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Men in White | Introduction

Men in White, originally presented by the Group Theatre in New York in 1933, was Sidney Kingsley’s first play. The drama focuses on the personal sacri- fices required by the medical profession. The main theme of the play is summed up in one of the doctor’s final utterances: ‘‘It’s not easy for any of us. But in the end our reward is something richer than simply living. Maybe it’s a kind of success that world out there can’t measure . . . maybe it’s a kind of glory.’’

Men in White grew out of Kingsley’s longstanding interest in the medical field. As he explained more than fifty years later in Sidney Kingsley, Five Prizewinning Plays, ‘‘I worked and spent an enormous amount of time in the hospitals of New York and was so impressed with the study of the history of medicine and the achievements made in the previous decade.’’ Kingsley witnessed firsthand those doctors he applauded in his dedication, ‘‘the men in medicine who dedicate themselves, with quiet heroism, to man.’’ Kingsley’s diligent research paid off in his writing; theatergoers, critics, and the medical community alike responded favorably to the realism and idealism that forms the backbone of Men in White.

The play also started Kingsley’s tradition of dealing with significant social issues—issues that many other writers were unwilling to explore or even raise. A pivotal plot twist in which a young woman dies of a botched abortion gave Kingsley the opportunity to speak out in support of legalized abortion, a practice that was not adopted in the United States until 1973. As Nena Couch points out in her introduction to Sidney Kingsley, Five Prizewinning Plays, ‘‘In Men in White Kingsley did what was clearly characteristic of him and what has marked his long career—to present on the stage a major human concern boldly and without apology or disguise.’’

Men in White Summary

Act I
Men in White opens in the library of a metropolitan hospital where members of the staff are gathered. Hochberg, the chief of the surgical staff, and Ferguson, an intern, are discussing Mr. Hudson, a wealthy patient who is about to be discharged. Ferguson is engaged to Hudson’s daughter Laura. After the couple marry, they plan to go to Vienna, where he will study surgery. The following year, he will return to work with Hochberg. Ferguson finds out that he needs to stay at the hospital with one of his patients. He agrees to break his evening plans with Laura. Then an emergency calls him to the operating room.

Scene ii opens in Hudson’s hospital room, which Hochberg and Laura soon enter, and they discuss the demands of the medical profession. Hochberg points out that the next five years are crucial to Ferguson’s career as a surgeon. After Ferguson joins the group, he and Laura are soon left alone. When he tells her that he has to cancel their plans for that evening, she gets very upset. She tells him that she cannot put up with his demanding schedule much longer. She threatens to break their engagement if he does not promise to forgo his studies with Hochberg and instead open a private practice after returning from Vienna. Before they can discuss the situation in depth, Ferguson has to run off to attend to an emergency.

Ferguson has been called to see a young diabetic who has lost consciousness. When he arrives at her room, he finds the girl’s own doctor, Cunningham, is already there. The two doctors disagree on the diagnosis. Cunningham believes the girl has slipped into a diabetic coma and orders insulin, but Ferguson thinks she has gone into shock. The men argue, and when Cunningham hesitates, Ferguson wrests the hypo of insulin from him and takes charge of the patient. His diagnosis proves correct and the patient recovers, but Cunningham threatens to report him nonetheless. After Cunningham leaves, Ferguson offers to give the nurse, Barbara, some medical notes for an exam. Before moving on to his next patient, he promises to leave the notes on the first floor for her.

Later that evening, Ferguson, who has retired to his room, has a brief conversation with Laura in which she asks him to make a decision about their future. A former student of Hochberg’s named Levine, who is now in... » Complete Men in White Summary