The Thirteenth Chair A Play in Three Acts Bayard Veiller 9781374872936 Books
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The Thirteenth Chair A Play in Three Acts Bayard Veiller 9781374872936 Books
I played the role of Edward Wales in a 1978 high school production of THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR by Bayard Veiller. The play was then over sixty years old, and I was surprised to find it was still in print, much less available on Kindle. I made the inexpensive purchase out of a mixture of nostalgia and curiosity. The cast requires ten men and seven women and is performed on a single but elaborate set, depicting a wealthy drawing room of the era. It is written in three acts, with an intermission between each act; there are no significant set changes, but the play (which involves a séance and medium) requires several “slight of hand” props and gimmicks.THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR presents wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Crosby on the verge of announcing their son’s engagement to Mrs. Crosby’s secretary, an attractive young woman of slightly mysterious antecedents. Their dinner guests include Edward Wales, a man preoccupied with discovering who murdered his best friend, killed in a surprise attack with a knife to his back. Wales has provided after-dinner entertainment in the form of Madame Rosalie, a spiritualist who conducts séances. He hopes to obtain some clue to his friend’s killer—but during the séance Wales himself is murdered in the same way. The windows and doors are locked and Madame Rosalie herself is tied to her chair. Whodunit?
If you are a fan of murder mysteries, you may know that most literary historians point to 1913’s TRENT’S LAST CASE as “the first” modern detective novel. It sparked a wave of interest, and three years later Bayard Veiller’s THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR hit the Broadway stage. Audiences found it new and fresh, and it had three hundred twenty-eight performances—a very long run for its era. But the 1920s and 1930s saw numerous novels, plays, and movies that improved on and surpassed the ideas put forth in this play, and today it seems unimpressively antique. The opening act is in many ways typical of the “drawing room” dramas of its day—but Veiller is no Galsworthy or Maugham. Simply put, the play hasn’t held up well: it creaks and groans and thuds and thumps as it progresses through three very wordy acts to a solution that comes pretty much out of nowhere.
When I performed that 1978 high school production, we all talked about how silly and clunky the script was. Time has not added any luster. This is something best left to hardcore students of the mystery as a literary genre or to those interested in early 20th Century Broadway history. That said, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to perform the play today.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Posted 4-2018
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Tags : The Thirteenth Chair: A Play in Three Acts [Bayard Veiller] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America,Bayard Veiller,The Thirteenth Chair: A Play in Three Acts,Pinnacle Press,1374872938,Performing Arts General
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The Thirteenth Chair A Play in Three Acts Bayard Veiller 9781374872936 Books Reviews
An excellent play with a good twisty end. I saw the movie first and had to get to script to see what was different. There are some differences in location and the order of presentation. This is probably due to being a movie instead of a recording of the play. This book has the stage directions and dives in to the story so fast that if you did not know the essence ahead of time you could get lost. So you may need to read it a couple of times. There is good stage direction to keep you in the know where everyone is and their relationship to the thirteenth chair.
Thirteen people gather in a locked dark room for a séance. Only twelve will emerge alive. Everyone and no one could have done it. The dastardly instrument is missing.
An excellent play with a good twisty end. I saw the movie first and had to get to script to see what was different. There are some differences in location and the order of presentation. This is probably due to being a movie instead of a recording of the play. This book has the stage directions and dives in to the story so fast that if you did not know the essence ahead of time you could get lost. So you may need to read it a couple of times. There is good stage direction to keep you in the know where everyone is and their relationship to the thirteenth chair.
Thirteen people gather in a locked dark room for a séance. Only twelve will emerge alive. Everyone and no one could have done it. The dastardly instrument is missing.
I enjoy reading plays, but this was a little hard to follow sometimes.
The plot was interesting and turned out to be a real whodunnit!
I played the role of Edward Wales in a 1978 high school production of THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR by Bayard Veiller. The play was then over sixty years old, and I was surprised to find it was still in print, much less available on . I made the inexpensive purchase out of a mixture of nostalgia and curiosity. The cast requires ten men and seven women and is performed on a single but elaborate set, depicting a wealthy drawing room of the era. It is written in three acts, with an intermission between each act; there are no significant set changes, but the play (which involves a séance and medium) requires several “slight of hand” props and gimmicks.
THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR presents wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Crosby on the verge of announcing their son’s engagement to Mrs. Crosby’s secretary, an attractive young woman of slightly mysterious antecedents. Their dinner guests include Edward Wales, a man preoccupied with discovering who murdered his best friend, killed in a surprise attack with a knife to his back. Wales has provided after-dinner entertainment in the form of Madame Rosalie, a spiritualist who conducts séances. He hopes to obtain some clue to his friend’s killer—but during the séance Wales himself is murdered in the same way. The windows and doors are locked and Madame Rosalie herself is tied to her chair. Whodunit?
If you are a fan of murder mysteries, you may know that most literary historians point to 1913’s TRENT’S LAST CASE as “the first” modern detective novel. It sparked a wave of interest, and three years later Bayard Veiller’s THE THIRTEENTH CHAIR hit the Broadway stage. Audiences found it new and fresh, and it had three hundred twenty-eight performances—a very long run for its era. But the 1920s and 1930s saw numerous novels, plays, and movies that improved on and surpassed the ideas put forth in this play, and today it seems unimpressively antique. The opening act is in many ways typical of the “drawing room” dramas of its day—but Veiller is no Galsworthy or Maugham. Simply put, the play hasn’t held up well it creaks and groans and thuds and thumps as it progresses through three very wordy acts to a solution that comes pretty much out of nowhere.
When I performed that 1978 high school production, we all talked about how silly and clunky the script was. Time has not added any luster. This is something best left to hardcore students of the mystery as a literary genre or to those interested in early 20th Century Broadway history. That said, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to perform the play today.
GFT, Reviewer
Posted 4-2018
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