Awake and Sing!

by Clifford Odets

play

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Classics, Audiobook, American, School

114 pages

First published February 1, 1935

About the author

Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.

Odets was born in Philadelphia to Louis Odets (born Gorodetsky) and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high school after two years to become an actor.

In 1931, he became a founding member of the Group Theatre, a highly influential New York theatre company that utilized an acting technique new to the United States. This technique was based on the system devised by the Russian actor and director Constantin Stanislavski. It was further developed by Group Theatre director Lee Strasberg and became known as The Method or Method Acting. Odets eventually became the Group's primary playwright.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jewish immigrant angst and dark humor during the depression.

[Paul LaFontaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

An immigrant family struggling during the Great Depression rants and raves at each other in their own depression ending in tragedy and humdrum.

Clifford Odets was considered the spiritual successor to Eugene O'Neill and this play certainly fills that bill. The family is angry, tragic, suicidal and always yelling at each other. Felt very O'Neill ala "Long Days Journey Into Night".. perhaps if the two families from were to have a picnic they would murder each other with pickle forks.

I like plays that celebrate the human spirit and this one did not do it for me. Can't recommend.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Odets has been called an American Chekhov, and for good reason! He writes in the same style--eccentric family, right-on lines, heavy on character, a challenge to actors, more character based than plot heavy. But without the Russian names, so it's much easier to grasp. I would love to see this staged, or to direct it, but it would be difficult to find a talented enough cast. It would be easy to screw it up.

[Julian Munds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a play that you wish you wrote. This is one of those plays for me. The dialogue cracks, the characters are rich and vibrant and the subject matter is authentic.

[Kieran Westphal · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gotta assume this is much better seen than read. The text feels neither contemporary enough to feel casual or elegant enough to enjoy for its poetry

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this play just before seeing it performed. The reading experience was interesting enough, but the characters on the page never came to life as fully as they did when I saw them on stage (admittedly I gave the script a cursory read though). The story of Jewish immigrants living in the Bronx during the Great Depression sounds fairly cliche, but Odets's provides his characters with such tremendous depth that at times I had to remind myself that this play is set nearly a hundred years ago.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written dialogue and an engaging dysfunctional family drama set during the Great Depression, but ultimately it felt like it wasn't fully developed (and indeed it was Odets' first published work). While I enjoyed the drama and the characters quite a lot, the suddenly optimistic ending didn't sit quite right with me. I guess after all that strife it was difficult to take such unbridled (and unfounded) optimism seriously.

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why is there an exclamation mark, Cliff? Is it to try and prove to me this play is exciting? Because it's not. And that's not bad. But these people do not excite me one bit. I really wanted to like Clifford Odets, but I just couldn't do it. Hallie Flanagan's Can You Hear Their Voices? did agitprop much better in my opinion.

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first time I've read any Odets since college. There's a lot I really enjoy within the play (the Chekhovian flow of the piece, much of the dialogue), but that was colored by my extreme distaste for the way Hennie's character arc was handled. She felt incredibly two dimensional to me, which is both surprising and unfortunate, given the raw material for her storyline.

[Brian McCann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talk. Talk. Talk. Hope it’s a lot better onstage.

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set at the height of the Great Depression, the play tells the story of three generations of a lower-middle-class family, beaten down by their socioeconomic circumstances and in search of a way out, toward fulfillment and happiness. The youngest generation somehow is able to locate and grab on to hope. In this excerpt from Act III, the mother, Bessie, argues with her 22-year-old son Ralph:

BESSIE: ....here without a dollar you don't look the world in the eye. Talk from now till next year--this is life in America.
RALPH: Then it's wrong. It don't make sense. If life made you this way, then it's wrong!....No, I see every house lousy with lies and hate. He said it, Grandpa--Brooklyn hates the Bronx. Smacked on the nose twice a day. But boys and girls can get ahead like that, Mom. We don't want life printed on dollar bills, Mom!
BESSIE: So go out and change the world if you don't like it.
RALPH: I will!

And he will, too; or he'll try: the play is called Awake and Sing! and that's just what happens to Ralph before it's over. It's a tender, exhilarating message for a society afraid that it can't make a difference--a society not unlike, in some ways, our own today. I love Odets's idealism in this piece.

Awake and Sing! centers on the Bergers, a Jewish family living in the Bronx. The de facto head of the clan is Bessie, a tough-minded, difficult woman who knows her husband Myron is a weakling and that she has to make all the big decisions that keep her household afloat. We never know exactly what Myron does for a living; just that he's a small man with big dreams--he's constantly looking for a main chance via lotteries, race horses, and so on. Bessie's 70-year-old father Jacob lives with them too; he's a retired barber and an inveterate Communist--though not one prone to actually put his incendiary words into action.

