Odets, Clifford

Odets, Clifford (1906–63), American dramatist. Born in Philadelphia but growing up in New York, he became an actor after graduation from high school. In 1935 he attracted attention with a long one-act play about a taxi-drivers' strike, Waiting for Lefty, first produced by the Group Theatre of which he was a member (London, 1936). For a Broadway production he added another multi-scened one-acter, Till the Day I Die (London, 1940). Almost simultaneously, the Group Theatre produced an earlier full-length play, Awake and Sing (London, 1938), which Odets rewrote for the occasion. Portraying the conflicts in a Jewish family in the Bronx caused by poverty and a domineering mother, it is notable for its realism, contrapuntal technique, and mingling of humour with explosive passion. Although his next play, Paradise Lost (also 1935), about the false ideals instilled in the success-orientated young, met with a tepid reception, Odets retrieved his reputation with Golden Boy (1937; London, 1938), the story of a sensitive Italian youth's deterioration after economic pressures turn him from music to professional boxing. Rocket to the Moon (1938; London, 1948) failed as a social parable in spite of excellent characterization and considerable pathos. Night Music (1940), an extravaganza depicting the struggles of disorientated youth, also failed, and Clash by Night (1941), in which Odets attempts to create a political allegory out of the personal humiliations of an unemployed labourer, emerges as a heavy-handed domestic triangle. He worked in films for some years, which gave rise to an abrasive indictment of Hollywood, The Big Knife (1949; London, 1953). The Country Girl (1950; London, as Winter Journey, 1952) deals sympathetically with the relationship between a drunken actor and his loyal wife. Odets's last play, The Flowering Peach (1954), is a retelling of the biblical story of Noah as a nostalgic Bronx Jewish fable. Odets's reputation rests on his plays of social protest of the 1930s; an unproduced play from this period, The Silent Partner (1937), received a posthumous Off-Off-Broadway production in 1972.