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University of Oshava
Selected Chapters in American Literature, Fall 7997
Prof. Tom Connolly

Some 20th Century American Dramatists And Their Important Plays

Eugene o,Neíll (188&1953). His short play ,,A lVife for a LtÍe,,is copyrighted in 1913.
Other important early plays by O'Neill: "The \Neb," a one-act melodrama about a
tuberculosis-stricken prostitute and her baby. This is probably the first play O'Neill
wrote. "Before Breakfast," and "Ile." The most significant one-act plays that he wrote
are the,,Glencairn cycle,, oÍ sea plays that involve the sailors of the tramp steamer the
,,GlencaiÍn.,,
Here o,Neill draws on his ou/n experiences as a sailor. The plays:
,,Bound East for Cardiff,,(19t6),,,The Long Voyage ÍIome''
$%.n,,The Moon of the
Caribbees (1918),urrd "In the Zone" (1919). Simple in plot, these .ue evocative mood-
pieces completely different from other America plays of this time.

First production of a play by O'Neill is "Bound East for Cardiff" z9I.tty 1%.6at the
Provincetown Playhouse on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Susan Glaspell (L882-1943) is another playwright whose works were presented by the
Provincetown Players. Her one-actplay "suppressed Desires" (1915)makes fun of the
Freudian craze that swept America , "TrifLes" (1916)is a tense one-act play whose
subtle ferninism makes it an outstandiog moderníst variation on the conventional
murder mystery play. TIrc Verge (1921)a play that departed from realism and dealt
with a woman artist,s search for aesthetic and personal ťruthsand in particular
Alisott,s House (1930)'a drama inspired by Emily Dickinson's life, demonsťratethe
range of Glaspell's talent.

In 1920 O'Neill's Beyond tlrc Horizon is produced on Broadway and wins the Pulitzer
Prize. (He will win four more.) O,Neíll is recognized as the leading American
dramatist. This play is about the struggle of two brothers, one an artistic dreamer who
longs to go to sea, the other a practical farmer. Both love the same \ roman. This
causes the dreamer to stay on the farm and marry the woman and the other brother to
leave and go to sea. The result is disaster for all.

Other O'Neill plays of the 1920s: TIrcEntperor lones (1920't,the first American play to
have a leading role of a black man actually played by u black actor. This
expressionistic drama details the downfall of the self-proclaimed emperor of a
Caribbean island. Atma Chistie (1921\,a full-length play about the sea's psychological
pou/er. The title character is a reformed prostifute who finds love with a rough, but
tender sailor and understanding from her fmshated barge captain father. TIrc Hairy
Ape Ggn), O'Neill's finest expressionistic play, is a drama of "Yank" the brutal stoker
who desperately attempts to find out where he "belongs"-where he "fits in." This is a
recu:ring theme in O'Neill. Desire Under tlrc Ebns (1924)is O'Neill's successful
adaptation of ťwo Greek tragic themes, the Hippolytus and Medea myths, to a New
England farm setting. T\rc Great God Broutrt (1926\is an experimental play using
masks to depict split-personality. Marco Millions (1928) is a satire of American
businessmen using the legendary figure of lvÍarcoPolo. Sttnnge Interlude (7928\is the
huge saga of Nina Leeds and "her three men." This play is the ultimate statement of
psycho-sexual drama of its time. The protagonist, Nina Leeds, is an archetypal
Ý.yoman,and in this Play o,Neill revives the conventions of the soliloquy and the
 aside to reveat the thoughts
of his characters. Even though
long, with a break fo, the play is seven hours
ďnn".,-ii.i; g,"", success.
"
In 1932 o'Neill again presented
Greek tragedy adapted to
Mouning Beco*t Electta.Jhis a New Engrand setting with
,,The pluyi. a i.ilo$yl;Ho*ecoming, ,, ,,The'unted,,
Haunted,') based on Aschyio,1 and
Civil War and concenls oresteia..i*.,ut"s place in the
two genárations of the ďtermath of the
townspeople serves as Mannon family. A group of
a choi',. ea.,tt"ry, *.rrJ".
first Ptay just as in the and matricide take us through
Gre"k o.i$i;i. I; irr" ri.J two ptays hagic the
applica-tions curse is played out
;a:.xlj::1""1í:y orp"y.r,oro8.y. ThePlayis ultimately

