The Unconquered (1940 play)
| The Unconquered | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Ayn Rand |
| Date premiered | February 13, 1940 |
| Place premiered | Biltmore Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Melodrama |
| Setting | Petrograd, Russia |
The Unconquered is a play written by Ayn Rand as an adaptation of her 1936 novel, We the Living. Producer George Abbott staged it on Broadway in 1940.
History
Ayn Rand's debut novel, We the Living, was published in April 1936.[1] She had previously written a hit play, Night of January 16th, that had closed its Broadway run earlier that month. Shortly after the novel was published, Rand began negotiations with Broadway producer Jerome Mayer to do a theatrical adaptation.[2] Rand wrote the script, but Mayer's financing fell through.[3] Several years later, she was able to interest George Abbott in producing the play. Helen Craig took the lead role as Kira, alongside John Emery as Leo and Dean Jagger as Andrei. It opened under the title The Unconquered at the Biltmore Theatre on February 13, 1940, but closed after five days following scathing reviews and just six performances.[4]
The play was not published during Rand's lifetime. In 2014, Palgrave Macmillan published a volume with both the final script and an earlier version, edited by Robert Mayhew.[5]
Cast and characters
The characters and cast from the Broadway production are given below:
| Character | Broadway cast |
|---|---|
| A Student | Paul Ballantyne |
| Boy Clerk | William Blees |
| G.P.U. Chief | Marshall Bradford |
| Comrade Sonia | Georgiana Brand |
| Comrade Voronov | Horace Cooper |
| Stephan Timoshenko | George Cotton |
| Kira Argounova | Helen Craig |
| Girl Clerk | Virginia Dunning |
| Upravdom | Cliff Dunstan |
| Leo Kovalensky | John Emery |
| Karp Morozov | Howard Freeman |
| Comrade Bitiuk | Ellen Hall |
| Andrei Taganov | Dean Jagger |
| Assistant G.P.U. Chief | Frank O'Connor |
| A Soldier | John Parrish |
| Antonina Pavlovna | Lea Penman |
| Malashkin | Edwin Philips |
| Pavel Syerov | Arthur Pierson |
| Party Club Attendant | George Smith |
| Older Examiner | J. Ascher Smith |
| Neighbor | Ludmilla Toretzka |
Reception
The play received negative reviews and closed in less than a week. Reviewer Arthur Pollock called it "slow-moving, uninspired soup".[6] The New York Times described it as a "confusing" mixture of "sentimental melodrama" and political discussion.[7]
References
- ↑ Heller 2009, pp. 92–93
- ↑ Heller 2009, p. 95
- ↑ Heller 2009, pp. 101–102
- ↑ Heller 2009, pp. 126–129; Branden 1986, pp. 150–155
- ↑ Svanberg 2014
- ↑ Pollock 1940, p. 6
- ↑ "The Play: The Unconquered". The New York Times. 89 (29,971). February 14, 1940. p. 25.
Works cited
- Branden, Barbara (1986). The Passion of Ayn Rand. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-19171-5. OCLC 12614728.
- Heller, Anne C. (2009). Ayn Rand and the World She Made. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51399-9. OCLC 229027437.
- Pollock, Arthur (January 14, 1940). "The Unconquered Has It's Day - A Dull One". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 99 (44). p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
- Svanberg, Carl (September 18, 2014). "Introducing Ayn Rand's The Unconquered". Ayn Rand Institute. Retrieved February 2, 2016.