The Cocktail Party

Cocktail Party, The

    Author: T. S. Eliot

    First Performance: 1949, Edinburgh

    Published: 1950

    Genre: Com. in 3 acts; free verse

    Setting: Chamberlaynes' flat and Harcourt-Reilly's consulting room, London, 1940s

    Cast: 6m, 4f

Edward Chamberlayne, a middle-aged lawyer, is giving a cocktail party, at which there are: a voluble older woman Julia; Alex, who recounts amazing travellers' tales; Celia, an attractive young woman; Peter, a screenwriter; and a mysterious Unidentified Guest. Curiously, the hostess is missing, and when nearly all the guests have left, Edward confesses to the stranger that Lavinia has left him. The stranger promises to get her back on condition that Edward does not question her. Celia returns and hopes that, now Lavinia has gone, she and Edward can marry. But he refuses her, still hoping for...

[The entire page is 335 words long]

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