Show and Tell Assignment 1

Fourteen by Alice Gerstenberg

Fourteen is a one act play, written in 1919, published in 1920. I couldn't really find any big productions of this play. I saw there were a view videos posted of the play but they seemed to be done on small levels, like high schools. This script can be found on many different sites. But this is the site I used:
http://solomon.wodr.alexanderstreet.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/cgi-bin/asp/philo/getobject.pl?c.728:2.word
This characters in this play are Mrs. Horace Pringle, her daughter Elaine and their butler, Dunham. The setting is at their home in New York in the dining room (some time in the 20s-30s). Mrs. Pringle is planning an important dinner party with the table set specifically for fourteen. She is very anxious about it because she knows she is inviting highly-spoken-of people and she wants to continue to impress everyone. Throughout the play she keeps bringing up, "I've such a reputation for being a wonderful hostess". In contrast to Mrs. Pringle wanting all her plans to work out perfectly, several guest decline their invitation at the last minute due to conflicts. This leaves Mrs. Pringle in dismay and agitation as Elaine and Dunham try to help her keep fourteen at the dinner party.

Instead of the play starting off with an introduction point, it immediately goes into Mrs. Pringle saying the one of the members from her dinner party will not be attending. Part of her first line is, "I don't approve of young men refusing dinner invitations at the very last minute." The plot is very quick with high tension levels. The actual time taken up in this moment is probably no longer than about 15 minutes. Within this time, the number of guest goes below, above and right back on track with the number they initially want to dine. I think the choice of starting the plot right in this moment helps the audience to feel and understand the urgency of the matter. It already feels last minute to have the reader begin at this point in the story. As I was reading it, I felt as if I were too late in the story, like I was behind in what was going on (last minute).

Another noteworthy choice is the fact that you (I, reader) also get frustrated like Mrs. Pringle does with the multiple changes in the number of guests. She says as the telephone continues to ring with approvals and disapprovals of invites, "Now what? Don't answer it! It's driving me mad-- ". I got more and more anxious about if they will end up with enough guests or not and if the most important people will be there. Mrs. Pringle keeps worrying about Elaine sitting next to Oliver Farnsworth (a very important guest), saying, "...just a match for you, Elaine -- and I was bound you should meet him and sit next to him at the table, and now I don't know when I can give you a chance like that again! I'm perfectly furious -- I'll never speak to him again!" Just when Mrs. Pringle has had it with everyone, the disappointing Oliver sends the Prince of Wales instead and she has changed all her previous comments into positive ones. I was very relieved, as was all the other characters, when fourteen guest did show up, and they even had a guest that was better than any other news. All fell apart quick and threw Mrs. Pringle for a loop, but surprisingly turned out better than just right in the last minute.