About the Play:

Talley & Son has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues.

Talley & Son is a full-length drama by Lanford Wilson. Set in small town Missouri in 1944, the play follows the devious machinations, power struggles and crises of Calvin Talley, his son Eldon, grandsons and business partner, and the women in their lives. Richly textured, and suffused with humour and deeply affecting compassion, Talley & Son examines a family beset with strains from within and without – and about to begin its inevitable decline.

Talley & Son takes place on Independence Day, 1944, the place the parlour of the Talley homestead in Lebanon, Missouri. As World War II rages across the seas, the Talleys are beset with crises of a different sort. The play starts with a glimpse of Sally Talley running out of the house to find Matt Friedman after he has been run off by her brother, but much of the play revolves around old Calvin Talley's relationship with his eldest son, Buddy. Even at age 80, Mr. Talley, despite his slow slide into dementia, still has flashes of explosive lucidity, when he schemes to dispose of the local bank among heirs of his own choice, and berates his charming but spineless son, Eldon, for considering the sale of the family garment business to an eastern conglomerate. Mr. Talley is determined to save the factory for youngest son Timmy to run when Timmy returns home from the war. Also involved in the bickering are Eldon's long-suffering wife, Netta; their son, Buddy, who is home on leave from the Army; his vapid wife, Olive; and Eldon's sister, Charlotte, a defiantly free spirit who is suffering the fatal effects of radium poisoning. And, commenting on the action, unseen by the others, is the "ghost" of the second son, Timmy, who has been killed in the Pacific war, although the family has not yet learned of his death. In the end the petty antagonisms, scandals and selfishness which infuse the play are their own reward, and we are aware that a dynasty built by hard work and clear if conniving vision is about to be dismantled by lesser men who have inherited the property, but not the character, of their predecessors. The first play in his celebrated Talley Trilogy which chronicles several decades in the fictional lives of the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri, Lanford Wilson's home town, the action in this instance is simultaneous with that of Talley's Folly and deals with the generation preceding that encountered in Fifth Of July.

Talley & Son premiered in 1981 as A Tale Told and was substantially rewritten and renamed, opening in 1985, both at Off-Broadway's famed Circle Repertory Theater. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is is a staple of college theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 7 male

What people say:

"It is Wilson's dramatic artistry that he is able to draw us into the realm of the Talleys, encouraging us to understand the grasping fathers and sons as well as those few who can embrace a life of individuality and responsibility." — New York Times

"Wilson's strength is in extracting the extraordinary from the ordinary, and, in general, making it psychologically and dramatically plausible." — New York Magazine

"…the most accomplished of Lanford Wilson's three plays about the Talley family…." — New York Magazine

About the Playwright:

Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was one of the most distinguished American playwrights of the late 20th century. He was instrumental in drawing attention to Off-Off Broadway, where his first works were staged in the mid-1960s. He was also among the first playwrights to move from that milieu to renown on wider stages, ascending to Off Broadway, and then to Broadway, within a decade of his arrival in New York. His work has also long been a staple of regional theaters throughout the United States. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.