Splendor in the Grass, The Play [Paperback]

adapted from the screenplay by William Inge F. Andrew Leslie (Author), William Inge (Author), F. Andrew Leslie (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822210665
• ISBN-13: 978-0822210665
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the poem y'all are looking for, September 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Splendor in the Grass, The Play (Paperback)

The poem y'all are looking for is "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great, November 25, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Splendor in the Grass, The Play (Paperback)

I loved the book it pulled me in till the very last page there was such a meaning to it and it was so wonderfully written I enjoyed it so much that I went and got the movie and it was equilly great. I would reccomend the book to any one

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Shadow Of The Original Film's Passion and Power, February 6, 2010

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Splendor in the Grass, The Play (Paperback)

Although his work was widely celebrated as brilliant portraits of the 'Average American,' William Inge (1913-1973) was deliberately engmatic, a homosexual man who lived in an era of sexual repression and who played out the consequence of sexual repression through the heterosexual characters he created for the stage in such plays as COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA, PICNIC, BUS STOP, and THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, all of which focused on "Average Americans" and found them lonely, uncertain, and sexually strangled. One of his most overt statements, however, was not created for the stage but for the screen: the 1961 SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, which Inge wrote directly for the screen on the recommendation of director Elia Kazan. In an era that favored bedroom farces in comedy and cautious innuendo in drama, the movie was a shocker indeed, condemned by one moral group after another for its portrait of sexuality among 1920s teens caught between double sexual double standards that were still commonplace when the film was released.

In the wake of the film's great critical and box office success, Inge allowed the film to be adapted to the stage by F. Andrew Leslie, an author known for similar stage adaptations of such films as THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY SOXER and LILLIES OF THE FIELD. Not surprisingly, the resulting playscript stays very close to the characters and story that Inge created for the film, which follows the semi-tragic arc of two small-town teenage lovers in the 1920s. Bud is a rich kid, the son of an industrialist whose stocks are part of the 1920s roar; Deenie is a pretty girl from an ordinary home. Both are passionate about each other and hungry for sex, but both are railroaded by ways in which society and their parents force them into the mores of the day.

Much of the focus is on Deenie, a pretty girl from an average home who has been taught by her mother that sexual arousal is not a thing nice girls experience--and when Deenie is aroused by boyfriend Bud she is emotionally ripped apart by what she perceives as the division between "good girls" that men marry and "bad girls" that men play with. Bud, likewise under parental influence, drops Deenie in favor of a good time girl, but he also feels the hypocrisy involved, particularly when his own sister is distinctly wild and especially when he sees Deenie self-destruct into insanity when he abandons her. Ultimately there can be no happy ending, only recovery, deeper understanding, and a letting go of a relationship that was not ultimately possibly for either partner.

Leslie does not so much adapt Inge's story, characters, and dialogue as he recreates them for the stage, indicating how they are to be played out. He also eliminates scenes that were purely cinematic and replaces them whatever dialogue is necessary to fill the gap: such memorable moments from the film as Deenie adrift in the river cannot, of course, be played out on the stage. The end result is technically the same characters with the same story but it somehow lacks the power of the film and is distinctly lacking Inge's truly stinging background statement on social hypocrisy. Not a bad script, and no doubt one that can indeed be staged in a memorable way. But I cannot imagine that any staging of it would equal, much less surpass, the grand power of the original film.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer