About
the Play:
The Seven Deadly Sins is a collection of one-act plays by
Thornton Wilder. The play cycle in this volume is made up of seven
one-act plays, each exploring one of the cardinal sins in Christian
teachings. The Seven Deadly Sins depicts the complexity and consequences of human frailty.
The plays in The Seven Deadly Sins vary widely in content and tone, ranging from realism to
postmodernism and feature such characters as classical Greek gods, St.
Francis of Assisi, and even a duo of con artists.
The Drunken Sisters (represents
Gluttony):
Apollo challenges The Three Fates to a life-and-death battle of wits,
but despite their taste for liquor, the sisters win the wager. Recommended for scene study. (Cast:
3 female, 1 male)
Bernice (represents Pride): A convicted financial
felon returns from prison and finds counsel in the guise of a
murderer-turned-housekeeper. Set in Chicago in 1911. George Walbeck, a thoroughly hated man who cheated hundreds of people out of their money, suddenly returns home from Joliet prison when his sentence is reduced after serving eight years. He is greeted by two people: his lawyer Mr Mallison, who informs him that Walbeck's wife has fled to California, taking his daughter with her, and a new maid, Bernice, the self-proclaimed "best cook in Chicago," recently hired by Mallison to keep the home going. Bernice, it turns out, served time for murder, and the advice she gives Walbeck on how to deal with his future allows Wilder to explore the nature of pride. Decisions have to be made quickly when Walbeck learns that his daughter is still in Chicago and coming by to see him at any moment. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)
The Wreck on the 5:25 (represents Sloth): Herb Hawkins, a little guy accountant, breaks the habits of a lifetime by phoning his wife and telling her he'll take a later train back home from the city. This news sets his wife and daughter on edge, a condition heightened when a neighbor informs them that an unidentified man is hiding in the shadows of their front lawn, staring in at them. Who could it be? The police arrive to arrest the supposed prowler, only to find Herb, quietly observing his family through the windows of his own home. It seems that earlier that day, he received word of a surprise inheritance, left to him by a kind, lonely elderly woman. This sudden gift of a large sum of money prompts Herb to question the meaning and purpose of his own hum-drum family life. He returns to his place in the family with touches of humor, irony and despair. (Cast: 1 female, 2 male)
A Ringing of Doorbells (represents Envy) A ringing
of doorbells. A mother-daughter team of con-artists target a
wheelchair-bound widow who, wise to their game, concocts a cunning
scheme of her own. (Cast: 4 female)
In Shakespeare and the Bible (represents Wrath) A
former madam confronts her former client and soon-to-be
nephew-in-law, knowing the match may be threatened by his dangerous
temper. (Cast: 3 female, 1 male)
Someone From Assisi (represents Lust) A friar with a
lurid past seeks forgiveness from his former lover. (Cast: 3 female, 1
male)
Cement Hands (represents Avarice) A lively scheme to
expose the greedy behaviour of her fiancée holds a young woman's
future – and afternoon tea – in the balance.(Cast: 1 female, 3
male)
What people say:
"Twinkly yet gently
unsettling. Wilder's sage, perpetually intrigued view is wry and
cockeyed." — The Washington Post
"Men may brood disruptively in
Wilder's universe but there are also always women whose profound,
commonsensical spirit of acceptance keeps the human race on its
track." — The New York Times
About the Playwright:
Thornton Wilder (1897 to 1975) was an acclaimed American
novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between
the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue
to be read and produced around the world. He also enjoyed enormous
success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among
them teaching, acting, the opera, and cinema. A three time Pulitzer
Prize winner and the only winner for both fiction and drama, his many
honours include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the
National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.