''Fourteen'' is a play by
Alice Gerstenberg. This one-act social satire was first performed October 7, 1919 at the Maitland Playhouse, 332 Stockton Street,
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, on a bill with three other one-act plays.
The
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
remarked that it "gayly lampoons the question of dinner entertainments".
's company had just moved into a new 200-seat theater from its previous incarnation as the St. Francis Little Theatre Club in the Colonial Ballroom of the
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis, formerly known as St. Francis Hotel, is a hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets in San Francisco, adjacent to the whole western edge of Union Square, San Francisco, California, Union Square. The two 12-story south wi ...
.
The play was originally published in the February 1920 issue of ''
The Drama
''The Drama'' was a quarterly arts magazine for contemporary art, design and illustration. It was founded by publisher Joel Speasmaker in 2000 and ran nine issues with the last being published in 2007. Each issue of the magazine revolved around ...
'' magazine. It is now a public domain work and may be performed without royalties.
Characters
*Mrs. Horace Pringle, a woman of fashion.
*Elaine, her debutante daughter.
* Dunham, the butler or maid.
Synopsis
Mrs. Pringle is preparing to host a dinner party to introduce her daughter, Elaine, to the city's most
eligible bachelor
An eligible bachelor is a bachelor considered to be a particularly desirable potential husband, usually due to wealth, social status or other specific personal qualities.
In the United Kingdom, the heir to the throne or someone close in su ...
, Oliver Farnsworth. Illness and a blizzard force some guests to cancel and the three characters are compelled to try to salvage the evening and the dinner-table layout.
Reception
Writing in ''The Drama'' magazine, J. Vandervoort Sloan described Gerstenberg as "a progressive young playwright, possibly the best-known and most widely be-played by amateur groups in America" and ''Fourteen'' as belonging "in the 'a' class of her plays". A reviewer for the
American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
History 19th century ...
called it an "exemplary social farce".
The play was among those "unqualifiedly recommended" for high-school productions in front of "mixed audiences" by a New Jersey public school drama adviser in 1923. The adviser described it as "portraying the contretemps of a dinner party".
The play has continued to appeal to theater companies and audiences, with several modern productions.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Performances and videos
''Fourteen'' - SUDS''Fourteen'' by Alice GerstenbergYoutube.comYoutube.com
Online script links
1919 plays