Their two grown children also share the apartment. Hennie works as a secretary, although Bessie would clearly love to marry her off, preferably to someone of the appropriate social and economic status. (Bessie, though poor, is a snob; that may be the most important fact you need to know about her.) Ralph, the younger of the two, works at a warehouse in a tedious but unspecified job; he knows he wants out, but at first he's only able to articulate his desires in terms of what he never got (skates, black and white shoes, his teeth fixed, etc.). It's only later, after some meaningful discussions with his grandfather, an upsetting and tentative foray into romance, and some truly life-altering events that happen to Hennie, that Ralph fully understands and is able to articulate the ideals he has come to cherish and long for.

Perhaps the most striking thing about Odets's script is how realistic it feels. Although some of the characters (notably Moe Axelrod, a neighbor and, later, a boarder of the Bergers') speak in jazzy slang that owes its origins as much to Odets's poetic imagination as to anything ever uttered on Prospect Avenue, most of the dialogue and every bit of the ambience of Awake and Sing! seems authentic. This must have been jolting in 1935: there's some raw talk and situations here, along with an unapologetic acknowledgement of the characters' ethnicity, that would have been unusual on the stage at that time and that sometimes sits uneasily on our ears now.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odets’ second play for Group Theatre after his breakthrough Waiting for Lefty is the first popular drama of the Jewish immigrant experience. The revolutionary communist firebrand rhetoric of Waiting for Lefty is tempered here (although the scenery in the family’s home includes a portrait of Sacco and Vanzetti – the theater of the American Left in the 1930s was anything but subtle!), but many of the themes are parallel to his first play: the failure of the capitalist system to respect labor, the illusion of the American Dream, the celebration of the street language of immigrants and the working poor, and the battle between individual materialism and an idealistic socialism. The language doesn’t hold up as well as his contemporaries Elmer Rice or George Kaufman (on the comedic side), but the second half still packs an emotional punch as Odets sets up the fates of his two most sympathetic characters – the lovelorn young Ralph and the old Marxist grandpa Jacob. The former character was played in the original 1935 production by Julie Garfinkle, who would soon change his name to John Garfield and become a major Hollywood star in the 1940s. Worth a read, but perhaps only after reading (or seeing performed) Waiting for Lefty and Golden Boy.

[Jojo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: This play is about a Jewish family kinda struggling in NYC I assume in the 30s? There's the parents Myron and Bessie, their children Hennie and Ralph. Hennie is knocked up so she's gotta get married. She winds up marrying a guy named Sam but she doesn't really love him. She seems to be in denial about her feelings about Moe (a veteran who lost his leg during the war). There's also Uncle Morty, a successful businessman, and his father Jacob. Jacob winds up dead after slipping off the room though there's suspicions (made by Moe?) that he may have done it on purpose to leave the family money. In the end, Hennie decides to run off with Moe.
Review: Again, just wasn't particularly impressed with this. I found it confusing keeping all the characters straight and yeah, I don't know...wasn't much that happened and it kinda bored me.
Grade: D

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not a good play. I don't think it was a good play in the 1930s, when it was written and produced. I try to imagine Adler and Meisner playing these characters, and it makes me cringe. There's a real danger in infusing the majority of the dialogue with colloquial speech of the times: it dates quickly and badly, makes the piece difficult to understand years later.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

In today's world, this teeters right on the brink between a long-lost noble idealism and mawkishness. Ultimately, the sincerity wins out over all the ways it's dated; if you come to it open to receive, its power should be palpable.

As for what to expect, think of Brighton Beach Memoirs as a Greek tragedy instead of a comedy.

[DAVID A]

Odets, who "sang" to the McCarthy committee, was a Grade 'A' poop, but I hate his work, anyway. I played Sam Feinschreiber in a professional production, and got a much better review than the New York hacks who came up here to "star" in it; particularly, the late jerks, Sylvia Gassel and Lou Gilbert.

Odets wrote about "little" men, and it took one to know one.

Deplorable yutz.

[Madeleine George]

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust. ISAIAH 26:19

"Nothing good hurts."

"You won't forget me to your dyin' day-- I was the first one. Part of your insides. You won't forget. I wrote my name on you-- indelible ink."

"I saw he was dead and I was born! I swear to God, I'm one week old! I want the whole city to hear it-- fresh blood, arms. We got 'em. We're glad we're living."

[Lynn wilcox · Rating 1 out of 5]

geuninely the worst play ive ever read ever in my life. literally nothing happened. dialogue was terrible and so was the character building. im so upset i had to read that

[Emily Carbone · Rating 3 out of 5]

God this class is gonna kill me

[Noah Kern · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5

I really didn’t love reading this, although one scene in the middle had my tear up which really surprised me. And the end was pretty daring and unlike other shows I’ve read and it kind of recontextualized the entire thing for me in a very positive way.

[danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

sounds like my grandparents.

the Communist grandpa arguing with the capitalist younger generation was an interesting reversal of the typical contemporary inter generational political discussion. they still use the same lines against the communist “You don’t know about practical affairs”

ultimately it seemed insincere or corny and I can’t figure out why. It’s something about how everyone talks to each other. They always have these cracking retorts for each other that don’t sound quite right and also aren’t very funny or true.

