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Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The

"Absolutely fascinating... Imaginatively commanding."

Washington Post

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama

Produced around the country under the American Playwrights Theatre program, this drama opens with Thoreau in jail for refusing to pay taxes to a government conducting a war of aggression in Mexico, at midpoint shows Emerson visiting him, and ends on the moving release.

Scenes portray his return from Harvard where he idolized Emerson, his attempt to establish a transcendentalist school, his career as a handyman and tutor in Emerson's household, his romance and his friendship with an illiterate cellmate.

The end is a grotesque dream in which the characters take up guises in a mortal assault on Mexico.
REVIEWS:

"Absolutely fascinating... Imaginatively commanding."

 Washington Post

"Scene after scene moves you to laughter ot close to tears."

 Newsday

Characters

  • Casting: 11M, 5F
  • Casting Attributes: Room for Extras

  • WALDO - A man with size and charisma. Most important quality; humor. He is not a villain, but a deep-thinking, feeling human being. He was, indeed, like Thoreau himself 14 years before. He must have magic, so that he is almost Godlike on the lecture platform, a man Thoreau looks up to worshipfully. Age: 43.

  • LYDIAN - A handsome, patrician woman, with class and quality, and a mature beauty. So much of her role is beneath the surface of the play that it must be an intelligent enough actress to project the meaningful subtext. Candida-like, she inspires the worship of the younger man and the devotion of her husband.

  • MOTHER - Must be a good actress as she plays not merely the exasperation at having such a strange son, but the repressed sorrow of the funeral scene. As truthful a person as you can find... fifties or sixty.

  • HENRY - Young, unshaven, 29. We must believe he is constantly THINKING. The only time this role has not worked is when is is played by somebody who is TOO much of a weirdo -- he is NOT a nut. He is the sanest man in an insane world. WIT is his major quality, and a sensitivity which makes him hear faster and more clearly than anybody else, and his mind races ahead of the mind of the Universe!

  • JOHN 0 Two years older than Henry -- but a warm, outgoing human being. If this is the most handsome man in your company, it will be doubly effective when he dies -- as everybody in the audience should have warmed to him, mentally and physically. He MUST be able to laugh; great, warm, uninhibited laughter!

  • BAILEY - The common man. A true innocent -- he must be able to play suspicion at first, then warming. Must be capable of comedy timing, as he has some of the biggest laughs in the play. Late thirties or early forties. He is not stupid, but a blank slate, which Henry writes upon. Must be one of your best actors.

  • BALL - Can either be a fat man or a tall, thin one. Be sure he is not a caricature, however. By his own lights, his conduct is all logical and lawful. Fifty perhaps, but solid enough to make him a worthy (rather than a straw-man) antagonist.

  • ELLEN - If she is a breathtaking beauty, we are way ahead of the game -- for both brothers should fall in love with her at sight! She must be able to play a combination of innocence and intellectual curiosity. Early twenties.

  • SAM - This, too, must be an effective actor, this unwilling public servant. In his late forties or early fifties, he should be able to squirm, not be too bucolic. Your best character actor!

  • EDWARD - The shorter, the younger the better. Again, all innocent.

  • WILLIAMS - Late twenties or early thirties. Black, husky. Need not be a highly experienced actor; should have fresh, documentary truth.

  • TOWNSPEOPLE - A wide variety of types... enough young men to play soldiers.

    • Available Material

    Name Price
    Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, The Script This is optional. Order Now

    Produced around the country under the American Playwrights Theatre program, this drama opens with Thoreau in jail for refusing to pay taxes to a government conducting a war of aggression in Mexico, at midpoint shows Emerson visiting him, and ends on the moving release.

    Scenes portray his return from Harvard where he idolized Emerson, his attempt to establish a transcendentalist school, his career as a handyman and tutor in Emerson's household, his romance and his friendship with an illiterate cellmate.

    The end is a grotesque dream in which the characters take up guises in a mortal assault on Mexico.

    		$24.95

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