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Between the Lines: The Play’s the Thing
By Lee Ann Alexander
February 21, 2005
As happenstance would have it, I saluted Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in last month’s column. This month the literary community and the world at large lost the renowned author at the age of 89. As the media reminded us of all the legendary playwright’s celebrated works, I paused to remember my discovery of Miller, and I couldn’t help but think of all the theatrical gems we’ve been afforded by twentieth-century playwrights. In celebration of all these great works, I’ve postponed my planned topic this month in order to focus on plays and playwrights like Miller who’ve shaped literature in the last century.
Theater and literature have shared an interesting relationship. Historically, some of the earliest written works, now referred to as classics, were plays—comedies, tragedies, and satires. (What introductory literature course doesn’t include Plato’s Republic?) Though we most likely think of novels when we think of literature, plays have stayed with us and the theater remains an exciting forum for great literature.
Miller’s passing reminds me of a very special era in theater. In the twentieth century, great playwrights like Miller, Eugene O’Neill, and Tennessee Williams mirrored the same movements that we credit to Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, and all the other standout writers of American literature and established American theater. This column’s highlight of great twentieth-century playwrights is not exhaustive by any means; there were other great writers like Orson Welles, Saul Bellow, and so on. But for the sake of a concise tribute, here is a look at Miller, Williams, and O’Neill, who were recently labeled the “triumvirate of writers who redefined the parameters of the American stage.” 1
Arthur Miller
A New York native, Miller was born in 1915. His most famous work is Death of a Salesman, but he wrote well over a dozen plays and screenplays, a novel, and an autobiography. His marriage to Marilyn Monroe brings his public life into the center of attention, but it’s the genius of his work that truly is captivating.
While I’m saluting contributions to American theater, many observers have noted what a friend Miller was to British theater. However, it’s his conscience toward larger humanity that has made the biggest impact:
“[Miller] embodied and had written about so much of the experience of the 20th century—the Depression, the Holocaust, the McCarthy era, the Cold War—and was at once a survivor, a historian, an imaginative interpreter and a counselor. To some, he gave the appearance of being the self-conscious sage….”2
Eugene O’Neill
O’Neill’s work dates earlier than Miller and Williams, and he is considered America’s first major playwright. O’Neill won four Pulitzers and the esteemed Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936 for his body of work.
He was born into a theatrical family in 1888 and had tempestuous early years. Apparently he channeled all of his life’s experiences and passion into his writing. His most famous work, noted for its incredible passion and emotion reminiscent of the Greek classics, is Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Though reflective of the anguish and despair of a disillusioned generation, there is something powerful—if not beautiful—in its dark passages:
I have had the same experience. Became the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a rock, swaying in the tide. Like a saint’s vision of beatitude. Like the veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see—and seeing the secret, are the secret. 3
Tennessee Williams
Williams is considered a key figure in Southern literature but his works transcended regionalism and helped shape American theater along with Miller, who was born just three years later. Williams won two Pulitzers, and no one can catalog American theater without referencing A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Williams approached his art with a love and respect for the craft. In his production notes to The Glass Menagerie, he touches upon the purpose and the possibilities of theater, reflecting how he would help usher in a new vision for the theater:
Truth, life, or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance…. These remarks… have to do with a conception of a new, plastic theatre which must take the place of the exhausted theatre of realistic conventions if the theatre is to resume vitality as a part of our culture. 4
Clearly Williams’ vision helped usher in a revitalized theater, and now we have a literary heritage of great dramas influenced by the style and craftsmanship of Williams and his peers.
Bottom Line
While I’ve always thought of this column as a book review, I’m reminded this time that literature embraces more than just books. In this era of global media, we should be cognizant more than ever of the various art forms within the domain of literature.
For Fun
Reader Recommendations
Thanks to everyone who responded to the Da Vinci Code column in January. Along the lines of adventure/mystery novels, Caya Jappinen of Connecticut recommends the works of Helen MacInnes. I am embarrassed to say I was not familiar with these novels, but it turns out this writer was hugely popular and her works were received very favorably. These novels cover espionage and international politics from World War II through the Cold War. And happily for us, Caya points out, these books are largely free of inappropriate content.
Lagniappe
Check out the ProLiteracy Worldwide site fostering literacy for adults and their families.
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© 2005, Lee Ann Alexander
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Lee Ann Alexander is ninetyandnine.com’s book columnist. If you have suggestions on topics to explore, email her at Books@ninetyandnine.com.