Toys in the Attic

Toys in the Attic (1960), a play by Lillian Hellman. [Hudson Theatre, 556 perf.; NYDCC Award.] Carrie (Maureen Stapleton) and Anna Berniers (Anne Revere) are two spinsters who live in genteel poverty and who have few pleasures in life except their ne'er‐do‐well brother, Julian (Jason Robards). When he marries and seems on the verge of making an illicit fortune, the sisters become frightened of losing him. The battle between the sisters and Julian's wife, Lily (Rochelle Oliver), drives the sisters apart, destroys Julian's scheme to get rich, and crushes Julian as well. No one gives any credence to his promise to start again. The Kermit Bloomgarden production was Hellman's last hit before she abandoned the theatre. It displayed her knife‐sharp insight into human rapacity and sexual longing.