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Craig's Wife
Craig's Wife (1925), a drama by George Kelly. [Morosco Theatre, 360 perf.; Pulitzer Prize.] Harriet Craig ( Chrystal Herne) is a woman obsessed with her home and her possessions. She will not even allow her husband to smoke in the house, lest he stain or mar something. Luckily Walter Craig ( Charles Trowbridge) is blind to her faults; but his maiden aunt, Miss Austen ( Anne Sutherland), is anything but blind, and she warns Harriet her obsession will cost her all her friends and her family as well: “other people will not go on being made miserable indefinitely for the sake of your ridiculous idolatry of house furnishings.” Matters are brought to a head not by a piece of furniture but by the suicide of a neighbor. Walter would call the police to offer help, since he visited the man's home shortly before the suicide. Harriet, however, will not permit her name to be brought in, even indirectly. In a fury Walter breaks one of Harriet's favorite knickknacks, then sits down to enjoy a cigarette. Both Walter and his aunt leave, taking the housekeeper with them. Alexander Woollcott wrote in the World, “Craig's Wife is a thorough, unsmiling, patiently detailed and profoundly interesting dramatic portrait of a woman whom every playgoer will recognize with something of a start and yet whose prototype has never before appeared in any book or play that has passed my way.” Its only major revival, in 1947, was unsuccessful.
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Cite this article
Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-CraigsWife.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-CraigsWife.html |
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Craig's Wife
Craig's Wife, play by George Kelly, produced in 1925 and published in 1926, when it won a Pulitzer Prize.
Harriet Craig, interested only in her personal security, makes a career of her immaculate, luxurious home. She merely tolerates her husband Walter, but he remains romantically in love with her until his aunt and a niece reveal her selfishness. Walter decides on a divorce, and Harriet is left desolate with her possessions. |
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Cite this article
James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-CraigsWife.html James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Craig's Wife." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 1995. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-CraigsWife.html |
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