By Design If I were directing the playFences, I would change the idea of having the house to a more realistic approach. For example, the pension money that Troy receives for his brother’s disability would not be enough to purchase a house, so it is more realistic for Troy to instead, pay rent for an apartment. In addition, Rose would be asking her husband to repair the door to the apartment rather than the fence outside their house. This serves a better purpose because while also making the financial aspect more realistic, it still conveys the idea of Rose wanting to “keep her family in”. Furthermore, the time setting of the play would be during the 1970’s. Near the 1950’s is when the professional football color barrier was broken. This would be an ideal time for Troy to raise a son and not understand that times were changing since the 1950’s and sports were becoming more integrated with African Americans. An after-effect of the time change would be that racism does not have as much of an influence in society as it did before. This means that
