Susan Keating Glaspell, The Verge: A Play in Three Acts

Barbara Ozieblo (Universidad de Malaga)
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The Verge

is Susan Glaspell’s most avant-garde and modernist play and, in the words of C. W. E. Bigsby, attempts “a radical revisioning of all aspects of theatre” so profound in its implications that “few writers, before or since” have dared embark on a comparable experiment (

Intro Plays

19). It is a play that affects audiences in extreme ways; both in 1921 when the play was first performed by the Provincetown Players in New York and in 1996 when it was last revived in England spectators and critics were divided into those who admired the play unconditionally and those who damned it, equally unconditionally. In

The Verge

, Glaspell, as she did in all her writing, placed a woman centre-stage, but this time her protagonist broke all the accepted taboos. Claire Archer’s…

3452 words

Citation: Ozieblo, Barbara. "The Verge: A Play in Three Acts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16003, accessed 25 November 2024.]

16003 The Verge: A Play in Three Acts 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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