Study Guide for Student Matinee - Little Theatre of Virginia Beach

SOL Compatibilities
English:
6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 6.8, 7.4, 7.5, 7.7, 7.8, 8.4,
8.5, 8.7, 8.8, 9.3, 9.4 , 10.3, 10.4, 11.3,
11.6, 12.6
Theatre Arts:
6.5, 6.6, 6.14, 6.22, 6.23, 6.24, 6.25
7.1, 7.6, 7.8, 7.15, 7.18, 7.20, 7.21, 7.22,
7.23 8.15, 8.18, 8.21, 8.22, 8.25
550 Barberton Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 428-9233
[email protected]
550 Barberton Drive
Virginia Beach, VA
23451
(757) 428-9233
HISTORY BEHIND THE PLAY:
The Children’s Hour is based on a true story: William Roughead’s Bad
Companions, a book on infamous British court cases, contained a chapter
entitled “Closed Doors, or The Great Drumsheugh Case”. “Closed Doors” tells
the story of a scandal in 1810 Edinburgh, Scotland. A young girl accused the two
headmistresses of her girls’ boarding school of having “an inordinate affection”
for one another. The girl’s grandmother, believing the women to be an affront to
decency, removed her from the school. Within two days, every student had been
withdrawn from the school, without reason. When the headmistresses finally
learned that they’d been accused of being lovers, they sued the grandmother for
libel, and spent the rest of their lives trying to restore their names and recover
financially.
THE POWER OF A LIE
Although The Children’s Hour was censored and even banned because of the
homosexual subject matter, Hellman maintained that deceit was the play’s
fulcrum, not prejudice. Lillian Hellman went to great lengths to write a play
about the potency of a lie. The Children’s Hour works up a fascinatingly
complex internal dialogue between what lies can do, and undo.
Using the seemingly innocent child, Mary Tillford, Hellman is able to show how
one small lie grows into an unstoppable force. Mary initially creates a small
falsehood in order to cover up her own mischief of feigning illness and running
away. However, we are made aware in the initial scenes of the play, that Mary
has a history of manipulation and deceit which has allowed her to bully her
classmates and teachers into giving her whatever she wants.
When confronted by her inconsistent stories, Mary’s web of lies grows larger. In
order to make her fiction plausible, she blackmails her classmate into
corroborating her story. The lie becomes a sort of unstoppable storm that
wreaks havoc upon everyone in its path.
Hellman herself has a history full of inconsistencies and half truths. She has
several memoirs which recount fantastical stories and experiences, some which
have been refuted and others which were proven to be outright lies. Perhaps
her own struggles with the truth made the circumstances in The Children’s Hour
more realistic, or maybe the play itself was a way to atone for her own lies.
Hellman once described The Children's Hour as "not really a play about
lesbianism, but about a lie. The bigger the lie, the better, as always." Evidently
this philosophy inspired her memoirs as well.
HELLMAN AT THE CENTER OF A LIE
In 1952, Hellman experienced what she called, “the power of a lie” when she
was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) for suspected involvement in the Communist Party.
She had, personally, been feeling the financial effects of an unspoken blacklist
in Hollywood since 1948. Work was challenging and getting harder and harder
to find. Lillian Hellman had also felt the emotional impact of the blacklisting
when her long time lover, Dashiell Hammett, served jail time for refusing to
supply the names of contributors to a communist organization only a year
before.
She commented that the “fraternity of the betrayers and the betrayed,” would
phone friends before testifying at the HUAC to let them know that they would
be named as a communist. In many cases, the soon-to-be-implicated would
give their permission, as if to say, “I don’t blame you for needing to keep your
job and make money.” The whole affair shocked and horrified Lillian Hellman.
This was a different world for all those involved in the theatre.
Hellman was determined to be courageous. After receiving a summons to
appear before the HUAC, on Feb. 21, she hired a young lawyer, named Joseph
Rauh. Hellman told Rauh, that she would answer the HUAC’s questions honestly,
and that Rauh’s job was to make sure that she wasn’t forced to name names, she
didn’t have to resort to pleading the Fifth Amendment and that she didn’t end
up in jail.
Rauh drafted a letter to the HUAC, detailing the circumstances under which
Hellman would testify, but Hellman didn’t like his wording, so she composed
her own letter. It is addressed to John S. Wood, then the head of the HUAC.
Here are excerpts:
Dear Mr. Wood:
As you know, I am under subpoena to appear before your
Committee …I am most willing to answer all questions about myself. I
have nothing to hide from your Committee and there is nothing in my life
of which I am ashamed.… I am not willing, now or in the future, to bring
bad trouble to people who, in my past association with them, were
completely innocent of any talk or any action that was disloyal or
subversive. …To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in
order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I
cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions. …
HELLMAN AT THE CENTER OF A LIE (continued)
I am prepared to waive the privilege against self-incrimination … if
your Committee will agree to refrain from asking me to name other
people. If the Committee is unwilling to give me this assurance, I will
be forced to plead the privilege of the Fifth Amendment at the hearing.
Sincerely yours,
Lillian Hellman
The HUAC sent a terse response, stating they had no intention of
compromising.
Hellman sat before the committee on May 21, 1952. She stuck to her guns in
not implicating others. Joseph Rauh managed to get copies of Hellman’s letter
into reporters’ hands. Rep. Wood soon realized that even though he had
publically accused her, Hellman had won a moral victory.
Hellman later admitted that she regretted not taking a harder stand, like
Arthur Miller and others who had refused to talk at all, seeming to almost
welcome imprisonment. Her freedom, though, enabled her to revamp The
Children’s Hour for a revival that autumn. She reworked it into a witch-hunt
play that suddenly bristled with new relevance.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1) How would this story be different if it took place today?
2) How have the internet and social media changed the way people
are bullied? And, has it changed the way we react to being bullied?
3) Is what Joe says true? Does everyone lie?
4) Have you ever found yourself caught in a lie?
5) Are there times when lying is necessary or a good thing? What
makes a lie right? What make a lie wrong?
6) Is Mary evil? Or, is she a victim? Or, is she a product of her
upbringing? Did life impel her to do what she did? What would you
have done?
550 Barberton Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23451
(757) 428-9233
[email protected]