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The Hasty Heart

The Hasty Heart
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
Author: John Patrick
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change)
Format: Softcover
# of Pages: 85
Pub. Date: 1945
Edition: Acting
ISBN-10: 0822205017
ISBN-13: 9780822205012
Cast Size: 1 female, 8 male

About the Play:

The Hasty Heart is a full-length comedy by John Patrick. A prideful Scottish soldier is wounded in Southeast Asia at the end of World War II and brought to a makeshift hospital with a group of recovering Allied soldiers – each from a different country. While they are friendly, he distrusts them, even after they and a nurse reveal to him the seriousness of his condition. Especially recommended for school and contest use.

The Hasty Heart tells of a wounded Scottish sergeant whose last few weeks of life, spent convalescing in a British MASH-like hospital in the jungle, are changed by the sympathetic treatment his fellow patients try to give him – and his stubborn rejection of this. The man's extreme independence of spirit nearly wrecks the good intentions of those who want to make him happy, but at last – particularly after he falls in love with the nurse – he learns the great lesson of love for his neighbour. The Hasty Heart is a world class story with genius comedy and extraordinary heart by John Patrickone of America's greatest playwrights.

The Hasty Heart premiered in 1945 on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre. The play grew out of the playwright's experiences as a medic with the British Ambulance Unit during World War II. It was revived on Broadway in 1984 and has long been a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 8 male

What people say:

"A fine, funny, strangely fascinating play. Tense, touching and tender." — New York Journal-American

"Few plays come as close to perfection as The Hasty Heart. It is one of the jewels of the season." — Brooklyn Eagle

"While other popular Broadway plays of the 1940's show their age, The Hasty Heart ... has mellowed into a period piece that continues to touch audiences with an archetypal story about friendship under fire. Drawn from the author's own experiences serving in an ambulance unit in World War II, The Hasty Heart is not about war but about people brought together in wartime. As the play follows its prescribed path to a well-made conclusion, the playwright avoids bathos and wins our sympathy for a motley but deeply humane family of friends." — The New York Times

About the Playwright:

John Patrick (1905-1995) was a prolific American playwright and screenwriter, writing more than a dozen screenplays and some 30 plays. He had several Broadway successes, most notably Teahouse of the August Moon (which was awarded a Pulitzer, a Tony and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award) and The Hasty Heart. His movie scripts are impressive with Three Coins in a Fountain, The Shoes of the Fisherman and The World of Suzie Wong as well as adaptations of the two plays mentioned above. His "Opal" series of plays remain popular with high schools and community theatres.

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