''The American Clock'' is a
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
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'' (1 ...
. The play is about 1930s America during
The Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. It is based in part on
Studs Terkel's ''
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression''.
Plot
The Baum family—father Moe, mother Rose and son Lee are trying to cope during the Great Depression of the 1930s. They were wealthy but lost their money during the Depression. They are forced to move from their home in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to live with relatives in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. Lee wants to be a writer (and narrates the play).
Characters
* Theodore K. Quinn
* Lee Baum
* Rose Baum (Lee's Mother)
* Arthur A. Robertson
* Clarence, a shoeshine man
* Fanny Margolies (Rose's Sister)
* Sidney Margolies (Fanny's son)
* Lucille (Fanny's daughter)
* Grandpa (Rose's Father)
* Frank (The Baums' Chauffeur)
* Dr. Rossman
* Jesse Livermore
* William Durant
* Arthur Clayton
* Tony (Speakeasy Owner)
* Diana Morgan
* Henry Taylor (A Farmer)
* Irene
* Banks, a black veteran
* Judge Bradley
* Sheriff
* Isaac
* Moe Baum (Lee's Father)
* Brewster
* Doris Gross (Sidney's wife)
* Stanislaus
Productions
The play premiered at the
Spoleto Festival
The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...
U.S.A., Charleston, South Carolina in May 1980.
[Bennetts, Leslie]
"Miller Revives 'American Clock' Amid Resonances of 30's"
''The New York Times'', July 14, 1988[
The play premiered on ]Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
at the Biltmore Theatre on November 11, 1980 and closed on November 30, 1980 after 12 performances and 11 previews. The director was Vivian Matalon
Vivian Matalon (11 October 1929 – 15 August 2018) was a British theatre director.
Born in Manchester, Matalon began his career as an actor in a series of forgettable British films, but his greatest success has been as a director of West End, ...
, with the cast that featured Miller's younger sister, Joan Copeland
Joan Maxine Kupchik ( Miller; June 1, 1922 – January 4, 2022), known professionally as Joan Copeland, was an American actress. She was the younger sister of playwright Arthur Miller. She began her career during the mid-1940s, appearing in thea ...
, who won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The awards were established in 1955, with ...
for her portrayal of Rose Baum. William Atherton
William Atherton Knight (born July 30, 1947) is an American actor, best known for portraying Richard Thornburg in '' Die Hard'' and its sequel and Walter Peck in ''Ghostbusters''.
Early life
Atherton was born in Orange, Connecticut, the son ...
portrayed Lee Baum and John Randolph played Moe Baum.
The play was presented by the Royal National Theatre in London in August 1986 at the Cottesloe Theatre, and then transferred to the Olivier Theatre in December 1986. Directed by Peter Wood, the cast featured Michael Bryant as Moe Baum, Sara Kestelman
Sara Kestelman (born 12 May 1944) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Lady Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Grey's mother, in the 1986 film '' Lady Jane'', as well as for providing the voice of Kreia in '' Star Wars Knights of the Old ...
as Rose Baum and Neil Daglish as Lee Baum. This version of the play had been revised from the original Broadway production and included "a jazz band, songs from the 30s, and a music hall spotlight." In the production Rose sits at the piano as the band plays. The play was nominated for the 1986 Olivier Award
The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known a ...
, BBC Award for the Play of the Year, and Peter Wood was nominated for Director of the Year.
The play was produced at the Williamstown Theater Festival (Williamstown, Massachusetts), directed by Austin Pendleton in July 1988.[
The play was presented Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre Company in October 1997. The cast featured Laura Esterman as Rose, Lewis J. Stadlen as Moe and Jason Fisher as Lee. This version of the play had "twenty-eight well-known American songs", including those written by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern George and Ira Gershwin, which were performed by four musicians.][Sommer, Elyse]
"A CurtainUp Review . ''The American Clock'' "
CurtainUp.com, October 25, 1997
In March 2012 director Phil Willmott
Phil Willmott (born 26 January 1968) is a British director, playwright, arts journalist, teacher, and founder of London based theatre production company The Steam Industry.
He was the Artistic Director of the Finborough Theatre in London's Ear ...
revived the show at the Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world pr ...
in London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. Issy van Randwyck starred.''The American Clock''
finboroughtheatre.co.uk, accessed December 17, 2016
Miller "attributes the Broadway failure of ''American Clock'' to several factors, including a misguided staging of the play and his own capitulation to pressures to rewrite the material in ways that conformed to conventional expectations but robbed the work of its true voice."[
The play was produced at ]The Old Vic
The Old Vic is a 1,000-seat, not-for-profit producing theatre in Waterloo, London, England. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, and renamed in 1833 the Royal Victoria Theatre. In 1871 it was rebuilt and reopened as the Royal ...
, London in 2019, directed by Rachel Chavkin
Rachel Chavkin (; born July 20, 1980) is an American stage director best known for directing the musicals '' Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812'' and '' Hadestown,'' receiving nominations for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical ...
. The production again included a jazz band on stage, and several song & dance routines, mainly in the first half. However its unique feature was that the three members of the Baum family were each played by three different actors, one family cast as white, the second as probably of South Asian origin and the third as Afro Americans. The three sets of actors appeared at various points in the narrative, often on the stage together. Critical reaction was mixed, with most liking the unique casting, whilst agreeing that the fairly weak plot makes this one of Miller’s weaker plays.
Critical response
Frank Rich
Frank Hart Rich Jr. (born 1949) is an American essayist and liberal op-ed columnist, who held various positions within ''The New York Times'' from 1980 to 2011. He has also produced television series and documentaries for HBO.
Rich is curren ...
wrote: "It is Mr. Miller's notion, potentially a great one, that the Baums' story can help tell the story of America itself during the traumatic era that gave birth to our own. As it happens, neither tale is told well in ''The American Clock'': indeed, the Baums and history fight each other to a standoff."[Rich, Frank]
"Miller's 'American Clock'"
''The New York Times'', November 21, 1980, accessed December 17, 2016
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Clock
1980 plays
Plays by Arthur Miller
Broadway plays