Kimball's Rape

Kimball's The Rape of Lucrece was divided into seven scenes with seven actors who delivered their lines to the sound of dripping bathwater, which created an acoustic effect echoing the opening scene. The Prologue lines, "How shines the morning silver-melting dew / Against the rising splendor of the sun" (Kimball n.p.), which note happiness as fleeting in nature in Shakespeare’s poem. As well, Lucrece’s rape and the establishment of the Roman republic are highlighted by the characters in the Prologue while using costumes and posture to show how Augusta (a man) and Maia (a woman), the Januses, and Silvia and Sabina would portray themselves.
In Kimball's adaptation, Lucrece discussed her emotions and psychological state of mind with those women
Just before the rape, Tarquin's gigantic shadow, appearing as a menacing spider ready to catch its innocent prey, is cast upon the veils surrounding Lucrece's bed. When the rape occurred, “a kaleidoscopic play of sinister blue rays of light suddenly ceased, leaving the stage in total darkness, broken with the blaring sounds of struggle, desperate shouts, and cries” (Kimball, n.p.).
Next, a blinding white light illuminated both the stage and the audience, showing Lucrece curled up on an empty bed, reflecting her suffering and surrounded by the scattered white veils, testifying to the brutality of Tarquin’s violence upon her body. In Kimball's adaptation (Scene 5), by contrast, the audience experienced Lucrece's trauma physically and verbally, as is typical for rape victims, the crying and sobbing Lucrece discarded her nightgown, bathed her soiled body, and dressed in new white clothes symbolizing her innocence, allowing the audience to see the soiled and badly bruised body of