Four Plays: Come Back Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Black Cat Books)

Midwesterner William Inge was one of the most celebrated playwrights of his day. No one would have blinked to hear his name mentioned alongside Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. Today he is not much thought of, except for the four popular movies spawned by the four plays in this anthology... Inge may or may not be "world class," but he shouldn't go ignored. He dealt with the "little people," common Midwesterners and how they lived. Inge was superb at slowly revealing the subtext of their lives--the situations and mishaps that had got them to the point where a pivotal decision had to be made and there were only one or two options to consider. "Come Back, Little Sheba" is the first play, and the one the movie industry left almost untouched. With today's hindsight it becomes easier to understand Lola's depression in the context of Doc's incipient alcoholism, and the fact that they feel stuck with each other in a joyless middle age. As with Shakespeare, Inge would have made a terrific psychotherapist. "Picnic" is a Freudian's dream. Inge tells a realistic story of a twentyish beauty from the wrong side of the tracks who feels trapped into marrying one of the town gentry until a sexy drifter hits town. At the same time, without compromising realism, the subtext screams with repressed sexuality. Pay attention in particular to the three schoolteachers and how they talk about the statue in the high school. Cinematically, Rosalind Russell made the best of this meaty part. When the play was "opened up" into a movie, it gained realism with excellent cinematography and outdoor settings, but lost much of the hothouse atmosphere that is quintessentially Inge. "Bus Stop" is the most optimistic of these four plays. It concerns a likeable but socially and sexually naive young cowboy from Montana who falls head over heels in love (and lust) with a young woman trying to make a living singing in a seedy bar/nightclub. How this young bronco gets busted is interesting to watch--it's kind of an anti-screwball comedy although it ends well. Again, Inge relates his characters through dialog and you couldn't ask for a more colorful slice of Fifties Americana than this busload of strangers stuck for the night in a rundown diner/bus stop. The movie was a fine vehicle for Marilyn Monroe but except for a few scenes, doesn't follow the stage play... Re: "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs": Without giving too much of the plot away, this play concerns a character that unfortunately has become too much of a stock figure in American fiction: the father who is too busy making money to take much interest in his children. This father, specifically, is a traveling salesman, and despite his wife's insistence on maintaining all the 1920s proprieties, the children become uncomfortably aware why Dad is out on the road more than is strictly necessary. Inge turned the pace down on this one to match the children's slower pace of recognition that the ideal moral world they had been i

The plays of William Inge depict the character of a very specific place: Southeast Kansas. The longing-for-elsewhere among the inhabitants of that part of Kansas is crafted into all of Inge's stories. Inge's gift is his awareness of that yearning and how it effects Kansans' daily lives. His writing makes it compelling and universally poignant.

Mr. Inge, in "Bus Stop," has crafted a tale of first love and cynicism that we can all relate to. People jaded by life, people wanting something more, people content with their lot... it's all here.The other classics contained in this volume are also well worth your time to read.

William Inge certainly has been overshadowed by his contemporaries Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller and yet he was certainly their equal in many ways. Williams, a close personal friend to Inge who suggested he enter the playwrighting profession, even said that Inge was his favorite. And although his work does lack the dense poetic symbolism of the aforementioned playwrights, Inge grounds his characters in true spare dialouge and often heartbreaking simplicity that deceptively hides complex characters. Proving to be easy stagable and ultimately actable, Inge's dialouge develops out of carefully drawn characters enacting direct and clear objectives. All the plays represented here also feature opportunities(especially "Bus Stop" and "Picnic")for strong ensemble work. Having both directed and acted in several productions of Inge's scripts, I can say from experience that Inge's language connects easily and brilliantly to the actor. Inge managed to make art that is thouroughly accessible while being most personal. His plays all occur in Kansas and the midwest and yet they are about all of us. Granted this collection would be more complete with his Academy Award Winning script for "Splendor in the Grass", but as it stands, this is a great collection from a great playwright who deserves respect as one of America's finest dramatists. Five out of five stars.

This was the best book in the world. It has 4 different plays. One of which is absolutely wonderful:PICNIC.