Wars in American Drama. Given its basic importance in establishing this country, the Revolutionary War has inspired few plays of merit and most of these have found but small acceptance from playgoers. Because of the scant opportunities for production, including the fact that British troops held several of the major theatre centers, contemporary dramas such as
The Adulateur,
The Fall of British Tyranny, or
The Group have been classified as “pamphlet plays,” read rather than performed, although several of them seem to have had some circulation and helped steel patriotic resolve. As the war receded in history certain figures found special appeal for dramatists, among them Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Nathan Hale, Francis Marion, and Israel Putnam. But by far the most popular figures were George Washington and two men associated with treasonous behavior, Benedict Arnold and Major André. As a rule, Washington figured primarily in spectacles and other plays designed to reinforce patriotic sentiment. On the other hand, the real drama, even tragedy, of André's story gave rise early on to
Dunlap's
André (1798).
The Widow's Son (1825) focused on war‐bred hatred and hysteria. Between the turn of the century and the coming of the Civil War dozens of dramas, comedies, and spectacles treating the Revolution were mounted. In his
History of the American Drama,
Quinn offers a partial list of more than fifty plays mounted between 1826 and 1860, most of which have not survived. Among the most interesting are
Briar Cliff (1828),
Putnam, the Iron Son of '76 (1844),
Love in '76 (1857), and
Horseshoe Robinson (1858). Generally, the more famous, successful works did not deal directly with the ramifications of the Revolution nor its more celebrated incidents, which were usually left to spectacles. Indeed, the most popular of such plays tended to be lighthearted pieces merely set against the background of the war. In later years interest in the war waned. Later 19th‐ and early 20th‐century examples include James A.
Herne's
The Minute Men of 1774–75 (1886) and two Clyde
Fitch efforts,
Nathan Hale (1898) and
Major André (1903). Subsequently, the Revolutionary War was dealt with in such scattered plays as Maxwell
Anderson's serious but failed
Valley Forge (1934) and the popular comedy
The Pursuit of Happiness (1933). Significantly the most successful modern treatments have been on the musical stage, notably the fluffy but melodic
Dearest Enemy (1925) and the more purposeful
1776 (1969). The War of 1812 suggested little to dramatists, the most notable works being Robert Penn
Smith's two offerings,
The Eighth of January (1829) and
The Triumph at Plattsburg (1830), while the Mexican‐American War produced nothing of interest, unless the plays about Davy Crockett, who figured in the Texas battles that led up to the war, are considered.
By its very nature, the Civil War long remained of supreme interest to American playwrights. Although both Northern and Southern dramatists were prolific during the war, their immediate response produced nothing of such lasting value or contemporary popularity as the novel and its dramatization that many felt were major factors in polarizing opinions before the war,
Uncle Tom's Cabin. Most plays of the moment were flag‐waving affairs. The works that came directly after the conflict and reflected the continuing interest in the battles were of no lasting significance either. Probably the first important Civil War drama was Dion
Boucicault's commercially unsuccessful
Belle Lamar (1874). Its story (a Southern lady—married to a Union officer—who chooses regional loyalty over personal affection) established a pattern for the basic dilemma to be portrayed in many of the dramas that followed, as did its use of a spy as a pivotal figure. In short, slavery, slave economics, and secession (the issues fundamental to the war) were passed over in favor of romantic and melodramatic themes that employed the war itself largely as background. Belasco's
May Blossom (1884) was a further harbinger of the outpouring of Civil War themes that began with
Held by the Enemy (1886) and continued through the era of the Spanish‐American War up to the time of World War I, with such works as
Shenandoah (1889),
Secret Service (1895),
The Heart of Maryland (1895),
The Reverend Griffith Davenport (1899),
Barbara Frietchie (1899), the musical
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1902),
The Warrens of Virginia (1907), and
The Copperhead (1918). If the fundamental issues behind the war were taken for granted or glossed over in most of these plays, they did receive a somewhat more probing examination in plays dealing with Reconstruction, such as
Alabama (1891) and
The New South (1893). The most notable of later plays to employ the war was Eugene
O'Neill's
Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), which used the conflict as a background for the retelling of the Greek legends. Much of the later theatrical employment of the war was in musicals, including
My Maryland (1927), which was based on
Barbara Frietchie;
Shenandoah (1975), which was not based on the earlier play of the same name; and
The Civil War (1999).
During U.S. involvement in World War I, American dramatists produced nothing of enduring merit. The initial response appears to have been confined largely to patriotic tableaux in the extravagant revues of the era and in such entertainments as Irving
Berlin's all‐soldier revue,
Yip Yap Yaphank (1918). One of the most popular plays about the war,
Friendly Enemies (1918), appeared several months after the armistice and dealt not with the battlefield but with divisions on the home front. However, most agree the best American play about the Great War was Maxwell
Anderson and Laurence Stallings's salty, cynical comedy
What Price Glory? (1924). In the 1920s and 1930s the war served as the setting for such pacifist pleas as
The Enemy (1925) and
Johnny Johnson (1936). These plays signaled the unromantic, basically antiwar stance that would underlie much subsequent writing about that war.
The Petrified Forest (1935), for example, looked at the world‐weariness that grew out of the war and the Depression.
The approach of World War II inspired such interesting plays as
Idiot's Delight (1936),
There Shall Be No Night (1940), Hemingway's
The Fifth Column (1940), and
Watch on the Rhine (1941), but during the war itself most serious drama, such as
The Eve of St. Mark (1942) and
A Bell for Adano (1944), was solid but unexceptional.
Tomorrow the World (1943) looked at the difficulties of eradicating Nazi ideology, while
The Searching Wind (1944) was more concerned with prewar diplomatic bungling. The most successful wartime works were such fluffy comedies as
The Doughgirls (1942) and
Dear Ruth (1944). Possibly the best American play about the war,
A Sound of Hunting (1945), appeared shortly after the war and failed. Another late, worthy, but unsuccessful play was Arthur
Laurents's
Home of the Brave (1945). By far the most successful plays about the war came years afterwards and lightened their undercurrents of seriousness with comedy or romance. Most notable were
Mister Roberts (1948) and the musical
South Pacific (1949). Other memorable plays about the Second World War were
Command Decision (1947),
The Caine Mutiny Court‐Martial (1954), and
A Soldier's Play (1982).
If the Korean War promoted nothing of real note, the Vietnam War, the first war in our history actively opposed by a substantial number of thoughtful citizens, called forth a wealth of provocative theatre. The war coincided with what many saw as breakdowns in our society, with massive protests, with widespread rioting and looting as protests against racism, and by the beginnings of the worst inflation in American history. Dramas relating to the war reflected the turmoil. One of the most successful was the musical
Hair (1968), which featured nudity and a variety of protest songs and unpleasant themes, such as drug addiction, racism, and sexual promiscuity, in its portrayal of a young man who must decide whether to serve in the war. The savagely satiric
MacBird! (1967) was another interesting work. Probably the most important dramatist to deal with the war was David
Rabe, who began writing about it while the conflict continued and followed with more material after the war. His plays included
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1971),
Sticks and Bones (1971), and
Streamers (1976). Although often not as craftily plotted as earlier war stories, they portrayed in superb theatrical terms the chaos, rage, and disintegration generated by the war. Dramas about veterans suffering from psychological effects of the Vietnam War also found fertile ground. The most memorable were
The Speed of Darkness (1991) and
Redwood Curtain (1993), though neither was a hit.
