The Collected Plays

by Lillian Hellman

Twelve of Lillian Hellman's plays, including "The Children's Hour", "Candide", and "The Little Foxes". Included are all of her works for the theatre. This edition supersedes any previous collections and editions.

Genres: Drama, Fiction, Theatre, Plays

854 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Lillian Florence "Lilly" Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American dramatist and screenwriter famously blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947–52.

Hellman was praised for sacrificing her career by refusing to answer questions by HUAC; but her denial that she had ever belonged to the Communist Party was easily disproved, and her veracity was doubted by many, including war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and literary critic Mary McCarthy.

She adapted her semi-autobiographical play The Little Foxes into a screenplay which received an Academy Award nomination in 1942.

Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett for thirty years until his death.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Children's Hour
I remember now why I avoid tragedy. Good grief…lesbian panic, suicide, lies…all resulting in ruined lives, all in the first play. I hope it can only get better from here.
Days to Come
Great, a family drama set against the backdrop of a labor dispute—that I read on Labor Day. Totally not intentional.
All the Little Foxes
Oooh, she really lays in. All the Little Foxes, and boy are they cunning, each trying to out-fox the other. Also, the idea of Tallulah Bankhead as Regine is just amazing, I know Bette Davis played the role in the movie, but it's just so Tallulah Bankhead.
Watch on the Rhine
Wow, Kurt's an anti-hero like no other. I mean, when your hero explicitly says that doing the wrong thing is always wrong, even if it's for the right reasons, he's given you the moral lesson that we really need and really need to learn.
The Searching Wind
"History is made by the masses of people. One man, or ten men, don't start the earthquakes and don't stop them either. Only hero worshippers and ignorant historians think they do."
Another Part of the Forest
Dang, they were all scheming and vindictive, but Ben was almost sociopathic. It's like he just wanted to find a way to take out his frustration against his father. And enjoyed it when he did. And his motives, as almost everyone else in the family's, were purely selfish."
Montserrat
The tone is very different from her other plays, this one being a translation, but the subject is right up her alley. And yet I'm still surprised that it doesn't have a happy ending.
The Autumn Garden
Sophie was, for me, the most interesting character. She's completely in control of pretty much everything that happens to her, and yet aloof the entire time.
The Lark
Are we surprised to have a play about Joan the Maid at the height of McCarthyism? No. No we are not.
Candide
A cute little morality play. Although I've sung most of this, it never occurred to me that I hand't seen it or been in it.
Also, although the majority of it was flippant and light-hearted, there were some surprisingly pathetic (as in full of pathos) moments, and not only from Pangold, Candide has his moments too.
Toys in the Attic
Impressively, I didn't notice it in The Autumn Garden, but the servants went from being "negro" in Another Part Of The Forest, to being "colored" in The Autumn Garden. My, what a difference five years makes.
Well that was more depressing than possibly any other. None of the characters were worth a damn, and the tragedy was oh, so tragic.
My Mother, My Father, and Me
Well that was an excellent tutorial in cultural appropriation. The jewish family drama without any of the real hallmarks of the jewish family drama. The stereotypical white boy who has all of the answers for every non-white person in america, but spends his entire life "finding himself" (literally).
They're generally really good, as dramas, but they definitely peak towards the middle and drop off pretty quickly after Candide. And the ones that were made into movies are better by leaps and bounds than the others.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hellman creates vivid and lively characters and she is a master at natural yet compelling dialogue. Yet there is a melodrama in her plays, a manipulation of emotions and a black/white sense of morality. She's certainly worth reading and I'd highly recommend a couple of the plays.

Little Foxes – **** This is a wonderful play with vivid characters, particularly the female ones. The play is Faulkneresque, telling the story of the Southern people coming to terms with the end of one era (pre-Civil War agrarian/plantation life) and the start of the next (industrial/capitalist). The Hubbards are a Snopes-like clan taking advantage of this new world – and often their neighbors – to become rich and take over as the new gentry.

In Little Foxes, the plot revolves around the building of a cotton mill. The Hubbard siblings plot, steal and even murder to get their investment into the mill. As in Faulkner’s Snopes novels, the Hubbards eventually get what they want – particularly Regina in the play.

The play is a thinly veiled critique of capitalism. It’s hard to understand Hellman’ attitude toward the South’s agrarian/plantation era. It seems to be presented as an idealistic paradise, though that could hardly be the case in reality. More likely Hellman is simply imitating an attitude of many in the South at that time. Additionally, the idea that the plantation culture rose above capitalism is absurd. Plantation life was a part and parcel of capitalism and the pursuit of wealth.

In the play, the Hubbards, representing capitalism, are a lying, destructive, cheating force. Usurious loans to the disadvantaged, poverty wages, etc., are the modus operandi of the Hubbards and their ilk. As the servant notes: “Well, there are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. Then there are people who stand around and watch them eat it…. Sometimes I think it ain’t right to stand and watch them do it.”

This diet has served the Hubbards well. Each sibling contributes more than $70,000 to the new mill. That would have to be well over a million dollars in today’s money – and that just represents the cash they have on hand.

As a story about a particular family, this kind of villainy is fine. It’s a bit hard to swallow as a critique of all capitalism. It raises no viable alternative. It’s probably better to ignore the “message” of the play and take the characters at face values.

Doing that, you have a rich and vivid drama. However, the ending feels a bit abrupt. Where does Alexandra go? Does Addie go with her? Does the mill succeed? (Hardly a given thing in my mind.)

Regardless of these questions, this is a very good play. (01/16)


Watch on the Rhine – *** Is it possible that solutions are actually simpler than we thought? Do we overthink our responses to problems? Is this overthinking a way to hide ourselves from the problem and declare “What can I do?” and do nothing?

These are the things I thought about after reading Watch on the Rhine. Hellman’s play presents the solution to fascism in a rather simple light. Get off your butt, take it on and perform suicidal tasks. Kurt seems to think he is the only person that can resist, and his active life-threatening (suicidal?) acts are the only way to fight facism.

This play is full of vivid and interesting characters, including Fanny, Teck, Anise, Bodo and others. The play centers, though, on Kurt and he is the least delineated. His machine-like, compassionless fight against facism is odd. I say “compassionless” because he willingly puts the lives of his children as risk for his cause – and a seemingly suicidal act.

And why would Kurt go through all the effort to escape Germany penniless, travel all the way to America with his family, yet carry money they need in Germany for their resistance efforts? Is he the only person in this resistance effort? And why does his wife practically push him out the door to get killed? (Sara is equally flat and unbelievable.)

The fascists, though, would have no trouble killing him – and 14 million others. It makes one wonder if it weren’t smarter for him to escape Germany and then help the American or British in their war against the Nazis.

This is an interesting play, particularly the first half. The end just is so odd that it’s hard to sympathize with Kurt. He comes off somewhat crazy. (01/16)


The Lark – **** You can see my review of this play here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Howard Siegman taught "The Children's Hour" and "The Little Foxes" when I was an undergraduate at Hofstra University but he might just as easily have assigned us to read "Watch on the Rhine" and "Days to Come," two other Broadway shows that demonstrate Lillian Hellman's exciting mix of soap opera and progressive politics. Her adaptations -- "The Lark," "Montserrat," and "My Mother, My Father and Me" -- may have a certain fascination but Hellman's at her best when she's just doing her own crackling thing with a nod to no one but herself.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just read the one play - "The Children's Hour." I'm hoping to have time to read the rest.

TCH was a truly great play!