[Bt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m glad I read this because it very much takes place in the world of Waiting for Lefty. I had some trouble getting into it at first, I think because it dumps you straight into the dialogue with no explanation or even stage directions about who the characters are. Once I got to know everyone, though, I enjoyed reading it. I love how realistic and natural Odetts’s dialogue is, and the flow of it from one idea to the next is beautiful. Some of the scenes were really heartbreaking. My favorite scenes were between Moe and Hennie; they were dripping with subtext and backstory.

Technical stuff:

Summary: This is a play about an impoverished family in which the parents try to manipulate the children’s relationships and the children struggle to realize their dreams.

Cast: 7 men, 2 women

Scenes for classwork: There really aren’t any good two-person scenes because people are always running on and off the stage. The best one is Hennie and Moe’s scene in Act II Scene I, but it is only 2 pages long.

Monologues: Bessie – “Ralphie, I worked too hard all my years to be treated like dirt” (Act III); Sam – “She should kid a policeman, not Sam” (Act II Scene II)

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

پدربزرگ اهل فرهنگ است؛ موسیقی گوش می‌کند؛ کتاب می‌خواند؛ اما برای رالفی، نوه‌اش، نگران است.

رالف، پسر یک خانواده سطح‌ پایین جامعه است. او از صبح تا شب در کارخانه کار می کند، اما درآمد اندکی دارد. خواهرش هم مشغول به کار است و در آستانه ازدواج. اما مادر همه تلاشش این است که دختر با کسی ازدواج کند که دستش به دهانش برسد تا خانواده را هم حمایت کند.
پدربزرگ اما از جنس دیگری است. او موسیقی گوش می‌کند. اهل اجتماع است. کتاب می‌خواند و روشنفکرتر از دختر و دامادش است و با آنها در کنار نوه‌هایش زندگی می‌کند.
پدربزرگ از وضع جامعه‌ی آمریکا، جایی که نمایش در آنجا رخ می‌دهد، آگاهی دارد. دلش می‌خواهد به نظرات نوه‌هایش توجه شود. آنان با کسی ازدواج کنند که دوستش دارند، زیرا او می داند که دختر و دامادش هیچ علاقه‌ای به هم ندارند و همیشه در حال جنگ و دعوا هستند.
در این خانواده همه عصبانی‌اند. در جامعه هم همه ناامید، عصبی و خسته‌اند؛ هرازگاهی کسی خودش را به قصد خودکشی از ساختمان بلندی پرت می کند و تمام.
پدربزرگ دلش می‌خواهد کاری برای نوه‌اش، رالفی، بکند. او که بیمه عمر است سرانجام از بدخلقی های دخترش به تنگ می‌آید

[Kate Ly Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

A play ruined by my peers' bad acting lol

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t usually do audiobooks, but this was the only version of the play at my library so I did it. It has a lot going on, but it deserves its classic status. The family dynamics are on point and there are just some really intense, perfectly calibrated dialogue moments that just make you feel like this is THE THEATRE. This particular recording is well cast but it does sometimes suffer from the lack of any stage directions, and the occasional confusion of characters. A few additions unique to this audio version could have fixed that.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 2 out of 5]

پدربزرگ اهل فرهنگ است؛ موسیقی گوش می‌کند؛ کتاب می‌خواند؛ اما برای رالفی، نوه‌اش، نگران است.

رالف، پسر یک خانواده سطح‌ پایین جامعه است. او از صبح تا شب در کارخانه کار می کند، اما درآمد اندکی دارد. خواهرش هم مشغول به کار است و در آستانه ازدواج. اما مادر همه تلاشش این است که دختر با کسی ازدواج کند که دستش به دهانش برسد تا خانواده را هم حمایت کند.
پدربزرگ اما از جنس دیگری است. او موسیقی گوش می‌کند. اهل اجتماع است. کتاب می‌خواند و روشنفکرتر از دختر و دامادش است و با آنها در کنار نوه‌هایش زندگی می‌کند.
پدربزرگ از وضع جامعه‌ی آمریکا، جایی که نمایش در آنجا رخ می‌دهد، آگاهی دارد. دلش می‌خواهد به نظرات نوه‌هایش توجه شود. آنان با کسی ازدواج کنند که دوستش دارند، زیرا او می داند که دختر و دامادش هیچ علاقه‌ای به هم ندارند و همیشه در حال جنگ و دعوا هستند.
در این خانواده همه عصبانی‌اند. در جامعه هم همه ناامید، عصبی و خسته‌اند؛ هرازگاهی کسی خودش را به قصد خودکشی از ساختمان بلندی پرت می کند و تمام.
پدربزرگ دلش می‌خواهد کاری برای نوه‌اش، رالفی، بکند. او که بیمه عمر است سرانجام از بدخلقی های دخترش به تنگ می‌آید