Theatre
Winterset
Maxwell Anderson · 1935
Synopsis
Under a New York bridge, between the river and a tenement, live old Esdras, his son Garth and his daughter Miriamne; an old, half-mad judge wanders the neighbourhood. Mio, seventeen, arrives there: his father, Bartolomeo Romagna, an Italian immigrant and radical, was executed thirteen years earlier for a robbery and a murder he had not committed, and Mio is looking for Garth, a witness to the crime who kept silent. He falls in love with Miriamne and realises that the truth would expose her brother. Trock Estrella, out of prison, prowls around and threatens Garth.
Context
The play was first staged on 25 September 1935 at the Martin Beck Theatre, directed by Guthrie McClintic, with Burgess Meredith as Mio. It received the first prize of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, founded that year by critics dissatisfied with the Pulitzer's choices. Anderson had already dealt with the case in 1928, with Harold Hickerson; he returns to it alone, changing the names and setting the action thirteen years after the execution. RKO made a film of it in 1936. A French adaptation was performed in January 1946 at the Théâtre des Carrefours, without being published.
Who it is for
A play in three acts, in blank verse mixed with prose; act II takes place at the Esdras home. No French translation published.
Prizes and reception
The first play honoured by the New York drama critics, in 1936; a success in the theatre and then on tour, the play is rarely revived today.
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