The Desk Set: A Comedy In Three Acts

by William Marchant

Shirley Booth opened to rave notices in this comedy about "the desk set" - a group of girls in the reference department of a television network. In the role of Bunny Watson she played a woman with encyclopedic knowledge, with facts and figures at her fingertips. All was serene and prosperous among the desk set until a methods engineer (efficiency expert) began installing Emmaracs around the office. These electronic brains could do the work of many persons, and soon began replacing whole departments in the company. But no mechanical brain could ever match Bunny Watson, and no efficiency expert could ever best her in a game of wits. She quickly spelled them both down, and both blew a fuse. In the midst of all the mayhem there is a typical office party at Christmas time, when all the girls get to kiss the boss, and when some young men think it's time they told him what they really think of him. And running throughout is romance, and just a little headache. Here is a rewarding and telling comedy, rich hilarity, and perfectly funny for anyone who has ever entered an office door. " A lot of good humorous observation." - NY Post. "A rollicking, frolicsome hit." - NY Daily Mirror

Genres: Plays, Drama

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

For the 19thC translator, see William Marchant

William Marchant (May 1, 1923 in Allentown, Pennsylvania – November 5, 1995 in Paramus, New Jersey) was a playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the play that served as the basis for the 1957 Walter Lang movie, The Desk Set.

Marchant was educated at Temple University in Philadelphia and the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut.

Marchant had been a resident of the Actor's Fund home in Englewood, New Jersey at the time of his death. He had earlier lived in the Stanton section of Readington Township, New Jersey, in a home owned by Broadway actress Dorothy Stickney.

Marchant's play, To Be Continued (which included a 23-year-old Grace Kelly in the cast), opened on April 23, 1952 at the Booth Theatre on Broadway and ran for 13 performances.

Marchant's most notable work, The Desk Set, opened on Broadway on October 24, 1955 at the Broadhurst Theatre and ran for 296 performances, with Shirley Booth in the lead role. The play served as the source material for an eponymous 1957 movie starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

In 1975, Marchant wrote The Privilege of his Company, a remembrance of Noël Coward, which was published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company.

He translated the French play Les Dames Du Jeudi for Lynn Redgrave and John Clark, who premiered it as Thursday's Girls in Los Angeles in 1982.


As a screenwriter, Marchant wrote several episodes for the Armchair Theatre and Armchair Mystery Theatre, dramatized Louise, a W. Somerset Maugham story, for a 1969 BBC Two television production, and worked on two films: Triple Cross (1966) and My Lover, My Son.

Reviews

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a mid-century, middlebrow comedy, The Desk Set is kind of a bizarre play. On the one hand, it's loaded with 1950s kitsch: female employees running out of the office midday to buy party dresses at Bonwit's; jokes about philandering executives and sexpot secretaries; a rather un-PC joke about Mexicans. The main character is a super-smart, capable, acerbic woman named Bunny (something that really puzzled me when I saw the film version as a child -- how could the no-nonsense Katharine Hepburn play a woman with such a silly name?) who spends a bit too much time hoping that her boss/boyfriend, who's clearly not as awesome as she is, will put a ring on it.

On the other hand, The Desk Set is a play about four intelligent working women who fear that they are going to be replaced by a computer, which is a surprisingly modern problem. The depiction of Richard, the character who wants to install computers in the office, also feels perceptive about how "techies" behave: he's not a bad guy, but he's kind of single-minded and socially awkward. While the play has a happy ending that suggests that people and technology can coexist, 21st-century audiences may find it a little more poignant than originally intended. After all, the women in the play work for the research department of a broadcasting company, where their job is to do fact-checking and answer queries like "What are the names of Santa's reindeer?" (The play takes place around Christmas.) But these days, you can just pull out your iPhone and ask Siri.

[Faye Fite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great screen play! Epic dialogue like in the movies, but the plot ended differently. I really enjoyed it!

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming 50s comedy about the fear of technology replacing people in the work force- a subject still of interest to many, and thus oddly topical and relevant despite a couple quaint, dated moments and slightly embarrassing social faux pas (a brief discussion of sexual re-assignment therapy, for instance, is kind of funny for all the wrong reasons). Bunny remains a fantastic female lead, an incredibly intelligent woman who is intelligently written, despite spending a third of the play in a "will he ask her to marry him?" romance with a co-worker that seems like a waste of her time (especially as the gentleman is nowhere near as well-developed as she is). The movie improves on this by developing her relationship with the antagonist of the play- technology advocate Richard, who lacks the Spencer Tracy charm of the movie but is still a complex and textured character- the only male part in the play you can say that about. Rather refreshingly so, all the best parts in the play are women, with four solid leads for the ladies and three fun supporting roles. A great play for a high school, the right production, heavy on the nostalgia and kitcsh design, could definitely work in a non-academic setting as well and be a charming addition to a theater season.

[Cheryl]

Enjoyed the movie yesterday, despite a few quibbles with the plausibility that Bunny and the girls would be so *very* set on marrying and other bits that date it. And poor Miss Marriner (sp?). I see from other reviews that there are minor changes from the play; I would like to see if they're enough to make a difference in vibe and import (as is so often the case).

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it! They hardly changed anything when they made the Hepburn/Tracy film adaptation, not even the set design. Fabulous wit and fun, no one writes romantic comedy like this anymore which is a very sad thing indeed. Cheer yourself up by reading it!

[Jaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I would like this. I did not

[Carolyn Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the witty repartee, and this would be a fun play to be in--but I see why the movie is so much more popular--to start, how can you top that Hepburn/Tracy chemistry?! Everybody give up and go home, it's over! There are also a few sections in the play that must have been hilarious in the fifties, but are now so CRINGE (off-hand remarks making fun of the trans and hispanic communities are SO not gonna fly today, even in our mostly-white midwest small-town theater). I also wasn't as crazy about the play's ending, though I guess the original relationship between Richard and Bunny makes that ending more logical.

It's a good play, but would require modification to make it playable today, and I'm not a big fan of altering any script unless absolutely necessary.