Morning's at Seven

Insights A Study Guide to the Utah Shakespeare Festival

Morning’s at Seven The articles in this study guide are not meant to mirror or interpret any productions at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They are meant, instead, to be an educational jumping-off point to understanding and enjoying the plays (in any production at any theatre) a bit more thoroughly. Therefore the stories of the plays and the interpretative articles (and even characters, at times) may differ dramatically from what is ultimately produced on the Festival’s stages. Insights is published by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, 351 West Center Street; Cedar City, UT 84720. Bruce C. Lee, communications director and editor; Phil Hermansen, art director. Copyright © 2011, Utah Shakespeare Festival. Please feel free to download and print Insights, as long as you do not remove any identifying mark of the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

For more information about Festival education programs: Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street Cedar City, Utah 84720 435-586-7880 www.bard.org.

Cover photo: Anne Newhall in Morning’s at Seven, 2004. Contents

Information on the Play Synopsis 4 Morning’sCharacters at Seven5 About the Playwrights 6

Scholarly Articles on the Play The Function of Disfunction 8

Utah Shakespeare Festival 3 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Synopsis: Morning’s at Seven Cora Swanson and her sister Ida Bolton, along with husbands Thor and Carl, have lived next door to each other for their entire married lives. In addition, an old-maid sister, Arry, lives with Cora and Thor. A fourth sister, Esther and her husband David, live outside the immediate neighborhood. As the play opens, all four families are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Homer Bolton and his fiancée, Myrtle Brown. Homer has been engaged to Myrtle for seven years and dated her for five years before that and, oddly enough, this will be the first time anyone in his family will have met her. As Homer and Myrtle finally make their appearance, Homer’s father, Carl, is so frightened of not being able to make a good impression (he considers himself a total failure) that he has one of his “spells” and is conveniently kept out of sight for the time being. Homer, it seems, is a very reluctant suitor. He has grown more than a little comfortable with his present lifestyle and has no real desire to marry, in spite of the fact that his father has built and fur- nished a house, a house that has been sitting empty for several years, that will be his when and if he does marry. Myrtle, is beginning to wonder if she has waited long enough. To complicate matters, Cora and Carl have reached a secret agreement. If Homer makes no wedding announcement during this visit, Carl will lease the vacant house to Cora, enabling her to finally live alone with her husband, Thor, who has no knowledge of the agreement. She plans to leave their present house to her sister, Arry. Cora and Ida scurry about trying to calm everyone down, and just when it appears that everyone can finally be gotten to the dinner table, the face of David Crampton appears at the kitchen window. He has previously given his wife, Esther, orders never to visit her family whom he considers to be a pack of morons. He calmly announces that, henceforward, Esther will occupy the upper half of their house; he, the lower half. In that case, Esther decides, she’ll just stay with her sister, Ida. Carl decides to move in with David, who has agreed to help him find out “where he is” in life. But first, Cora gets the disoriented Carl to sign the lease on the empty house, much to the dismay of Homer, Thor, and Arry. Homer makes up with Myrtle, then enlists the aid of Uncle Thor, who has taken a definite lik- ing to Myrtle, in getting “his” house back. The still confused Carl moves back home, reassured by David who, from all indications, misses Esther and wants her to come home. Cora relents and gives Homer’s house back to him, since he and Myrtle are soon to be married. Ida and Esther threaten to reveal their suspicions that Arry and Thor have been involved in a long-standing affair. Arry’s “secret,” the fact that she did once have a brief affair with Thor many years before, is revealed, as she decides to move in with Carl and Ida, finally giving Cora her wish of living alone with her husband. Characters: Morning’s at Seven

