The Silver Cord

Silver Cord, The (1926), a play by Sidney Howard. [ John Golden Theatre, 112 perf.] Mrs. Phelps (Laura Hope Crews) is a pathologically possessive mother determined to destroy the engagement of her son Robert (Earle Larimore) to Hester (Margalo Gillmore), as well as the marriage of her son David (Eliot Cabot) and his wife, Christina (Elizabeth Risdon). When Christina accuses her of being little more than a civilized cannibal, she responds, “I would cut off my hands and burn out my eyes to rid my son of you.” She succeeds in driving Hester to suicide and cowing Robert, but with Christina's encouragement David breaks his mother's “silver cord.” Gilbert Gabriel of the Sun called the Theatre Guild production “a play for the mature, the unafraid; and to them it guarantees an evening of excitive truths and rare dramatic instinct.” While many critics compared the piece favorably with George Kelly's study of a selfish spouse, Craig's Wife, it failed to find the large public of the earlier play.