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Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic
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Author: Lillian Hellman Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 87 Pub. Date: 1998 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822211637 ISBN-13: 9780822211631 Cast Size: 4 female, 4 male, 3 extras
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About
the Play:
Toys in the Attic has long been a favourite of acting
teachers for female/female scenes.
Toys in the Attic is a full-length drama by Lillian
Hellman. A deeply revealing, intimate drama about a dysfunctional
family, through the possessive, peculiar love-hate relationship
between two unmarried sisters, Carrie and Anna, and their younger
brother Julian. Toys in the Attic probes into the intrigue and
deceit which lie beneath the outwardly calm surface of a southern
town.
Toys in the Attic is centered around two spinster sisters,
Carrie and Anna Berniers, living together in New
Orleans. They dream of touring Europe one day – but their plans are
continually thwarted by the need to bail their ne'er-do-well younger
brother Julian out of a series of misfortunes. They are surprised
then, and even oddly distressed, when Julian suddenly turns up with
his childlike bride Lily and a large sum of money, enough to pay off
the mortgage on the family homestead and to send his sisters on their
grand tour. Growing up comfortable but still relatively poor, the
family starts to become unsettled by the unexpected burst of wealth
and a plethora of sordid secrets that are unearthed. The brother's
good fortune stems from a plot devised by the spiteful wife of a
local millionaire, and when the brother's wife discovers this, and
jealously tells all, the scheme is shattered and the brother savagely
beaten. In the end the sisters regain the dependence of their brother
– but at a price far greater than they would have willingly chosen
to pay.
Toys in the Attic premiered in 1960 at the Hudson Theatre
on Broadway, enjoying an absolute sold out run for more than a year
and won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. The
play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and been
performed in regional
and college
theatre productions.
Cast: 4 female, 4 male, 3 extras
What people say:
"Brilliant. Lillian Hellman's
most hellishly hypnotic drama…a shock you can't shed." —
New York World-Telegram & Sun
"Head and shoulders above the
level of the season." — New York Times
About the Playwright:
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984) is considered one of the most
acclaimed American dramatists of the first half of the twentieth
century. In an era that largely favoured lighthearted romantic plays
and drawing-room comedies, her works explored the human capacity for
malice, the allure of power and money, and the dichotomy between
individual interests and social conscience. She was also the first
woman to be admitted into the previously all-male club of American
"dramatic literature", primarily on the basis of two
enormously successful plays from the 1930s: The Children's Hour
and The Little Foxes.
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