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The Hasty Heart
The Hasty Heart
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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
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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
Patrick – one
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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