realistic play and develop it a heartrending climax.
Read more about this topic: Joe Turner's Come And Gone
Famous quotes containing the word style:
“One who has given up any hope of winning a fight or has clearly lost it wants his style in fighting to be admired all the more.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“His style is eminently colloquial, and no wonder it is strange to meet with in a book. It is not literary or classical; it has not the music of poetry, nor the pomp of philosophy, but the rhythms and cadences of conversation endlessly repeated.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“On the first days, like a piece of music that one will later be mad about, but that one does not yet distinguish, that which I was to love so much in [Bergotte’s] style was not yet clear to me. I could not put down the novel that I was reading, but I thought that I was only interested in the subject, as in the first moments of love when one goes every day to see a woman at some gathering, or some pastime, by the amusements to which one believes to be attracted.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)