The Long Christmas Dinner
The Long Christmas Dinner is a play in one act written by American novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder in 1931. In its first published form, it was included in the volume The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
The characters, as they are listed in the script:
- Lucia
- Mother Bayard
- Roderick
- Cousin Brandon
- Charles, son of Roderick and Lucia
- Genevieve, daughter of Roderick and Lucia
- The Nurse
- Leonora, wife of Charles
- Ermengarde
- Sam, son of Charles and Leonora
- Lucia II, daughter of Charles and Leonora
- Roderick II, son of Charles and Leonora
[edit] Plot
Setting: 90 years in the dining room of the Bayard House.
Length: @35 minutes
Summary: A one-act drama about several generations of one family:
A play whose action[1] traverses ninety years and represents in accelerated motion ninety Christmas dinners in the Bayard home. The development of the countryside, the changes in customs and manners during this period of time as well as the growth of the Bayard family and their accumulation of property sums up vividly a wide aspect of American life. It is a serious play lightened with humor of character; it has a human, tender, moving quality both appealing and forceful.
[edit] Performance History
It was first performed jointly by the Yale Dramatic Association and The Vassar Philaletheis.
Currently, Samuel French, Inc., owns the rights to The Long Christmas Dinner.
[edit] See also
The Long Christmas Dinner for the opera by Paul Hindemith to the text by Thornton Wilder.