o'Neill's only comedy

Ah, wildenrcss! (1933)is
playwright,s own yo.,th. a bittersweet recouection of
That is to say it is a play about the
boyish romance that o'Neill the sort of fámily .ife and
wislretlhe couldiur" had.
of |uJy during the "good- The play takes place on a 4th
atyr; oi'rtr" turn of the century.
the ideal Ameritu" iu*{r "H The Miller family seems
io 'pit" J.oo Richard who
and reads dangerous authors spouts revorutionary rhetoric
* iur"., and wita". The plot
of love running none too "r.h deals with the course
smoothty. Richard i, alrrrost
truelove and atmost seeks separated forever from his
solace in tne a-rmsof a "tart."
is right with the world' Nevertheless by pray,s end alr
The pruy i, ,,ot q.,ite the sunny
it appears to be though' valentine to days gone by that
Atcohoiic uncle sid faitr-to
."form, leaving the long
:Í'n::*T--'ťL'"T::*m*#:|í:::l*'"T#"-."*speech-m-aking
Elmer Rice (7s92-7962)wrote
Tlrc Arlditrg Macltine (1923)one
expressionísticdramas. of the best American
It is about the destruction -pt.
keeper oupl".l in bourgeois |r ZeÍo,,,afaceless book-
society. Rice's other important
(7929)a realistic marital"murd"t plays arestreet scene
dtuma that had u fu*o..s tenement
Laus (1931)another realistic set. cowtseror-at-
pl1y, i;#pping, u."uil,t"ssry-paced
|ewish attorney struggling against drama about a
the-anti-semitism and snobbery
of his colleagues.
Marwell Anderson (1888-1:'5?
\ďas 8re1tl1.espected in the
successfuT play' written 792bsand ].930s. His first
with Lu.rt"rr'-."statting, *u, pice
was an intensely realistic w, nt Glory? $g24). This
l4/orld War I drama íno,"
thrilted Broadway audiences' Co.[se language shocked and
Anderson, s important plays were verse dramas.
He is the only pruyt*igiirr T::t
flenc* irr" 20th .".iro.y to consistentry
plays. Elizabeth t|rc write such
Queá, (ig30)i" uuo..t the of
lovďhate relationship with -strugďes Queen Elizabeth I and her
the Earl of Essex.-Yo,y
struggle beťweenMary,Queen of Scotlantl (1933)dramaťized the
of Scots and Elizut"tí r. It contains
and */as a great favoriíe *itt' two great roles
American actresses. Wit erset
sacco and vanzetti case' This (1935)was inspired by the
is Anderson's-best play. Less
\ďere TIrcMasque of Kings (7%n successful verse dramas
*hiJ *a, based o,. th" Habsburg
Rudolf and the cro\ďn prince
{a-rerliig ttag"dy and Key Largo(1939)
who has refurned disiluJioned a play about an American
fiom the španišn či.,it War believing
worth dying for. Anders"".: final that no cause is
ptuy n," Bad Seerl (7g54)Ý1/as not in verse and was
an uncharacteristic "thrillsl" about
a *rtd".ous child. It was his greatest
success. popular

