Another Language A Play in Three Acts

by Rose Franken

Another Language

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Rose Dorothy Lewin Franken was born on December 28th 1895, in Gainesville, Texas and was one of the most popular and influential Jewish woman writers of her day. She was a celebrated Broadway playwright and director, a Hollywood screenwriter and a popular novelist whose fiction touched a sympathetic chord in American women. Franken's work reflects her personal struggle with traditional gender roles and her ambivalence about balancing domestic and career commitments.

Novelist and short story writer Rose Franken crossed over into the theater with the surprise hit of her play Another Language in 1932. Her sharp-eyed observations about the American family gave tang to her domestic dramas Claudia (1941) and The Hallams (1947). Social concerns such as antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, and war fueled her other plays such as Outrageous Fortune (1943), Doctors Disagree (1943), and Soldier’s Wife (1944).

Franken was married to William Brown Meloney who helped bring the Claudia stories to the radio. They had three sons.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potentially excellent play but constrained by the moral values of its time. Aunt Stella, the free-spirited artist, and Jerry, the young, rebellious man, flirt with independence, but ultimately Stella chooses domesticity after winning her small concessions from her husband's oppressive family.