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Overview
This stunning comic drama, set in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, begins the morning of Teddy Parker's debutante ball, that archetypal phenomenon in Southern culture known as a maiden's "coming out." Teddy's mother, the beautiful and formidable Jen Parker Turner, has willed this event into being. Ostracized from polite society ever since she was accused and - under much speculation of gossip - acquitted of the murder of her wealthy husband, Jen has been looking to Teddy's coming-out gala to revive her and her family's reputation. As the play unfolds, various secrets emerge: an unwanted pregnancy, an illicit romance, self mutilation, mendacity and murder. Polite facades crumble and ugly truths twist and polka across the ballroom floor. This is a play about the price of secrets and the power that love and lovelessness hold over our lives.Synopsis
A Pulitzer Prize dramatist's two-act play in which cruel family truths are laid bare during the debutante season
L.A. Herald Examiner
What is special about [Henley] as a writer the sudden bursts of simple emotion, the capturing of joy wrapped up in calamity and the comic obsessions with grotesquerie and bodily functions...is abundantly evident.
Editorials
USA Today
...THE DEBUTANTE BALL is the blackest of the Mississippi-born playwright's comedies and probably her best.The Register
THE DEBUTANTE BALL...is also blessed with Henley's striking gifts for outrageous theatricality, off-the-wall dialogue and sharply observed character.L.A. Herald Examiner
What is special about [Henley] as a writer—the sudden bursts of simple emotion, the capturing of joy wrapped up in calamity and the comic obsessions with grotesquerie and bodily functions...is abundantly evident.Library Journal
While ``dysfunctional family'' has become a recent buzz phrase, Southern writers have historically used the hidden tragedies of family life as a fertile source for story material. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Henley ( Crimes of the Heart , Viking, 1982) continues the tradition in this two-act play. Arrangements for Teddy's debutante coming-of-age event are complicated by her mother's conviction for her father's murder. Her mother's desperation to rejoin society and Teddy's secrets add up to a volatile combination. Full-color artwork by Lynn Green Root enhances the text. Large drama collections should consider adding this to their repertory.-- J. Sara Paulk, Concord P.L., N.H.Book Details
Published
December 1, 1997
Publisher
Dramatists Play Service, Incorporated
Pages
59
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780822215837