Research on Tea and Sympathy

LIFE of the PLAYWRIGHT (Robert Anderson)

Robert Anderson, a native New Yorker, was born in 1917, in New York. He has written plays for the stage, screen, radio and television in addition to two novels. He educated at Harvard University, Anderson's first play was Tea and Sympathy. Some of his screenplays are as follws; Until They Sail, which received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay in 1957, Sand Pebbles (1966), The Nun's Story, is nominated for an Academy Award in, and I Never Sang for My Father which received an Academy Award nomination and was the winner of the Writers' Guild of America Award in 1970.

Robert Anderson was nominated for the Writer's Guild Award for his television drama, The Patricia Neal Story, in 1980, and was elected to The Theatre Hall of Fame. He received "The William Inge Award for Lifetime Achievement" in 1985.

In 1991, two of Anderson's works were televised: The Last Act Is A Solo, winner of an Ace Award, and Absolute Strangers. He is the author of two novels, After and Getting Up and Going Home.

His most famous works as plays are the following: Tea and Sympathy (1953), Silent Night, Lonely Night (1960), The Days Between (1965) , You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1967), I Never Sang For My Father (1968) , The Last Act is a Solo (1991); as novels: After Getting up and Going Home (1978).

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Tea and Sympathy was originally intended by its author to be a commentary on McCarthyism, but in the fifty years since it was written, it has become regarded as a landmark in the history of gay-themed theatre. McCarthyism is the term to describe a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. The term is named for U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a republican of Wisconsin, and was coined by editorial cartoonist Herblock in 1950. This period is also referred to as the Second Red Scare, and coincided with increased fears about Communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Whether the play will feel tolerant or homophobic is an interesting question that this revival should address.

During this time, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts unconstitutional, illegal that would come into general disrepute.

Playwright Anderson has said that the play was written as an allegoric story of the Witch Hunting during the McCarthy Era, rather than a call for increased tolerance for homosexuals and censorship restrictions.

SHORT SUMMARY of the PLAY; TEA and SYMPATHY

Tea and Sympathy has a 1953 mind set which ironically makes the play all the more startling.Tom Robinson Lee, a sensitive, artistic 17-year old student at a boy's prep school, an unnamed New Hampshire boarding school for boys in 1953 (much like Phillips Exeter Academy which the author had attended). He is having difficulties fitting in with the other boys who like sports, talking about girls, and listening to pop music. He prefers classical music, reads books, can sew, plays theater, and generally seems to be more at ease in the company of women. He has played the girl's roles in the school's drama productions, and has obtained the nickname "Grace" after overselling a film screening of One Night of Love with Grace Moore.

The other boys torment him for his "unmanly" qualities and call him "sister boy", and is treated ruthlessly by his father, Herb Lee, who believes a man should be manly. Only Al, who is also a student at the prep school, treats Tom with any decency, perceiving that being different is not the same as being emasculate. When he is seen sunbathing in the nude with a music teacher at the beach, the rumor that he is homosexual begins to fly. Heading the pack of rumormongers is his own housemaster, Bill Reynolds, the macho outdoorsman who runs the hiking and mountain climbing club. Bill wants the teacher fired and the student expelled.

This turbulance is noticed by Laura Reynolds, the young wife of the House Master Bill Reynolds.

Laura has been told her job description is one of dispensing tea and sympathy, has befriended Tom and encouraged his artistic interests. She tries to build a connection with the young man, eventually even falling in love with him, presumably because of his similarity to her first husband John, who was killed in World War II. When she hears the conclusions being drawn about Tom, she knows he is so innocent that he won't even understand what is being said about him. However, she fears her husband will not do anything to stop the hazing that Tom is getting. When Tom decides to do something to build up his "manly" image, the stage is set for a confrontation between Laura and Bill and an investigation of what it means to be a "man."

Tom visits the local prostitute to scatter the rumors about his sexuality, but is unable to have intercourse with her. This failure prompts him to attempt suicide and he also has to leave the school because of his visit her. After he makes an unsuccessful visit to the local town whore, Laura decides to help him prove his manhood by having sex with him, uttering the show's famous curtain line, "When you talk about thisÐ'--and you will!Ð'--be kind." He and Laura eventually have sex, prompting Laura to leave her husband.

CHARACTERIZATION

Though it is one of the neglected to be staged 20th-century American classics to be staged, Robert Anderson's drama about homophobia may seem to have been difficulty in getting profit. Tea and Sympathy made its author's name when it opened on Broadway in 1953. However, these days the stereotypes and pre-judgments of the play's characters who are staff and students at a New England boys' boarding school and their oration about "manliness" may be felt like the products of another time.

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