Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
A Screened Reading
of

THE SMOKING CAR
Written by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

Directed by JOHN LONG
Music by MICHAEL KOSCH
Background Paintings by MARTHA O’CONNELL

Talkback with ANDREW BALL, President of the William Dean Howells Society

Featuring
HOWARD PINHASIK, MARLAINA POWELL, JEN REDDISH, HANNAH SHARAFIAN, & BLAINE SMITH

www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse

July 25, 2020, 8 p.m.

This 1898 farce is about the perils of helping others, it seems. The scholarly Mr. Roberts is the sole occupant of the train’s smoking car. Calmly reading and enjoying the solitude, he is suddenly confronted with by a young woman holding a baby. She is perky, chatty, scattered cerebrally, and possibly on some 1898 version of speed, judging by her behavior. Roberts looks slightly alarmed as she rattles on about meeting her husband and fetching her luggage and what time is it, and what time does the train leave, and where does this train stop, and can I leave my darling baby on this empty seat beside you while I deal with a few things?

In a flash she is gone, while baby sleeps sweetly next to the very uneasy Mr. Roberts. Oh dear. Enter Willis Campbell, Mr. Roberts’ brother-in-law, a jovial, loquacious younger man. Off he goes on a verbal journey of imagination. What were you thinking? What if the woman has run off? What are you going to do with the baby? Check her at the baggage window? I can’t believe you did this! Poor Roberts sinks lower into his seat.

The gentlemen’s wives arrive to sit with them and instantly flip out. They don’t believe the story, don’t buy the scenario. You must find the mother! Roberts carries the baby out on the search. No luck. Willis goes out with the baby to try his luck. All are discussing possible scenarios, mysterious secret agendas, possible criminal intentions. They are bouncing off the walls with confusion and anxiety. So much overthinking and second-guessing.

Well, let’s adopt the baby! She’s very sweet and quiet. Then, just before the train departs, our bustled Chatty Cathy returns to retrieve her darling infant.

This comedy of manners is part of Howells train series. THE SMOKING CAR reveals the lies people tell in order to appear “good” and “caring”, while being the exact opposite. The two couples breathe a massive sigh of relief when the baby is gone. Whew. Close one. They are clear of all obligation, while having kept up their societal façade in front of each other.

Howells was actually satirizing his own social set, which included Mark Twain and Henry James. Astute and pithy, this sepia snapshot hasn’t faded with time.

-Karen D’Onofrio-