George s' Kaufman (1s89-1%1'),

was a great comic playwright. He
famous Algonquin Round Tabíe was one of the
wits, ig,o.,p orrgzo, New York
City writers who
 3
gathered at the Hotel Algonquin
each day to dine and crack jokes. some
known American humorists were of the best_
membárs of the Algonquin Round Table-so
because of the large round table called
at which they gathered. Kaďman wrote
collaborators throughout his ca.reer. with
rn1924he and fellow Algonquinite
connelly (18s1980) wrote a satirical Marc
erpressionist farce Beggar on Horseback.
connelly'sThe GreenPa!ryes, rn7g29
a play dramatizing God and the Bible
imagined by Southern blacks based as
i""á pá.rormed by;; all-black cast) Ý1/asproduced
Broadway and became one of on
the most popular ptuy, in American
hist ory.
Kaufman's finest plays \^/ere
written with Moss Hart (79í}.-1961).
once in a Lifetime (1930)' It Their first play was
was one of the first and remains the
Hollywood satire' You can't best theatrical
Take It witlr yort(1936) is a farce about
unconventional extendel an
It gently, but cogently criticizes conventional
American attifudes. The Ma,f"*:lt.
vvt,o cZme to Dinn^ů(7%b) is a brilliarrt
satire based on the ctrreerof and ouhageous
Kaufman's Algonq.,io .o.otade, the
radio personality'Alexander American critic and
woollcoft. Many celebrities are caricatured
comedy that dissects both the in this
American worship of celebrities and
culfural pretensions. midďe class

Ben Hecht (189&1964)and Charles

MacArthur (1gg5-1956) wrote Tlrc Frorft pnge(1g2g)
a sharp satire of American
politics and romance. It is one of the few
American comedies that is i"lTulism,
totally free of sentimentality. It
aspect of American respectability. makes fun of almost every
while some of its slang is dated and
epithets are offensive, it is still it some of its
one of the greatest American comedies.

Philip Barry (18%-1949)is the only

successful American playwright of
Pnris Bound (192n is a remarkably high comedy.
detached comedf uuo.rt a pair of newlyweds
decide to divorce so they .ly live who
happily ever ďter. Hotictay (7928),Barry,s
play is a play about the conÍlict finest
betweá,, pu.,onal fulfillment-and
others. The ambigui7 oÍ the resPonsibilify to
characters and the interesting development
depiďed in the of the family
Play among its outstanding feafures . TIrcÁnintal látrydont
Play about a love triangle ittut vi*"ally condones (7932)is a
Philadelphia story (1939)is a perfectly its characters, actions. TIrc
polished high comedy about a divorced
who are stilI in love. The man couple
prevents her ,".o.,ď,,,arriage in the
nick of time.
Lillian Hellman (190!1984).:,,o1"
many plays that \^/ere acclaimed duríng her lifetime,
but only two of her dramas that
have r'árá the stage. ThrcChilrlretťs
gtippit'g drama about two teachers Hour(1934) is a
accused of leJbianism by one of their sfudents,
wicked little g;fuI'Hellman's most a
acclaimed play Thc Little Foxes(1939)
cornrpt southern family's financial is about a
and personal struggles. Hellman u/as
unrepentant stalinist whose later an
writinis were that she claimed were
autobiographical' but h/ere in reality
littie more than self-glorifying fabrications
built herself .'.p.,utthe expense of that
otirers. Her contem author
Mccarthy said "every word that Hellman PotaÍy,the Mary
says is a lie and that include s ,,a,,and ,,the.,,
Hellman attempted to sue Mccarthy
for libel Luckilf for Hellman, McCarthy
went died
to trial;u llge numberof p"oprewereready
;:"1*l;i:,i*lse ro resriry

clifford odets (790G1g63)was the

most highly respected "politically committed,,
playwright of his day. His one-act
labor play,?Vaitin gÍorLefty,, (1935)
taxi-driver's strike' odets'best dramati zeda
play is Aitske arul sing(193s)a grim
drama about a
 4

fewish-American family t yirrg to sunive during the Depression. Odets' tirneliness

\^/asheld up in opposition to O'Neill's seeming lack of political activism. Nonetheless
by the end of the decade Odets settled in Hollywood as a screenwriter. This inspired
his latter-day play TIrc Big Knife (1949).

