About the Play:

The Chase has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Female Scenes and Female/Male Scenes.

The Chase is a full-length drama by Horton Foote. This engaging anti-western depicts a disillusioned Texas Sheriff Hawes and a man he convicted long ago who has escaped from the penitentiary. With possibility that Bubber Reeves, the convicted, might come after him, he tries to keep the powerful, bloodthirsty interests in a small town from panicking. The Chase is a drama of action and suspense, by a playwright who combines theatrical power with probing characterization.

The Chase explores how a heartless society can crush the emotional life of its members. Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue. The Chase is Horton Foote's first Broadway play.

The Chase premiered in 1952 at the Playhouse Theatre on Broadway in New York City and made Kim Stanley a star. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and been performed in regional, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 8 male

What people say:

"A vivid piece of theatre." — New York Times

"One of the best plays on Broadway…Suspense was created in the first act; mounted in the second; exploded into violence in the third. The Chase held me from beginning to end." — The Journal-American

About the Playwright:

Horton Foote (1916-2009) was a prolific American playwright and screenwriter with an ear for the resilient spirit of daily life in the small-town southern US states. Known as a writer's writer, he switched readily from the stage to television and film. He received Academy Awards for his screenplay adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird and his original screenplay Tender Mercies. During the Golden Age of television, he authored numerous notable live television dramas. For his 1997 television adaptation of William Faulkner's "Old Man," he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing of a Miniseries. He received the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and his first Tony nomination for his play, The Young Man From Atlanta.