About the Play:

Danger: Memory! contains two one-act dramas by Arthur Miller. Distinct but with a thematic connection, these plays may be performed separately or as an evening of entertainment. I Can't Remember Anything is a play about two old people who once lived a life of diverse passions but now, like it or not, have only each other. In the second, Clara, a father confronts his guilt about his daughter's murder. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

The first play, I Can't Remember Anything, is a gentle, poignant study of two old friends, an elderly man and woman, who live in nearby houses and often take their meals together. She is a wealthy widow whose life seems to have come to a stop after her husband's death; he is a retired draftsman, a doctrinaire Communist who was her husband's best friend despite the radical differences in life styles and political outlook. Both lament the passing of better days, the lack of contact with loved ones, and the loss of memory that clouds the meaningfulness of the time left to them. (Cast: 1 woman, 1 man)

The second play, Clara, is a powerful and moving drama in which an aging father is forced to come to grips with the crushing reality of his daughter's senseless murder. Grilled relentlessly by a dispassionate detective, the father is unable to bring his memory into focus until, in the trenchant monologue recalling a disquieting incident from his wartime experience, the past suddenly clarifies the present and, relieving the father's tortured conscience, unlocks the damning evidence the detective has been seeking. (Cast: 1 woman, 3 men)

I Can't Remember Anything and Clara were first produced to critical and popular acclaim in 1987 at New York's Lincoln Center Theater as two halves of a double-bill titled Danger: Memory! While the plays are rarely performed professionally, both are an ideal choice for high school drama contests and one-act festivals.

What people say:

"…two brilliant new one-act plays by Arthur Miller … his ironically compassionate awareness touches all our lives." — Hollywood Reporter

"Arthur Miller is the American Ibsen." — Time Magazine

"Arthur Miller's admirable voice of conscience remains firm as always." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) is considered one of the great American playwrights. During the Depression, finances were scarce and he paid for his college tuition by working as a shipping clerk in a New York factory. He later wrote his first plays in college. With a career that spanned over 50 years, he wrote more than thirty plays that transformed American Theatre and proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the times. His probing dramas received many awards in his lifetime, including two Emmy awards and three Tony Awards for his plays, a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949, for Death of a Salesman.