''Mr. Peters' Connections'' is a play by

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), ''Death of a Salesman'' ( ...

. The title character is a former

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

who worked for the airline in its glory days. He recalls flying into a thousand sunsets and bedding eighteen Rockettes in a month, eventually marrying one of them. Now he is an aging, befuddled man lost in a world he no longer understands.

Overview

The serio- comic

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

is set in an abandoned, dilapidated

night club A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

his wife Charlotte is encouraging him to buy. Peters' only interest in the place stems from its location near a shoe store that carries the extra narrow size he requires. Present are a homeless squatter named Adele (who acts as an occasional commentator) and Calvin, the owner of the property. Joining them are Larry, the shoe store proprietor who is searching for his missing wife Cathy Mae, two

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...

emissaries – a young pregnant girl named Rose (who might be Peters' long-lost daughter) and her

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

friend Leonard, and Charlotte. The ''CurtainUp'' reviewer noted the "Pinteresque dialogue." Miller, in a preface to the play, wrote that the set "should look like whatever the reader or producer imagines as a space where the living and dead may meet."

Productions

Miller wrote the play specifically for the Off-Broadway Signature Theater Company, as playwright in residence, Sommer, Elyse
"A CurtainUp Review. 'Mr. Peters' Connections'"
curtainup.com, May 18, 1998 which staged it as the final offering of their 1997-98 season. The limited-run production, directed by

Garry Hynes Garry Hynes (born 10 June 1953) is an Irish theatre director. She was the first woman to win the prestigious Tony Award for direction of a play. Biography Hynes was born in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, and educated at St. Louis Convent at ...

, opened on April 28, 1998 and ran until June 21. The cast included Peter Falk as Mr. Peters,

Anne Jackson Anne Jackson (September 3, 1925 – April 12, 2016); retrieved April 16, 2016Archivedfrom the original on April 16, 2016. was an American actress of stage, screen, and television. She was the wife of actor Eli Wallach, with whom she often co-sta ...

as Charlotte,

Jeff Weiss Jeffrey Weiss (April 30, 1940 – September 18, 2022) was an American playwright, impresario, and actor, both on Broadway and a theater he ran with partner Ricardo Martinez in the East Village, Manhattan. Early life and education Weiss grew up i ...

as Calvin, Erica Bradshaw as Adele,

Kris Carr Kris Carr (born August 31, 1971) is a multiple New York Times bestselling author, wellness advocate, public speaker and entrepreneur. Carr is best known for her work inspiring people to think outside the box in order to become empowered participan ...

as Cathy Mae, Daniel Oreskes as Larry, Alan Mozes as Leonard, and

Tari Signor Tari Signor is an American actress. Biography Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Signor has appeared off-Broadway as Juliet in ''Death Defying Acts'' (1995), as Rose in '' Mr. Peters' Connections'' (1998), as Hippolyte in Moliere's ''The Bungler' ...

as Rose. In his review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Ben Brantley Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 to ...

described the play as "a numbing experience. The work is an example of the experimental, ruminative style the dramatist has adopted of late, an approach that is by no means his most effective . . . his recent exercises in abstraction have an oddly old-fashioned feeling . . . though ''Connections'' may portray a world of baffling ambiguity, the ways in which it does so tend to be blunt and even clumsy." The play was produced at the

Guthrie Theatre The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is a center for theater performance, production, education, and professional training in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The concept of the theater was born in 1959 in a series of discussions between Sir Tyrone Gut ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, opening in November 1999 and directed by James Houghton. The play opened in London at the

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diver ...

on July 26, 2000. Directed by

Michael Blakemore Michael Howell Blakemore OBE, AO (born 18 June 1928) is an Australian actor, writer and theatre director who has also made a handful of films. A former Associate Director of the National Theatre, in 2000 he became the only individual to win T ...

John Cullum John Cullum (born circa 1930) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in many stage musicals and dramas, including '' Shenandoah'' (1975) and '' On the Twentieth Century'' (1978), winning the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Mu ...

starred as Mr. Peters.Wolf, Matt
"Review"
''Variety'', August 7, 2000

References

External links

Lortel Archives entry
{{The Works of Arthur Miller 1998 plays Plays by Arthur Miller