Robert E. Sherwood (189e1955)moved from the wisecracks of the Algonquin Round

Table to writing plays of social consciousness. His three best plays are Tlrc Petrified
Forest (1935)Idiot's Delight(1936) and Abe Lincoln in lllinols(L938) . Tlrc Petrified Forest
is drama that depicts the disďfection of Lost Generation aesthete in conflict with the
harsh reality of the Great Depression. The play is set in roadside eatery where a
gangster makes his last stand. Sherwood effectively dramatizes the romanticism of
one female character in contrast with the failed writer and the desperado. This play is
an influential one; many American plays since TlrcPetrifbdForest have been set in
low-class eating and drinking places where a variety of people have gathered, usually
one or more of them is at a furning point. Idiot,s Delight is a strange PaciÍist satire
that concludes as Europe plunges into Ýťar.Abe Lincoln in lllinois depicts the very
beginning of Lincoln's caÍeer.

Thornton Wilder (7897-1975)wrote a series of short experimental plays that flout

conventions of space and time. "The Long Christmas Dinner" (L931)which takes
place at one family,s table over the course oVer several generations. His full.lengÍh
play Tlrc Skin of Our Teeth (1942\takes one family through virtually all of human
history. Wilder's masterpiece OurTowtt (1938)is performed somewhere in the world
every single night. It is a play about the fictional town of Grover's Corners/ New
Hampshire. It is performed without any set. It is introduced by the "Stage Manager,"
a device Wilder borrowed from haditional Chinese theahe. The action takes place
early in the 2fth cenfury and focuses on two families. The thiÍd aď is set in the town
burial ground where the dead listen in on the conversations of the living. The dead
heroine cries out: "o Earth you're too beautiful for anyone to eveÍrealize you!,,
during an interlude when she is allowed to revisit her 16th birthday. The play is
loaded with gentle observations and seems to be sentimental, but is also underscored
with a detachment that somewhat mitigates its wistfulness. Unfortunately almost ďl
productions of the play emphasize its softer side.

William Saroyan had a vogrre that lasted into the earlyl940s, and wrote a few
interesting plays. My Henrt,s in tlrc Hig| ands (7939)and TIrcThtrc oÍYourLife (1939)
both question conventional modes of behavior. The first play concerns a struggling
poet, his level-headed son and their encounter with a dying old man who plays the
ťrumpet and claims to be a retired actor born ,,the Scotch highlands,'-thereby
revealing that he is in fact ttoÚ Scottish. For a moment it seems as ií this wanderer may
succeed in transforming the people around him and lead them to hanscendence, but
the play ends ambiguously. The second play takes place in a waterfront bar populated
by collection of misfits and dreamers. The characters have their o\^/nmoral code and
"
reject the demands of socie io order to protect their ou/n fragile world within the bar
room. "In the time of your life, Live!" is Saroyan's call to action. Even though
Saroyan's characters are life-affirming, he is not a simple-minded optimistic. The
harsher realities of liÍe and.its frustrations are depicted by Saroyan as well its joys.
 Anerican Theatrc since 1945
2 streans in Anerican drana: 1/ Political thinking rcprcsented
bv Arthur Miller. Line in the tradition of Shaw and lbscn'
27 Psvchological apbroach . rcpresenteťl by Tcnncsscc
Wir1iáms. Líne of Chckhov anil Strínťlbcrg.
- l{il.Iians and Miller arc in nany ways oppositcs to caach
other.
Miller: North, intellect, rational forccsr socitil , male
charec ters
liliIlňans : South, 9ensCS l irrational ťorccS l pets onal ,
fenale characters
They have nuch in comrnon both dranatrists had sinilar
p J r š o n a I . ' . p e r i e n c g ( t h e y . s t a r t e d t h e i r c a r e e r i n 1 9 4 5)
ánd both eibressed the aiienation of modern man in their
plays .
Tennessec Williams ( 1g1r-1983)
d
o ee
c c ll i ln
n ec o I f tL h
o I ] 'c
e J Uo
S ll u t
U Ihl ,1 tl ,h e d
IlE u qe
g c Cqa y t a
J Eg' -d c l 4l i Á
s9t ov c\ ,r\ ,a^ tqs v \ , '
inner world of charaěters , cr is is oť. pers o!31iQ '
study of pe5s9+a1 .T9tio*::'.:-e-* and íts reťlection

