Natural Affection

by William Inge

As she awaits the impending Christmas visit of her teenage son, Donnie, Sue Barker is torn between the love she feels as a mother and the fear that his presence will disrupt the life that she has built in his absence. Having been deserted by the boy's father before his birth, Sue was forced to support herself, leaving Donnie to a childhood of orphan homes, delinquency and ultimately a term at the penal farm. Working her way up to a position of head lingerie buyer for a Chicago department store, Sue has acquired a small but fashionable apartment and a lover, Bernie Slovenk. When Donnie announces that he will not have to go back to the farm if she will give him a home the crisis is broached. Although Bernie makes a half-hearted attempt to be affable with the boy, there is immediate tension between them and a growing sense of competition. The inescapable showdown comes on Christmas Eve when the couple from next door joins the others for a party. The wife throws herself first at Bernie and then at Donnie, but not before making it evident that she and Bernie have been something more than friendly neighbors. When the husband, Vince, goes out on the town, Sue and Bernie give vent to the animosity that has risen up between them, and Bernie leaves her, storming next door to spend the night. In the morning, and despite Donnie's pleas that he can make up for the loss of Bernie, Sue runs after Bernie, and her son, overwhelmed by the futility and hopelessness of his tortured existence, turns blindly on a nameless woman whom Vince has brought home with him, attacking her savagely in an act of desperate, lethal and inevitable violence.

Genres: Plays

72 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1963

About the author

Dramas of American playwright William Motter Inge explored the expectations and fears of small-town Midwesterners; his play Picnic (1953) won a Pulitzer Prize.

Works of this novelist typically feature solitary protagonists, encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, Broadway produced a memorable string. Inge rooted his portraits of life and settings in the heartland.

Reviews

[Lorenzo DeStefano · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the pleasure of directing the 25th anniversary production of William Inge's brutal play, "NATURAL AFFECTION", in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. As contemporary reviewers have pointed out, this play, initially a failure on Broadway in 1963 starring Kim Stanley & Harry Guardino and directed by Tony Richardson, has caught up with the violent times and, in my production and others since, has come to be appreciated for its prophetic look at the disintegration of family life in the face of rising crime, marital and economic instability, and youthful alienation.

The play is, in many ways, an indictment of American values of the 1950s that Inge so skillfully depicted in his better known plays, "BUS STOP", "COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA", "PICNIC", and "THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS".

My cast and I found the play bold, highly visual, and particularly wrenching. Where we are now as a culture is a better time to look at the disturbing view of modern life which Inge gives us. Unfortunately, violence has become much more of an everyday fact in people's lives, whether we experience it firsthand or see it spread across our consciousness as "Breaking News". The play's depiction of family violence is not such an abstract thing as it was when the play was first presented. It is very real.

Inge's comment about his work kind of sums it up. "I have a tendency, after a play of mine is produced, to look back on it disparagingly, seeing only its faults; before production, I see only its virtues."

For more on our production of "NATURAL AFFECTION" at Theatre 40 and the Zephyr Theatre visit http://www.lorenzodestefano.com/natur....

Lorenzo DeStefano - Kansas Productions

[Igetnervousinsocialsituationsmotherfucker]

What I learned from this book...is that a mother's love is there to be had. If you don't want it, then don't fuckin cry about it afterwards when you realized your shit ain't right without Mother's love.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This show flopped on Broadway when it was first produced, but I think it was just ahead of its time. A very powerful play from William Inge, and very contemporary.