Waiting for Lefty
Waiting for Lefty,short play by Clifford Odets, produced by the Group Theatre in 1935 and published the same year.
Members of the taxicab drivers' union meet to decide whether or not to strike, and while they await the arrival of the popular committeeman Lefty Costello, they are addressed by the capitalist agent Harry Fatt, who attempts to discourage the plan. Six blackout scenes show the causes of the strike in terms of injustice, corrupt practices, and personal tragedy: Joe and Edna and The Young Hack and His Girl depict estrangement and frustration resulting from economic difficulties; Lab Assistant Episode and Interne Episode show demoralized capitalistic ethics; The Young Actor demonstrates the unequal conflict between art and commercialism; and Labor Spy Episode presents the perjured evidence of a bribed witness. The labor leader Agate Keller confutes the spy's testimony, and, when a messenger...
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