Overtones

Alice Gerstenberg's Overtones is an understandably confusing play if one was just observing it without the script to follow along. Even with it, it's hard to completely understand this play. Who sees who, who hears what, and how they do it can baffle the mind a bit. But hopefully I believe I understand the rules of this world. The rules are that the primitive selves are able to see, hear, and possibly touch their cultured selves, or otherwise their “trained” selves, while the cultured selves can only respond to their primitive selves. In all of the scenes, none of the trained selves ever initiated contact with their other selves.  In the first part of the play, where it’s just Harriet and Hetty, Hetty was able to start the conversation with Harriet while looking at her and even intimidating her, while Harriet is unable to see her primitive self. She is only able to speak to her. Also, the trained selves cannot hear or see another person’s primitive self. Harriet is not able to hear Maggie, nor is Margaret able to hear Hetty. The primitive self hears the other’s cultured self, but does not respond to directly to them, but directs their attention to the other’s primitive self. Primitive selves are able to hear other trained selves, only able to directly respond to other primitive selves and their own trained selves. Primitive selves, like Hetty and Maggie, are able to, according to the play, are able to not only see and hear, but they are actually able to touch each other. They can hold a terse conversation with each other without their trained selves, which is apparent in the text and they get into a physical altercation at the close of the play. I think that hopefully that audience will see this in the way all of the characters interact (or not interact) with each other.  

As for as if there are any rules broken, going by the assumption that what the playwright wrote is law, and was done on purpose, no rules could have been broken. Gerstenberg, whether intentionally or accidentally, allowed the primitive selves to communicate freely among themselves and to physical attack each other, then that is now permanently a part of the play and is a part of the world that play exists in.