And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little

by Paul Zindel

Their father having deserted them in their childhood, the three Reardon sisters have grown up in a house of women, dominated by their mother, who is only recently dead. But time has erased the tender closeness of girlhood; one sister has married and cut herself off; another has begun to drink more than she should; and the third, after a scandalous incident at the school where she teaches, is on the brink of madness. When the married sister comes to dinner to press the need for committing her sibling to an institution, the simmering resentments of many years burst alive and are exacerbated by the intrusion of a well-meaning but boorish neighbor couple, whose unexpected arrival impels the action towards its shattering conclusion in which all the pathos, humor and searing honesty of the play combine with overwhelming effect.

Genres: Plays, Drama

85 pages

First published November 1, 1971

About the author

Paul Zindel was an American author, playwright and educator.

In 1964, he wrote The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, his first and most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970, and on Broadway in 1971. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was also made into a 1972 movie by 20th Century Fox. Charlotte Zolotow, then a vice-president at Harper & Row (now Harper-Collins) contacted him to writing for her book label. Zindel wrote 39 books, all of them aimed at children or young adults. Many of these were set in his home town of Staten Island, New York. They tended to be semi-autobiographical, focusing on teenage misfits with abusive or neglectful parents. Despite the often dark subject matter of his books, which deal with loneliness, loss, and the effects of abuse, they are also filled with humor. Many of his novels have wacky titles, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, or Confessions of A Teenage Baboon.

The Pigman, first published in 1968, is widely taught in American schools, and also made it on to the list of most frequently banned books in America in the 1990s, because of what some deem offensive language.

Reviews

[Jillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark comedy about three complicated sisters and their intruding neighbors. Zindel and his characters don't hold back, which I can mostly appreciate, though it's not all to my taste and the biting cruelty and hopelessness of the characters starts to feel unrelenting. It eventually builds to an explosive climax that would be powerful to see on stage.

[Gonzalo Rodríguez Risco · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Que buena obra para tres mujeres! Es posible que ahora sea un poco antigua, pero sería todo un reto actoral.

[David Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in love with Paul Zindel when I was in high school. His books spoke to my teenaged self but I had never heard of this strange play.

Never dull, consistently odd. And the original area were Estelle Parsons, Julie Harris, and Nancy Marchand. Three of the all time greats.

[Kynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh!

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Darkly humorous

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am going to be playing Catherine Reardon in this play May 8-11 at Brooklyn College. It is really an extraordinary play having to do with family that every person can relate to in one way or another. It's an entertaining, a quick read and a dark comedy! What more could you want!?

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fine play, but not much more than that. I like Zindel's dialogue, and the miasma of 70's angst and decay that hangs over the entire proceedings gives this an appealing funkiness, but I wish that I knew more about the characters to justify the sturm and drang on display here.

[Shawn Pudsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Not my cuppa." Abandoned on page 26.

[Brian McCann · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible play.