About the Play:

The Subject Was Roses has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Female/Male Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.

The Subject Was Roses is a full-length drama by Frank D. Gilroy. This American classic has a cast of only three characters, all members of the Cleary family: mother Nettie, father John and son Timmy, who returns home from World War II to find himself in the middle of another war. His parents are mired in unresolved marital issues and each wants to enlist him as an ally in their battle against the other. The Subject Was Roses is a quietly devastating comedy drama of family conflict and love.

The Subject Was Roses is a searing family drama about a young man who sees his troubled parents through fresh eyes. It is the Bronx, 1946. Twenty-one-year-old Timmy Cleary returns from World War II to the middle-class apartment where he grew up… and to his estranged parents, John and Nettie. As their reunion promises a return to life as it never was, old wounds are opened. Husband and wife squabble. Timmy has outgrown his possessive mother's doting ways. John, a salesman, gives up a lucrative business opportunity to attend a ball game with his son. To keep the peace between the parents, Timmy impulsively buys a bouquet of roses for his mother and insists that his father take credit for the gift. John grudgingly returns with roses for Nettie in an insincere attempt at reconciliation. When the lie is revealed, old resentments rise to the surface. Reminiscing, the three attempt to recapture the past and all it symbolizes, but the ideal is shattered amidst recriminations. Finally, Timmy must make a fateful decision that will impact the destinies of all three strangers' lives. The next morning Timmy announces he is leaving once again, and husband and wife must face the reality of life with only their memories. The Subject Was Roses remains relevant; war has not gone out of fashion, and neither has family dysfunction.

The Subject Was Roses premiered in 1964 on Broadway at The Royale Theatre in New York City. It opened at season's end with no stars, a tiny budget and a tinier advance sale but built an audience that led to a two year run, playing five different Broadway theatres. A major critical and commercial success, a young Martin Sheen rose to stardom after playing the son in the production that won the theatre's triple crown – a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony and a Drama Critics' Circle Award. Revived in New York and around the US many times, the play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 2 male

What people say:

"With simplicity, humor and integrity [Gilroy] has looked into the hearts of three decent people and discovered, by letting them discover, the feelings that divide and join them." — The New York Times

"One of the best-written plays of all those which have been honored with a Tony." — EU Jacksonville

"Gilroy's script is such meaty material, so well-constructed and so inexpensive to produce." — Florida Theatre on Stage

About the Playwright:

Frank D. Gilroy (1925-2015) was a playwright, novelist, television writer, screenwriter, director, and independent filmmaker. The Bronx native attended Dartmouth and the Yale Drama School after serving in the army, and contributed profusely as a writer to the golden age of television and film for years. His awards include a Pulitzer Prize (for The Subject Was Roses), an Obie (for Who'll Save the Plowboy?), and a Silver Bear (for Desperate Characters) from the Berlin Film Festival.