Posted: 4/4/16 at 2:18pm
My college did The Children's Hour my senior year (2013) and I found it very engaging and not dated at all. I remember thinking it was just as powerful and important as The Crucible. Then again, I might be remembering it better than it actually was, haha.
Posted: 4/4/16 at 2:22pm
Cast two movie stars in the female leads, and you'd have lines around the block for a limited run.
Posted: 4/4/16 at 3:50pm
I know we're used to hearing that homosexual panic and tragic queer characters are out of date. But perhaps it's time to seriously question that common wisdom as the truth is that we are currently inundated with homophobic bullying and consequential queer tragedy, including an epidemic of queer suicide, Many might say that The Children's Hour is at least as important and timely today as it was in 1934.
Besides which it's simply a great play. Even reworked as a movie in which queer panic and tragedy were replaced with straight panic and tragedy it was a success: These Three in 1936.
Posted: 4/4/16 at 5:06pm
PalJoey said: "That movie has always made me sleepy.
I loved the movie and wanted my bgf to enjoy it as well. It was showing in a theatre on Collins St Melbourne and her reply afterwards --'that was Death on Collins Street'.
Another fav.giggle moment--we went to see a modern dance and didn't know that the first 5 mins[a looong time] they danced without music---I turned to my friend and said 'I think I've just gone deaf'-we had to leave as we couldn't stop giggling---silly moments but thanks for making me remember them.
SL........x
"
Posted: 4/4/16 at 5:16pm
Scarywarhol said: "Had a man written it, it would have been revived six times by now.
"
Couldn't agree more.
Hellman remains tragically underappreciated and underperformed.
Posted: 4/4/16 at 5:42pm
I've never seen a live performance of The Children's Hour and would be most interested in seeing a well-cast version. One thing that struck me on reading it, though, was there seems to be a disconnect between the focus of third act and those of the two that preceded it. The first two acts concentrate on The Lie and its devastating effects on everyone involved; the third shifts gears, IMO, to the vagaries of Martha's sexuality. Neither are unworthy subject matters, but I sense that Ms. Hellman was taking on too much for the sake of a thoroughly cohesive play. As far as the comment that her plays are under-performed, The Little Foxes certainly has had its full share of revivals in our time; Watch on the Rhine may be too topical, but Another Part of the Forest and Toys in the Attic merit current revival.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 8:33am
I think that Hellman is less revived than Williams, O'Neill, or Miller simply because she is not as great a writer. Her plays are good commercial work, but they do not have the scale or insight as the works that are revived.
There are a number of playwrights who worked at the same level as Hellman who do not get anywhere near the attention today she does.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 9:04am
"Besides which it's simply a great play. Even reworked as a movie in which queer panic and tragedy were replaced with straight panic and tragedy it was a success: These Three in 1936."
Good point. Interestingly, "These Three" is more or less an intact film version of "The Children's Hour." The last time it was shown on TCM, Ben Manciewicz said that very little dialogue was changed to shift the scandal from Martha's being a lesbian to her having an affair with Joe.
astromiami, I am not sure that I agree with you. The Little Foxes, The Children's Hour and Watch on the Rhine are all very strong plays. Maybe not of the caliber of O'Neill, Williams and Miller, but their plays (and usually the same ones) are revived so often that surely one, say, Children's Hour per three Glass Menageries, Long Day's Journeys and Views From The Bridge would not be undeserved.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 10:58am
I saw a great production of The Children's Hour at the EgoPo Theatre in Philly last year. The final act, a slow burning melodrama, had the audience mesmerized.
The Arena Stage in Washington DC next season will be doing both The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 11:30am
One could argue Hellman is the most influential female playwright of the twentieth century.
Besides Raisin, how many plays by women get revived?
It took 86 years to get a revival of Treadwell's Machinal.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 11:35am
I like The Children's Hour a lot, and I agree that it still packs a punch, but as good as it is, I'd much rather see resources directed towards a new play about queer women. While queer people do have higher rates of suicide and that is something that needs to be talked about, I don't think this play is necessarily the ideal vehicle to do so. And to be perfectly honest, it would be more interesting to see a play about queer women that deals with some other topic, as the tragic lesbian is sort of a trope that has been done to death.
Posted: 4/5/16 at 11:43am
I would definitely agree that Hellman is a playwright whose work is worth revisiting and reviving- certainly more than the frequent revivals of Williams, Miller, et al (and especially the revivals of their obviously lesser works. Great playwrights don't always write great, or good, plays).