4 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Theodore (Thor) Swanson: The gruff-spoken but tender-hearted husband of Cora, Thor is frequently caught in the middle in conflicts between his wife, Cora, and her sister, Arry, who has shared their home since she was a teenager. Thor is the most rational of all the males in the play and is fond of Arry and opposes the idea of sending her to live elsewhere. Cora Swanson: Wife of Thor and sister of Arry, Ida and Esther, Cora is resentful of never having had a life alone with her husband, and she desperately wants to get away from her live-in sister, Arry. It is Cora who “holds things together,” but close living with her unmarried sister for upwards of four decades has created some long-standing tensions (and secrets) in the household. Aaronetta (Arry) Gibbs: The old maid sister of Cora, Ida and Esther, Arry has lived with Cora and Thor for the whole of her adult life. She is both the family gossip and snoop and vies with Cora for Thor’s attention. She is a bit more artistic than her sisters and has a tendency to be high strung and “wound up” most of the time. Ida Bolton: Wife of Carl and mother of Homer, Ida and family live next door to Cora, Thor and Arry. She tries to understand her husband’s “spells” and holds her family together. While she wants her son, Homer, to marry and avoid being a “lonely old bachelor,” she dotes on him and makes it difficult for him to leave. Carl Bolton: Husband of Ida and father of Homer, Carl is frequently caught up in his “spells” which result from his overwhelming sense of failure at not becoming a dentist. He is more a source of concern and worry than a source of strength. He is, however, a skilled craftsman and has built a house “on the hill” for his son to move into when he marries. Unfortunately, the house sits empty (as it has for a half-decade), awaiting the big day when the younger Bolton will finally take a wife. Homer Bolton: Carl and Ida’s forty-year-old son, Homer has been living at home and dating Myrtle Brown for eleven years and has been unable, or unwilling, to make a commitment. In fact, he has never before brought her home to meet his family. Rather thick and clumsy, he is quite comfortable with his life as it is and sees no reason to change things. Myrtle Brown: The long-suffering fiancée of Homer Bolton, Myrtle is affectionate and seemingly willing to wait for Homer to marry her, although it is apparent that she hopes her long awaited visit to his family will finally lead to something more than his weekend visits. She is pleasant, polite, and awkwardly beautiful, if a bit gawky. Her arrival and introduction to the family is bound to create a stir in this quiet and unassuming neighborhood. Esther (Esty) Crampton: The eldest of the four sisters and wife of David. Esty, like many women of her generation, has spent her married life in submission to a domineering and emotionally abusive husband. She has a mind of her own, however, and usually manages to do the things she wants to without causing conflict. She is frequently a calming influence when conflicts occur among her sisters. She and her husband live (intentionally) a couple of blocks away from the other sisters. Esty has an innate understanding of human and family interaction. David Crampton: The domineering, frequently insensitive husband of Esther, David is what might be called an “educated” misfit, since his education has led to little more than an inflated ego and a misguided sense of superiority. A former professor at the local college, David refuses to associate with the others in the play and would prefer that Esther do the same. He considers his wife’s family, and almost everyone else, to be morons and is not reluctant to tell them so. However, under certain circumstances, he is capable of compassion and even affection.

Morning’s at Seven: Paul Osborn By Carly Hughes Utah Shakespeare Festival 5 From Insights, 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 2004 Said of Paul Osborn by Michiko Kakutani: “He learned how to transform the sprawling nar- rative of a book into tight dramatic action and he learned how to retain the essential mood of a book while tailoring the characters to individual actor’s abilities (“40 Years Late, Osborn Has a Hit” [New York Times, 14 April 1980], 13). It is a statement celebrating Osborn’s success as a screen and stage adapter. Indeed with such credits to his name as South Pacific and East of Eden, his part in the public memory is largely tied to his skill in streamlining the work of preceding authors (World Authors 1980-1985, Osborn, Paul [H.W. Wilson Company]). Yet, behind recog- nition in such a roll lived a man hungering to create truly original works, not simply to condense the creativity of others, and longing for the audiences he courted to embrace the same. So it was that he felt the sweetness of acclamation in one vocation with the sting of being stifled within the confines of others’ work. His is a life both bitter and sweet. Born in Evansville, Indiana on September 4, 1901, Osborn grew up with no intention to enter the world of writing, though he received his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Michigan (World Authors). In quite a different direction, he toyed with the idea of becoming an electrical engineer, but something within him balked at the idea of living the unremarkable life that was so often the premise and charm of his future works. In his own words, “I suppose I was a rebel in the sense that I wanted out of the environment. A lot of my old friends back there were working in hardware stores or banks, and that just wasn’t for me.” Osborn sought a way to escape the mundane and continued: “It wasn’t theater itself that gripped me at first; it was the need to get away from a life which sort of bored me. Playwriting seemed like a way out (Kakutani, C13). Thus, he took leave of practicality to pursue the dream and embarked on the journey that would last the remainder of his life. It began in 1927 with the study of playwriting at Yale University and a gutsy move to New York City soon after. Working “one job after another” to support his passion for writing, he produced two rather forgettable plays, but though neither were hailed or even really noted at all, these first theatrical experiences served to exercise and refine his talent (World Authors). Experience notwithstanding, it was an incredible stroke of luck which facilitated his first success as a playwright. As Osborn himself relates, “I think I was letting up the gates of the railroad on Long Island, and the woman who was going to do my first play, Antoinette Perry, said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said I had a job and was working. She said, ‘Well, you’ve got a job writing.’ And I said, ‘Yes, but I’ve got to eat.’ She said, ‘Well, I wish you’d do something for me. I’ll give you a small allowance so you can quit your job on the railroad and you just write.’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll take it!’ She was delighted” (World Authors). The result was the production of The Vinegar Tree, which ran 233 performances, was eventually adapted to the screen, and left him the toast of Broadway (Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003). That same year The Vinegar Tree was listed as one of the most superb plays of the year (World Authors). In 1939 Paul Osborn married Millicent Green, and was in every way imaginable “on top of the world,” but just as the world revolves, so did his status as playwright. Following The Vinegar Tree was a series of plays, including Oliver, Oliver and Morning’s At Seven, that were lost in the land of the forgotten. Receiving lukewarm acclaim at best, they were utter disappointments to their author. It was during this time that Osborn fell into his work as a writer of adaptations, and the acclaim of On Borrowed Time (1938) by Lawrence Edward Watkin was the first tie that bound him to the profession, a profession that was not unenjoyable for him, but neither was it completely fulfilling. Always, there were the limitations of dealing with a pre-set plot, but the assurance of income, alongside the ease of composition in comparison with creating original works, kept him engaged (Kakutani, C13). In a moment of candidness, Osborn revealed not a

