Craig's Wife (1926)
CRAIG'S WIFE
A DRAMA
By GEORGE KELLY
Mrs. Craig. “Really? And what is my secret?”
[Act I]
CRAIG’S WIFE
By GEORGE KELLY
THE author of those two highly successful satires, “The Torch-bearers” and “The Show-Off”, has in his latest play given us a dramatic portrait of a selfish woman. Mrs. Craig is house crazy—she worships her house as coldly as pagans do their idols, and frets so much about dust that a frank domestic reminds her that she will be dust herself some day. She is a woman whom every reader and play-goer will recognize with something like a start. Here again Mr. Kelly has shown an astounding understanding of American life with all its machinery. The response of the audiences and critics in New York, where it opened in October, 1925, testifies to its sincerity and truthfulness, as well as its qualities as entertainment.
CRAIG‘S WIFE
By George Kelly
The Show-Off—A Play
The Flattering Word and
other One-Act Plays
Craig’s Wife—A Drama
CRAIG’S WIFE
A Drama
BY
GEORGE KELLY
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1926
Copyright, 1925, 1926,
By George Kelly.
All rights reserved
Published January, 1926
Stage, screen and amateur rights for the production of this play are controlled by the author, George Kelly, 3665 Midvale Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No public readings or performances may be given without his written consent.
Printed in the United States of America
DEDICATED TO ROSALIE STEWART
“People who live to themselves, Harriet,
are generally left to themselves.”
Miss Austen.
“Craig’s Wife”, by George Kelly, was presented by Rosalie Stewart at the Morosco Theatre, New York City, on the night of Monday, October 12, 1925, with the following cast:
| Miss Austen | Anne Sutherland | |
| Mrs. Harold | Josephine Williams | |
| Mazie | Mary Gildea | |
| Mrs. Craig | Chrystal Herne | |
| Ethel Landreth | Eleanor Mish | |
| Walter Craig | Charles Trowbridge | |
| Mrs. Frazier | Josephine Hull | |
| Billy Birkmire | Arling Alcine | |
| Joseph Catelle | Arthur Shaw | |
| Harry | J. A. Curtis | |
| Eugene Fredericks | Nelan Jaap |
Play staged by the Author
GEORGE KELLY
is a young man who “seldom” goes “to the theatre”, and is confessedly “bored by musical comedies”, yet he has achieved signal success as a playwright. “The Show-Off” has practically become part of American dramatic literature is, in fact, according to Heywood Broun, “probably the best of all American comedies.” “Craig's Wife”, his most recent play, is an effective and artistic portrayal of a woman whose type is universally familiar in real life, but singularly unusual in book or play.
In spite of his distaste, or perhaps because of his distaste for the stage as viewed from the audience, George Kelly’s life has been bound up with the theatre. It has been his business and his career.
Born at Falls of Schuylkill, not far from Philadelphia, descended, as he says, from “the Kings of Ireland”, educated in public schools and through “private sources”, he entered the dramatic profession when he was twenty-one, and played juvenile roles in New York City and with various touring companies, continuing as a vaudeville headliner and frequently appearing in one-act plays of his own authorship.
“Finders Keepers”, one of his earliest attempts, has since been included in an anthology of best short plays . “The Torch-bearers”, his first long play, a satire on the little theatre movement, confirmed the promise of his earlier work, and indicated the potentialities which “The Show-Off” and “Craig's Wife” have proved.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1974, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 49 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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