Collected Plays and Writings on Theater, the most comprehensive
one-volume edition of Thornton Wilder's work for the stage ever
published, takes the measure of his extraordinary career as a dramatist
by presenting the complete span of his achievement, beginning with his
early expressionist experiments and daring one-act plays, such as "The
Long Christmas Dinner" and "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden"
(one of Wilder's personal favorites), ranging through the full flowering
of Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker, and
encompassing the intriguing dramatic projects of his later years, such
as his adaptation of the ancient story of Alcestis (The Alcestiad) and
plays written for dramatic cycles based on the Seven Deadly Sins and the
varied ages of an individual's life. Complementing the selection of
plays is an illuminating group of essays that captures Wilder's
reflections on his plays and contains a revealing epistolary account of
the film adaptation of Our Town.
This volume also includes material never before published: scenes from
The Emporium, an ambitious unfinished play that, emerging out of
Wilder's intense engagement with existentialist philosophy in the
postwar years, imagines a Kafkaesque department store whose enigmatic
activities are as inscrutable as the mysteries of life itself; and the
complete screenplay Wilder wrote for Alfred Hitchcock's film Shadow of
a Doubt just before reporting for military service in 1942. Although
faithful to the spirit of the film, the screenplay presented here
restores Wilder's original dialogue, some of which (to Wilder's dismay)
was altered for the movie. A study of family life, youthful illusions,
and the desperation of a criminal on the run, the Shadow of a Doubt
screenplay is a masterful exhibition of the art of suspense and taut
dramatic storytelling, and is an essential part of Wilder's oeuvre.
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