Insights A Study Guide to the Utah Shakespeare Festival Harvey 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: Sam Stuart in Harvey, 2002. Contents InformationHarvey on the Play Synopsis 4 Characters 5 About the Playwright 5 Scholarly Articles on the Play Almost Magical Relationship 6 Utah Shakespeare Festival 3 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Synopsis: Harvey It is a spring afternoon at the Dowd family home, and a tea for the high-society ladies of the Wednesday Forum is in full swing. The hostess, Veta Louise Simmons, is hoping that the event will allow her daughter, Myrtle Mae, now in her twenties and still unmarried, to mingle with the moth- ers and grandmothers of some of the town’s remaining eligible bachelors. However, to Veta’s horror, her brother, Elwood P. Dowd, arrives home unexpectedly and in the company of his closest friend, Harvey, a six foot one-and-a-half inch tall white rabbit—a friend nobody else can see. Veta and Myrtle Mae are mortified as Elwood who, ever pleasant and polite, begins introducing his compan- ion to the ladies of the Wednesday Forum. The embarrassing family secret is now exposed, and all that Veta and Myrtle Mae can do is watch helplessly as their guests flee the house. In spite of the fact that they are living in Elwood’s house and being supported by his money, Veta and Myrtle Mae vow that this is the last time they will be humiliated by his eccentric behav- ior. They determine that the only solution is to commit Elwood to Chumley’s Rest, a sanitarium. Later that afternoon, they arrive by cab with Elwood at the sanitarium. Elwood is hustled away by Wilson, the sanitarium orderly. In the office, Veta meets with Dr. Sanderson and attempts to explain the situation of her brother and his invisible rabbit companion. Veta’s agitated state of mind, however, leads Dr. Sanderson to the conclusion that a terrible mis- take has been made and that it is she, not her brother, who is the one in need of treatment—so he releases Elwood and sends Veta off to the hydro-therapy tub. In an ensuing conversation between Dr. Sanderson and his superior, Dr. Chumley, it gradu- ally becomes clear that yet another mistake has been made. It is indeed Elwood, not Veta, who was to have been committed. Veta, having suffered many indignities, is thus released, and the hunt for Elwood is on. In the ensuing confusion, the doctors, Veta, and Elwood all try to figure out who is really crazy—no one, everyone, Elwood, Veta, or the doctors themselves? What, afterall, as the cab driver says, is “a perfectly normal human being”? Of course, it all gets sorted out in the end, but there are many surprises (as well as comic doses of wisdom) along the way, as everyone questions just what exactly is real. Characters: Harvey 4 Utah Shakespeare Festival 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Myrtle Mae Simmons: The daughter of Veta Simmons, Myrtle Mae is in her early twenties and still unmarried, a source of concern to her mother. Veta Simmons: Myrtle Mae’s mother and Elwood’s sister, Veta considered herself a member of the “better society” of their small town and is a member of the Wednesday Forum, a social club for the ladies of the town. She is, however, slightly embarrassed by her brother. Elwood P. Dowd: Veta’s brother, Elwood is forty-seven years old and owns the family home he lives in with Myrtle and Veta. He is pleasant, loveable, and a friend to everyone. He enjoys his visits to the neighborhood bar, but is by no means a drunk. Miss Johnson: The maid Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet: Sixty-five years old, Mrs. Chauvenet is wealthy and a member of the Wednesday Forum. She also has a marriageable grandson about Myrtle’s age. Ruth Kelly, R.N.: Twenty-four yeas old and pretty, Ruth is head nurse at Chumley’s Rest, a sani- tarium for mental patients. Duane Wilson: About twenty-eight years old, large, and muscular, Duane is the sanitarium’s atten- dant and strong arm. He admires Dr. Chumley, perhaps excessively. Dr. Lyman Sanderson: A young doctor of psychiatry, Dr. Sanderson is quite attractive and has caught the Ruth’s eye. Dr. William R. Chumley: In his late fifties, Dr. Chumley is the head of Chumley’s Rest. He is a con- fident, sometimes pompous, man. Betty Chumley: Dr. Chumley’s wife, Mrs. Chumley is a lovely woman about fifty-five years old. Judge Omar Gaffney: An elderly lawyer, Judge Gaffney represents the estate of Veta and Elwood’s late mother. E.J. Lofgren: An ultimately wise cab driver Mary Coyle Chase: Utah Shakespeare Festival 5 351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880 Writing for the Human Spirit From Insights, 2002 By Marlo M. Ihler Mary Coyle Chase was born February 25, 1907, in Denver, Colorado. Her parents, Frank Bernard and Mary McDonough Coyle, came to the United States from Ireland, whose legends and folklore would later play a part in Mary’s writings. At the age of fifteen, she graduated from West High School (Denver) and attended both the University of Denver and the University of Colorado (Boulder). When she was eighteen, she became a newspaper reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, Denver’s oldest newspaper, and in 1928 she married fellow reporter, Robert L. Chase. She left the newspaper in 1931 to raise three sons and to work as a freelance writer. Throughout the rest of her life she wrote numerous children’s books, short stories, newspaper articles and plays. Harvey was by far her most successful work. She died in 1981 at the age of 74. Chase’s first plays brought her marginal success. Me, Third was produced by a Works Project Administration (WPA) theatre in Denver and was later produced on Broadway, renamed Now You’ve Done It. Her next play, Sorority House, was the most autobiographical of her plays. It played in Denver and was later made into a movie in 1939. Too Much Business, a children’s play, premiered in 1940 while A Slip of a Girl, a short comedy, was written and performed for army camps around the Denver area. In 1942 she began working on Harvey, a play about a friendly inebriate named Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible companion, a six-foot one-and-a-half inch white rabbit. Its inspiration came from two experiences in her life. The first was a dream she had about a psychiatrist being chased by a giant white rabbit. It reminded her of stories her Irish uncles had told about pookas, “mischievous goblins or spectors . in Irish folklore [who] appear only to those who believe” in them (Penrose Library Special Collections, www.penlib.du.edu/specoll/Chase/Chasebio.html). The second inspiration came when one day she took notice of her widowed neighbor who had lost her only son in war just two months earlier. In reflection Chase asked herself: “Would I ever possibly write anything that might make this woman laugh again?” (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 228. Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, p. 44). Hoping to bring laughter and respite to war-torn America, she set to work. The play took Chase two years to write, during which time she also wrote a weekly radio program for the Teamster’s Union. She would write in the evenings after her children were in bed and her husband had gone to work. Harvey was rewritten over fifty times and was finally submitted to New York producer Brock Pemberton who accepted it immediately. It opened to rave reviews on Broadway in 1944 and ran for four and a half years at the 48th Street Theatre. It played for a total of 1,755 performances, making it one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. Critic Louis Nichols was pleasantly surprised by Harvey, calling it “one of the delights of the season” (New York Times, 11 Nov. 1944). Other reviewers attributed its overwhelming success to “its escapist theme [that] appealed to audiences trying to take leave of the harsh realities of the world . during World War II” (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 228. Twentieth-Century American Dramatists, p. 45). Following its success on Broadway, Chase received the Pulitzer Prize for Harvey as the best drama of the 1944-45 season. It also grabbed Hollywood’s attention. A 1947 New York Times article reported that Universal-International purchased the play with intent of making it a movie for $1 million, more than any previously purchased play or book.