osc Tattoo

et BÍrd of tout
T h e F r o s t e d G L a s s e off in
The only novel of 9f Mrs. St*one
Arthur MillcT ( 1915) urrites nodern@oFdínarť. P9 9PI" .
Principal thene - responsibility o r i r r e s p o n s i b i lity
of p e o p l e
-All Mv Sons
Death of a Salcsman
Tne utuc]'Dlc
ffithe Bridsc
Áfter the Fall

@shop's Ceiline
Other tilrxfr
L!tlieq-ě41*g! irgorl - s iiour '
,-T\re Children g_Eour.
r lYatc h on the Hhlns
--'nr]-

-
Thcatre s iEáTion:
I ) Broadway theatres c o n n e r c i a l t h e a t r e s r I n u si c a l s r -
s oap operas r light p lays; concentrated lietween 41 Street
and 52 Strcct.
z) oti-Ďroaťlway theatrcs - norc e:rperinental thcatrcs
Thc.y havc piofcssional Ůharactcr
:l ortloir.Ěrbadway theatrcs . cIosc to oťf.BroadY"y -
ttrcatres-in-tirJir
-- Jpirit. Thcy arc not Srrofcssional'
Edward Albec
--;Úé""á. (ígzá) r-prescntative of Anérican thoat1c oť thc
Hi ilinsrcs thc clcnents of thc thcatrc of thc
absurd *íirr rcári.sn. Social criticisn in hís plays.
Thc Zoo Story
Thc-SanCbex
Thc Ancrlcan JJrcaB
inia Woolf?
the
'YTillian
Inse
Jack Gelber [1932) Tha Connection - a play about drug-addicts
-
@ ( 1 9 3 7) wrltes sat].fcs.
 0h Dad. Poor Dad. Msna's Huns You in the Closet and I'B
ffi
Ť'h-;TŤÍETTEorcs canc out to Plgy Tennis
San Shcpard (f943)
C owbovs
Ťr:EcTst
t patr'c@
Bo,!s;n iill' 38"
;#3:t*: :"33.ií^ln3'"
sýnbolizeě by J.$. Ecnnedy, M. ilrlonroe rtc. Atnosbheré
óíirippics, F1ow6r-Power Móvlncnt' of off-oťť-Broadway
thcatres . . .

ffi*':ffi
Black dranatists:

ffirhe@
EďBulIins, - - T h - eE 1 c c t r o n l c Nlggqr
ffios
-
ffi-qffi{te+ _plrays, each
covertng rffividual decade.-The rnain idea searching
for idcntitY -
Livins Thcatrl'- avant-igarde theat:c introducing-nqf -s-tgging'
new experiřents. Founders - Ju1iaďB9ck' "1y:.'o!
.I.udith Mg1ína
Total theatre - close contact with Ůhc audience.
Against conventions, confornity, cstablishnent'
oíten on travcIs - in France, italy...
Fsnous pcrfornanccs, 4g9-i8g!' El4@9.!9i4. Gelber s
Connection
t;
0'fk4' r-r-c,rvrC 9

israel Hnrovilz
í\|
.lat i4 Ha yae..t
i
, : - 'lu
: { ) r t r - . , 7 " : . t- ) i t r l t | , / ' r ' r , - i .i*3 ,/rtrii r i ( {v
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