Hellman, Lillian (Vol. 4) - Hellman, Lillian 1905–
Hellman, Lillian 1905–
Ms Hellman is a prize-winning American dramatist. Most of her plays are set in or near New Orleans. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 13-14.)
In Toys in the Attic, Miss Hellman has picked up the sword of judgment many playwrights of the period have laid aside and wields it with renewed vigor. But this time, compassion guides her hand so that she performs surgery on her characters instead of summarily decapitating them, and she gives some heed, too, to the pathos of misunderstanding and the power of circumstance. The reach of compassion in the play extends even to an unseen character, a woman whose hatred for an unscrupulous husband and desire to get away from him at all costs lead her into a shoddy scheme for mulcting him of a small fortune in exchange for a piece of swamp land he needs for one of his speculations. This woman, who never appears on the stage although she is in league with the young hero of...
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