6 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 little regret, saying, “Sometimes, I wish I’d never done an adaptation. I like to write original plays so much more, but the adaptations were so easy. Someone would come up and ask me to do one, and since I wasn’t doing anything else, I’d end up doing it” (Kakutani, C13). What he would “end up doing” led to numerous Broadway box office hits and two Academy Award nominations for East of Eden (1955) and Sayonara (1957) (Contemporary Authors Online). Still, his heart was never in Hollywood, and he once described it disdainfully as “not the giddy life you were promised,” continuing, “I always felt my real work was in the theatre (World Authors).” Still, he persisted to write such familiar adaptations as Point of No Return (1951) and The World of Suzie Wong (1958). As the years passed, Paul Osborn’s eyesight began to fail without ever seeing the success of an original play since The Vinegar Tree. Unable to continue in the professional world of writing, his life slowly slipped into anonymity. However, irony is rampant in the universe and with the resurrection of Morning’s at Seven in 1980, in a generation far removed from its characters, amid the closing of the curtain in the author’s life, he was once again in the public eye. Unlike its first debut, the play not only won the hearts, laughter, and praise of theatre attendees and critics alike, but the Tony Award for Best Broadway Revival (World Authors). It would be etched in history as an American classic and seal Osborn’s place as a great American playwright (Contemporary Authors). The achievements he’d always dreamed of had finally come to pass, but for Osborne it was a sweetness tinged with the bitter irony that such a reception should come not to herald the birth of a brilliant career but hail its conclusion (Kakutani, C13). He died May 12, 1988 in New York City. Unlike the plays and scripts he wove so wonderfully, his own life would not acquiesce to the dictates of his every desire. Yet, regardless of regret, Osborn has left a legacy of work that continues to delight and inspire audiences, and, much as he used writing as an escape from the banal, his work allows us as spectators to take a vacation from it also.

The Function of Disfunction By Lawrence Henley From Insights, 2004 Paul Osborn’s 1939 play Morning’s at Seven explores the dynamics of four aging sisters living close together with their families in their longtime hometown. In fact, after five decades, three of them live

