The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on
Alcestis, by the Ancient Greek playwright
Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven plays in his lifetime, although his
1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better remembered today.
The Cocktail Party was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949,
and in 1950 it had successful runs in New York and London theaters. It focuses on a troubled married couple who, through the
intervention of a mysterious stranger, settles their problems and move on with their lives. The play starts out seeming to be a
light satire of the traditional British drawing room comedy. As it progresses, however, the
work becomes a darker philosophical treatment of human relations. As in many of Eliot's works, the play uses absurdist elements
to expose the isolation of the human condition. In another recurring theme of Eliot's plays, the Christian martyrdom of the
mistress character is seen as a sacrifice that permits the predominantly secular life of the community to continue.
In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University Eliot criticized his own plays in the second half of the lecture, explicitly the
plays Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party. The lecture was published as "Poetry and
Drama" and later included in Eliot's 1957 collection On Poetry and Poets.
Synopsis
Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne are separated after five years of marriage. She leaves Edward just as they are about to host a
cocktail party at their London home, and he has to come up with an explanation for why Lavinia is not present, in order to keep
up social appearances. Lavinia is brought back by a mysterious Unidentified Guest at the party, who turns out to be a
psychiatrist whom Edward and Lavinia both consult. They each learn that they have been deceiving themselves and must face life's
realities. They learn that their life together, though hollow and superficial, is preferable to life apart. This message is
difficult for the play's third main character, Edward's mistress, to accept. She, with the psychiatrist's urging, also moves on
towards a life of greater honesty and salvation and becomes a Christian martyr in Africa. Two years later, Edward and Lavinia,
now better adjusted, host another cocktail party.
Characters
- Edward Chamberlayne
- Lavinia Chamberlayne
- Celia Copplestone, Edward's mistress
- Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, the mysterious stranger/psychiatrist
- Miss Barraway, Sir Henry's secretary
- The couple's friends:
- Peter, with whom Livinia and also Celia has an affair
- Julia Shuttlethwaite
- Alexander MacColgie Gibbs
Productions
After its debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949 with Alec Guiness in the role of the
uninvited guest, The Cocktail Party premiered on Broadway on January 21 1950, at the Henry Miller's
Theatre and ran for 409 performances. Directed by E. Martin Browne, the production starred Guinness as the mysterious
stranger. It received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play. The play also ran in London with
Rex Harrison as the uninvited guest.
A revival opened on October 7, 1968, at the Lyceum Theatre and ran for 44
performances. The Chamberlaynes were played by Brian Bedford and Frances Sternhagen, with Sydney Walker as the mysterious
stranger.
Guinness returned to the role of the uninvited guest at the Chichester Festival under his own direction in 1968, taking the production to
London later in the year.
References
Further reading
- T. S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays
- Grover Smith, T.S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning
- E. Martin Browne, The Making of T.S. Eliot's Plays.
External links
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