Drama

Dorothy Parker and Arnaud d'Usseau

Characters: 7 male, 9 female, 1 dog

5 Interior Sets

Although THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is not strictly a thesis play, its authors do have a point to make. It is that when widowhood comes to American middle-aged women, only those prepared for a career have any chance for happiness. They are mostly bitter, frustrated, bored, and driven to suicide, kleptomania or constant attendance at the movies. In particular, the dramatists are concerned with three of the women. One takes a younger lover and, despite her momentary happiness, proceeds to drive him from her by her nagging doubts of his fidelitv. Another becomes a solitary drinker, has a sordid affair with a bellhop and ends by jumping from a window. The third is a invalid who wrecks the life of her son by blackmailing him into serving her. The kleptomaniac, and the woman seeking refuge in the movies from her knowledge that her children don't want her, are less dramatic figures who add to the drab and hopeless picture of doomed widowhood. THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is an episodic drama, a sort of "Grand Hotel" of widowhood. Opened at the Longacre with Edna Best, Betty Field. Frances Starr, and Vera Allen. "There are three brilliant and, I may sav. blood-curdling performances in the new play at the Longacre." N.Y. Herald Tribune.

Drama

Dorothy Parker and Arnaud d'Usseau

Characters: 7 male, 9 female, 1 dog

5 Interior Sets

Although THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is not strictly a thesis play, its authors do have a point to make. It is that when widowhood comes to American middle-aged women, only those prepared for a career have any chance for happiness. They are mostly bitter, frustrated, bored, and driven to suicide, kleptomania or constant attendance at the movies. In particular, the dramatists are concerned with three of the women. One takes a younger lover and, despite her momentary happiness, proceeds to drive him from her by her nagging doubts of his fidelitv. Another becomes a solitary drinker, has a sordid affair with a bellhop and ends by jumping from a window. The third is a invalid who wrecks the life of her son by blackmailing him into serving her. The kleptomaniac, and the woman seeking refuge in the movies from her knowledge that her children don't want her, are less dramatic figures who add to the drab and hopeless picture of doomed widowhood. THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is an episodic drama, a sort of "Grand Hotel" of widowhood. Opened at the Longacre with Edna Best, Betty Field. Frances Starr, and Vera Allen. "There are three brilliant and, I may sav. blood-curdling performances in the new play at the Longacre." N.Y. Herald Tribune.

Drama

Dorothy Parker and Arnaud d'Usseau

Characters: 7 male, 9 female, 1 dog

5 Interior Sets

Although THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is not strictly a thesis play, its authors do have a point to make. It is that when widowhood comes to American middle-aged women, only those prepared for a career have any chance for happiness. They are mostly bitter, frustrated, bored, and driven to suicide, kleptomania or constant attendance at the movies. In particular, the dramatists are concerned with three of the women. One takes a younger lover and, despite her momentary happiness, proceeds to drive him from her by her nagging doubts of his fidelitv. Another becomes a solitary drinker, has a sordid affair with a bellhop and ends by jumping from a window. The third is a invalid who wrecks the life of her son by blackmailing him into serving her. The kleptomaniac, and the woman seeking refuge in the movies from her knowledge that her children don't want her, are less dramatic figures who add to the drab and hopeless picture of doomed widowhood. THE LADIES OF THE CORRIDOR is an episodic drama, a sort of "Grand Hotel" of widowhood. Opened at the Longacre with Edna Best, Betty Field. Frances Starr, and Vera Allen. "There are three brilliant and, I may sav. blood-curdling performances in the new play at the Longacre." N.Y. Herald Tribune.

One of the foremost humorists in literature, Dorothy Parker drew from the dark side of her imagination to pen "The Ladies of the Corridor". Loosely based on Parker's life, it is a searing drama about women living on their own in a New York residence hotel. With husbands dead and children, if any, too busy for aging parents, the ladies are empty-nesters struggling with lives that have lost their centers. Co-written with famed Hollywood playwright Arnaud d'Usseau, "The Ladies of the Corridor" is a frank meditation on the limitations of a woman's life that teems with Parker's signature wit.