Utah Shakespeare Festival 7 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 in two next-to-each-other houses without a fence. A fourth sister lives just a couple of blocks down the street. Both yards and porches have, for decades, been the stage setting for all of the drama, comedy, and tragedy surrounding their lives. Along with it all, of course, has come a good deal of the emotional palette that goes hand-in-hand with many years of family living: secret love, fits of envy and jealousy, sympathy, caring, anger, and a harmonic disharmony. If the enormity and complexity of these lives seem overwhelming and complicated to you, imag- ine the heaviness of the atmosphere hovering above these senior citizens. They have lived through it all decade after decade. Audiences are the lucky ones. They enjoy the opportunity to experience the slightly loony world of the Gibbs Sisters through two of the topsiest, turviest days a family could possibly have. These four sisters, seeming to be frightfully simple at first glance, become much more complicated when a closer look is taken. These four women are as close-knit as a group of sisters can be, rarely apart during their lifetimes. Despite their obvious affection for one another, intense (and sometimes bitter) rivalries become increasingly evident as the action of Morning’s at Seven develops. The familial support machine is there in place and is solid, but it doesn’t always run smoothly. Despite all of their years together, the engine isn’t always “firing on all cylinders.” How is it that after all of this time there are so many things they haven’t been able to work out amongst themselves? These women, despite their experience, have all had their fair share of difficulties. In spite of their best efforts, life hasn’t always been cooperative. Past experiences haven’t made things any easier. Although life in their world bears the initial appearance of relative calm, almost everyone in the play is revealed to be walking an emotional tightrope. One wrong move by anyone and the entire apple cart will be upset. The viewer will soon discover that their “familyscape” has long been bound together with a generous helping of duct tape and bailing wire, long overdue to come apart. For this reason, Esther’s calming presence is crucial to her family. Esther Swanson (Esty) was nicknamed “the smartest” by her father. Esty proves time and again throughout Morning’s at Seven that she is “the rock” of the family: the lone daughter with the ability to keep everyone and everything in check—most of the time. Life through the years has often brought moments when things began to unravel for one or more members within her extended family. Whenever the equilibrium has swayed out of balance, Esty has always been the one to push the pieces back into place, doing so with love and generosity. She is a woman of strong character (she has had to be), possessing the toughest emotional fiber of anyone in the play. Unfortunately, her husband David has never shared Esty’s passion for the rest of her family. David was once a well-respected university professor, before running his mouth off to the school’s president. He maintains an air of arrogance and snobbery, especially when it comes to his view of Esty’s simpler kin. In fact, things have now deteriorated to such a point that David has forbidden Esther to so much as visit with the “morons.” His professional confidence may have been damaged by his dismissal, but David continues to reek of intellectual elitism and cockiness. He’s determined to keep his wife apart from the rest of her brood and threatens her with marital separation within the house upon her next infraction, planning to banish Esty to the upper floor of their residence. Cora Swanson is the second to the eldest of the Gibbs women. She lives in a home immediately next to that of a third sister, Ida Bolton. Papa Gibbs called Cora “the mildest,” and she has a tendency to internalize her troubles. She is blessed to have a husband with a terrific sense of humor. Theodore (Thor) Swanson is a jovial man, different from the others in the play. He has a tendency to take most things in life in stride, preferring to tolerate the quirkiness of everyone else’s personality rather than criticize. Of all the men in the play, Thor is the only one who possesses much bonding ability, making him Esther’s male equivalent. Living with the Swansons is Aaronetta (Arry) Gibbs. She is the youngest, and the only unmarried

