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States of grace: Eight plays
"Barry was one of the most successful practitioners of the now lost art of writing high comedy. From the twenties through the forties, he turned out a number of hit comedies - Holiday, The Animal Kingdom, The Philadelphia Story - and a number of serious plays that were perhaps of greater importance to him - among them, White Wings, Hotel Universe, and Here Come the Clowns. Mr. Gill's 20,000-word introduction...is a small book in itself, placing Barry not only in his period but also in his favored milieu (among the rich) and in his relationships to such friends as Fitzgerald, O'Hara and Gerald Murphy..." (from dust jacket). This book includes You and I, White Wings, Holiday, Hotel Universe, The Animal Kingdom, Here Come the Clowns, The Philadelphia Story, and Second Threshold.
655 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Philip Barry
40 books14 followersPhilip James Quinn Barry was an American playwright, best known for the plays Holiday and The Philadelphia Story, both of which were successfully adapted into movies starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn (as well as James Stewart, in The Philadelphia Story).
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July 6, 2022
You and I (****)—An incisive look at what happens when you give up your dreams for more substantial fare. Every time you make a decision, you give up an opportunity. Will you live to regret your choices? And if you knew someone else in the same position, what advice would you give?
White Wings (*)—It’s the same old story: horses vs. autos, old vs. new, family expectations and legacies vs. your secretly yearned-for vocation, young love vs. duty and family honor. What I want to know is, is how they work the whole horse thing?
Holiday (****)—It takes all kinds of people to make a world—and sometimes a couple of kinds meet up, decide they are the same kind, then are heartbroken when they’re not. I first saw this film with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. I was not as impressed with the movie then as I am with the play now.
Hotel Universe (*)—First of all, let me just say I don’t like putting songs in a play. Either it’s a musical and advances the plot (sort of) or you leave it alone and stick to the play. If you throw a song in a play, I don’t know about the rest of the audience, but I get bored pretty quickly and embarrassed for the performer. As for the rest of the play—I hated it. A bunch of sad, lonely people milling about and being generally desperate. The general idea of the plot is that time blurs together in the house, and the people all start to look like other people and your past comes back to haunt you, all in this sort of abstract, metaphysical sense. Then it starts getting truly bizarre, and honestly reminded me of John Guare’s “Marco Polo Sings a Solo” which I did NOT expect from the author of “Philadelphia Story”—but then, how can one expect anything from an author one has only read a few plays from?
The Animal Kingdom (***)—I’m sensing a trend here—all of Barry’s plays seem to be about people with a “higher” calling, in conflict with relatives or loved ones that want them to prostitute themselves for prosperity. Here, Philip Barry strings another yarn of repressed freedom—he forsakes his best friend, a woman he’s lived three years with, to marry a woman who turns out to be the worst sort of tramp. I really liked the drama and comedy in this play.
Here Come the Clowns (*)—Another tragedy. My goodness, did NOTHING go right in this man Clancy’s life? Apparently not.
The Philadelphia Story (****)—My first viewing of this story was in its musical iteration as the 1950s "High Society". After, I watched the movie with Katherine Hepburn. I really liked this play. It has comedy and social philosophy and romance. Well written and it has aged spectacularly well.
Second Threshold (****)—BAHAHAHA now THIS is a comedy. I just about died giggling. Some great opportunities for dialogue scene-study. I don’t see that they’ve adapted this into a movie (the ambiguous suicidal intentions may have been a bit much for the censors in the 40s and 50s) but I’d sure love to see it on stage!
White Wings (*)—It’s the same old story: horses vs. autos, old vs. new, family expectations and legacies vs. your secretly yearned-for vocation, young love vs. duty and family honor. What I want to know is, is how they work the whole horse thing?
Holiday (****)—It takes all kinds of people to make a world—and sometimes a couple of kinds meet up, decide they are the same kind, then are heartbroken when they’re not. I first saw this film with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. I was not as impressed with the movie then as I am with the play now.
Hotel Universe (*)—First of all, let me just say I don’t like putting songs in a play. Either it’s a musical and advances the plot (sort of) or you leave it alone and stick to the play. If you throw a song in a play, I don’t know about the rest of the audience, but I get bored pretty quickly and embarrassed for the performer. As for the rest of the play—I hated it. A bunch of sad, lonely people milling about and being generally desperate. The general idea of the plot is that time blurs together in the house, and the people all start to look like other people and your past comes back to haunt you, all in this sort of abstract, metaphysical sense. Then it starts getting truly bizarre, and honestly reminded me of John Guare’s “Marco Polo Sings a Solo” which I did NOT expect from the author of “Philadelphia Story”—but then, how can one expect anything from an author one has only read a few plays from?
The Animal Kingdom (***)—I’m sensing a trend here—all of Barry’s plays seem to be about people with a “higher” calling, in conflict with relatives or loved ones that want them to prostitute themselves for prosperity. Here, Philip Barry strings another yarn of repressed freedom—he forsakes his best friend, a woman he’s lived three years with, to marry a woman who turns out to be the worst sort of tramp. I really liked the drama and comedy in this play.
Here Come the Clowns (*)—Another tragedy. My goodness, did NOTHING go right in this man Clancy’s life? Apparently not.
The Philadelphia Story (****)—My first viewing of this story was in its musical iteration as the 1950s "High Society". After, I watched the movie with Katherine Hepburn. I really liked this play. It has comedy and social philosophy and romance. Well written and it has aged spectacularly well.
Second Threshold (****)—BAHAHAHA now THIS is a comedy. I just about died giggling. Some great opportunities for dialogue scene-study. I don’t see that they’ve adapted this into a movie (the ambiguous suicidal intentions may have been a bit much for the censors in the 40s and 50s) but I’d sure love to see it on stage!
Displaying 1 of 1 review