About the Play:

The Philadelphia Story has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Male Scenes.

The Philadelphia Story is a full-length comedy by Philip Barry. A wealthy socialite sees her second wedding disrupted by her ex-husband and a nosey reporter and photographer. The Philadelphia Story is a sharp-witted romantic comedy about Philadelphia high society, tabloid journalism, and class intolerance. It remains one of America's signature romantic comedies.

The Philadelphia Story is an intelligent, sophisticated, classic romantic comedy (part screwball) of love and marriage, human growth and class distinctions. Wedding bells are ringing for Tracy Lord, but her wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband and an attractive journalist. All the while, the tabloids threaten to ruin the Lord family name if Tracy isn't careful. Divorced from C.K. Dexter Haven, she is engaged to a successful young snob. A society weekly sends a reporter and female photographer to cover the wedding arrangements. Tracy finds herself attracted to the reporter Mike Connor, and following the pre-wedding bash, they take a moonlight swim and are then surprised by Dexter and the fiancé. So who will she choose – her nouveau riche fiancé, a charming reporter, or her persistent ex-husband? The following morning her intended smugly forgives her, enraging Tracy, who breaks off the engagement. Connor offers to marry her, but she turns him down and remarries Dexter, the real love of her life, after all.

The Philadelphia Story premiered on Broadway in 1939 at the Shubert Theatre in New York City and ran for a full year with more than 400 performances and a nationwide tour. Katharine Hepburn played the lead Tracy Lord and it was one of Philip Barry's biggest successes. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 9 male

What people say:

"Philip Barry has been one of the few writers in American theatre to tackle the comedy-of-manners form in which the goings-on of the upper classes take on a satiric view." — The New York Times

"Playwrights, as a rule, tend to stick up for the little guy and root for the underdog. But Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story may be the exception that proves it – a plea for the 1 per cent, dating from the end of the Depression.... The Philadelphia Story is an unusual American comedy insofar as it is witty rather than funny, sophisticated without being cynical and open-hearted without being sentimental. Its fast-paced dialogue sounds like something out of a screwball comedy, but it's more theatrical and textured." — The Globe and Mail

"What's really remarkable is that Barry's play is 75 years old and yet it seems as fresh, witty and delightfully naughty as anything we see from modern comic playwrights." — Calgary Sun

About the Playwright:

Philip Jerome Quinn Barry (1896-1949) was an American playwright best known for his plays Holiday and The Philadelphia Story, which were both made into films starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Generally considered America's finest creator of high comedy, his strange interplay of wit and despair gives his best works a dramatic tension and meaningfulness unique to American theatre.