8 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 sister. Labeled “the wildest” by their dad, Arry has developed a “best defense is a good offense” sort of demeanor after four decades of living with Cora and Thor. At all times, Arry has a pressing urge to know what’s going on with everyone in the family and the neighborhood and is certain to have an opinion that she will voice on every conceivable matter. Arry has cultivated an extremely defen- sive position, convinced that someone in the family is always doing something behind her back. She also displays a strong attachment to her sister’s husband. Ida Bolton, tagged “the slowest,” is more timid than the other sisters. She is a devoted wife to husband Carl and mother to son Homer. She dreads the prospect of being left alone. In Morning’s at Seven she comes dangerously close to being abandoned by both of the men in her household simultaneously. Threatened by the frequent occurrence of her husband’s “spells” (which are really acute lapses of self-confidence), she is also somewhat reluctant about the idea of losing Homer to matrimony. Still, Ida has tried to do her motherly duty, encouraging him to socialize more with women. Carl Bolton suffers through emotional peaks and valleys, worsened by the arrival of his twi- light years. He agonizes continually over the misbegotten career decisions of his youth, longing to return to that “fork” in the road where he chose the wrong turn. As a result, the slightest amount of normal situational tension can send him plunging frantically into a state of panic, followed by a bout with depression. His son, Homer, has arrived at the age of forty, positioned at his own “fork in the road.” Homer has rarely shown the slightest sign of interest toward living with anyone else, or, for that matter, anywhere outside his parents’ home. Strangely, he has maintained a steady and long-term relationship with a woman he has kept completely away from his parents. Homer has always found one reason or another not to take the next logical step in his life, and this rattles Carl, who doesn’t want to see his son make the same kind of mistakes in life that he did. Carl has undertaken the extreme action of building a house for Homer, which sits empty up on the hill—to be moved into when, and if, Homer marries. Homer’s fiancée, Myrtle Brown, is a benignly sweet thirty-nine-year-old single working woman. Myrtle longs for her wedding day, allowing that she wouldn’t at all mind quitting her job to start a family with Homer. Carl and Ida sense that they are as close as they have ever been to hearing the news that they, and Myrtle, want to hear from Homer. Carl, naturally, is tormented by the idea that Myrtle may not think very much of him. Myrtle’s appearance on the scene is, quite possibly, the most excitement that any of these folks have had in many a year. Indeed, her romance with Homer conjures up memories of relationships consummated in the past for all of the seniors, and, just as importantly, of opportunities missed. A melancholy aura seems to vicariously infect all of the elders, and, as a result, they suddenly can hear the clock of opportunity in life just tick, tick, ticking away. Homer and Myrtle may be facing a major crossroad in their lives, but, in actuality, so are their elders. Within less than forty-eight hours of Myrtle’s train pulling in, the world of each character in the play is inverted: David banishes Esther to the upper floor and she decides to leave, Carl disap- pears, and Cora is the slimmest of threads away from taking Thor away to their new love nest. Arry and Ida are both threatened with abandonment. Homer calls off his engagement to Myrtle, who sees her opportunity for happiness slipping away. In a few moments, all of these relationships which have held up for so many years are in danger of being extinguished. Because we are drawn by playwright Paul Osborn to see the humor in their situation, the characters in Morning’s at Seven don’t appear to be a “normal” family, and yet they probably have much more in common with most of our families than we would freely admit. Upon further inspec- tion, the extended family of the play, on the whole, probably bears a strong resemblance to many American families. What family doesn’t get a little bit carried away in their personal lives at one

Utah Shakespeare Festival 9 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 time or another? In reality, all families suffer from differences of opinion, outbursts of individuality and insecurity, emotional spats, and quarrels sparked by jealousy. In the early part of the last century, when most folks simply “stayed put,” relationships and rivalries had more time to develop. As a result, they formed with greater longevity and complexity. In today’s world, a group of siblings such as the Gibbs sisters would be more likely to part ways with one another in search of education or employment. We still carry these same family rivalries with us, but nowadays we’re more likely to share our disagreements, heartaches, and disappointments long-distance via e-mail and cellular telephones. Today’s lifestyles often make the impact of family relationships less immediate and conflicts easier to avoid or delay. Genetics dictate that most siblings have considerable commonalities when it comes to their wants and desires in life. Because of simple human nature, it stands to reason that our yearnings may come into conflict at times. That Cora and Arry are attracted to the same man is no accident, nor is it coin- cidence that Carl’s son Homer doesn’t have adequate stability or acumen to determine what he really wants to do, or set a steady course toward a goal in life. Genetic factors can create the kind of personality compatibilities and oppositions that will determine the quotient of harmony and competition between children all their lives long, just as it has in Morning’s at Seven. Still, for all of the hilarious and seemingly dysfunctional behavior we are treated to in Morning’s at Seven, the play ultimately becomes the portrait of a strong family unit that survives personal trauma. Not unlike the release of tension in the earth by a severe quake at the fault line, the ground between these houses trembles mightily in order that stability may once again be restored. Despite all of their incompatibilities, turmoil, and squabbling, by staying together this family manages to hold onto one another in order to work through troubled times. The emotional support system they have developed is strong enough to help them outlast tremendous pressure. In the final analysis, the Gibbs Sisters offer us proof that the pitfalls engendered by a lengthy family history of unresolved issues can be overcome, albeit with varying degrees of difficulty. By maintaining their faith in the strength of the family unit, the characters in Morning’s at Seven (and most real families) have the ability to brave the storm, and resurface with their bindings intact. The function of their dysfunction is catharsis, which results in a renewed understanding of what makes the others unique and deserving of love and respect. In the end, it purges the family of whatever bad blood exists, allowing them to overcome trouble in the worst of times. Most importantly, the final unearthing of their “skeletons in the closet” enables them to extend and appreciate the most important gifts they receive— understanding and forgiveness.

10 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Utah Shakespeare Festival 11 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880