Katherine Mills

Season 6: This new season is well-written, well-acted, but the on-set props person for the vicarage has ignored some aspects, and this lack is distracting. First, the kitchen has nothing at all on the counters, giving the room no atmosphere and no sense of them having lived there for a number of years. Also, the kitchen curtains would be cotton and washable, and most likely the housekeeper would have made them. Second, in Episode 3, the Archdeacon comes to tea and he and the vicar talk over two tea cups and a plate of cookies. No napkins, spoons, no tray with the teapot, milk and sugar. Again, I find this distracting--my experience in theatre as designer/director tells me I am not the only one who noticed. I'll sign with my theatre name, Kate Irvine. (In my youth, I worked as assistant designer to British opera designer David Fielding.)

The historical information about an era indicates the challenges and opportunities for the people living at the time. However, to place them in that hIstorical context requires comparison to other events or customs of that era, not to our own. For example, a six day work week with only Sundays off was not uncommon for any worker, male or female, adult or child, in the early 19th century--even late into that century. One holiday per year, 4th of July, is harsh. Memorial Day and Thanksgiving Day were established in the 1860s, and the day off for Christmas, although it was not a celebration of gift giving until the mid-1800s. Withholding half the wages until the end of the year seems most likely to be a threat that if a person did not work the whole year, he or she would not get the remaining wages. The show has time constraints; however, its high standards require comments such as those above to indicate the degree of oppression more clearly than stated on the Episode regarding the ancestry of Sterling K. Brown. Katherine May Mills, Palo Alto, Ca.