The Time of Your Life

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The Time of Your Life
1st edition cover (Harcourt Brace)
Written by	William Saroyan
Date premiered	25 October 1939
Place premiered	Booth Theatre New York City
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	a San Francisco bar, October 1939
IBDB profile

The Time of Your Life a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City. It was produced by the Theatre Guild and with staging by Eddie Dowling, who also starred as Joe, and William Saroyan.

Contents 1 Characters 2 Plot 3 Adaptations 4 Awards and nominations 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Characters

Main Characters Joe, a loafer with money and a good heart Tom, Joe's sidekick Kitty Duval, a young woman Nick, the bar owner Arab, a philosopher Kit Carson, an old trapper McCarthy, a bright dock worker Krupp, McCarthy's friend Harry, a natural born dancer and bad comedian Wesley, a young black pianist Willie, a pinball fanatic Dudley, a young man in love Elsie, a nurse, the one Dudley loves Lorene, an unattractive woman Mary L., a beautiful but unhappy woman of means Blick, a bully who works for the Vice Squad

Minor Characters A Newsboy A Drunkard Nick's Ma Sailor Killer, a streetwalker Killer's sidekick Society Gentleman Society Lady Cops

[edit] Plot

The play is set in Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, a run down dive bar in San Francisco. Much of the action of the play centers around Joe, a young loafer with money who encourages each of the bar's patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry, and sets up his flunky, Tom, with a prostitute, Kitty Duval. The bar is frequented by a number of colorful characters, including a frenetic young man in love, an old man who looks like Kit Carson, and an affluent society couple.

The Time of Your Life has been revived three times on Broadway - in 1940 with Dowling and Saroyan directing again, in 1969 directed by John Hirsch and in 1975 directed by Jack O'Brien.

[edit] Adaptations

The play was adapted for film in 1948 with H. C. Potter directing James Cagney as Joe and his sister, Jeanne Cagney as Kitty Duval. In 1958 an adaptation by A.J. Russell was presented in a live television broadcast directed by Tom Donovan with stars Jackie Gleason, Jack Klugman, and Dick York for the Playhouse 90 series.

[edit] Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1939 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play
• 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

[edit] References

• Saroyan, William (1939). The Time of Your Life. New York: Harcourt, Brace. p. 247 p. OCLC 34643576. 

[edit] External links

• The Time of Your Life at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Time of Your Life at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• The Time of Your Life at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Pulitzer Prize for Drama Craig's Wife (1926) · In Abraham's Bosom (1927) · Strange Interlude (1928) · Street Scene (1929) · The Green Pastures (1930) · Alison's House (1931) · Of Thee I Sing (1932) · Both Your Houses (1933) · Men in White (1934) · The Old Maid (1935) · Idiot's Delight (1936) · You Can't Take It with You (1937) · Our Town (1938) · Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1939) · The Time of Your Life (1940) · There Shall Be No Night (1941) · The Skin of Our Teeth (1943) · Harvey (1945) · State of the Union (1946) · A Streetcar Named Desire (1948) · Death of a Salesman (1949) · South Pacific (1950) Complete list: (1918-1925) · (1926-1950) · (1951-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)