About the Play:

The Grass Harp is a full-length comedy fantasy by Truman Capote. The author's first dramatic work adapted from his 1951 novella of the same name. Set in a small Southern town in the 1930s, this classic work tells the story of three endearing misfits – an orphaned boy taken in by his two eccentric aunts – who one day take up residence in a tree house. The Grass Harp is filled with the colourful characters and rich dialogue that made Truman Capote such a beloved author.

The Grass Harp is a stage adaptation of Truman Capote's nostalgic autobiographical novella that recalls his boyhood spent in a small Southern town. After his mother's death, Collin Talbo, a 16 year-old boy, goes to live with his aunts – the wealthy, avaricious, and controlling Verena Talbo, and her compliant, earthy sister Dolly. When a city slicker comes to town and convinces Verena to market Dolly's locally-famous tonic, Dolly finally gets some backbone, refuses to divulge the formula, and heads for a tree-house with Collin and Catherine, the loyal maid. Verena, who has most of the town in her pocket, sics the law on the renegades. Dolly, Catherine, and Collin find a supporter in a retired judge, Charlie Cool, who's attracted to Dolly. Will Verena's venom win out? And what about that city slicker?

As outlined in The New York Times: "In the first section of the play Mr. Capote is writing with an original, offbeat humor that seems completely irresponsible. It has been gathered out of his vagrant memories and turned into comedy. But he has something more than a frolic in mind. For the greater part of The Grass Harp is an idyll about the pure in heart who, like the meek, inherit the earth. All the common impulses of the world are against the trio who find sanctuary in the tree-house. The avaricious sister is outraged. The whole town is shocked and angry, and an armed posse invades the woods to capture the traitors to society and march them back to civilization. One of the deputy sheriffs, doing his duty, shoots the youth and wounds him. But The Grass Harp, being pure in heart itself, shows how much stronger the people of spirit are than the people of cant, discipline and selfishness. Their triumph is modest and humble, but it is unmistakable in a final scene written with great tenderness."

The Grass Harp premiered in 1952 at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway and later made into a motion picture, starring Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Piper Laurie, and Nell Carter. The play has been performed in regional, middle school, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 8 female, 10 male

What people say:

"A beautiful play…the most creative contribution of the season. Like all genuinely creative plays, it provides parts that can be well acted." — New York Times

""Truman Capote is the most perfect writer of my generation." — Norman Mailer, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author

About the Playwright:

Truman Capote (1924-1984) was a prominent writer of mid 20th Century American Literature. Born in New Orleans and raised in various parts of the South, his first novel was an international literary success and accorded the author a prominent place among the writers of America's postwar generation. He sustained this position subsequently with short-story collections, novels and novellas, some of the best travel writing of the time, profiles and reportage that appeared originally in The New Yorker, a true-crime masterpiece (In Cold Blood), several short memoirs about his childhood in the South, two plays, and two screenplays. He twice won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.