688 The American Century: Literature since 1945sense in a way that made the ordinary seem extraordinary, the domestic mythic and
that infused the mundane particulars of life with a sensual mystery. The fact that he
could not sustain the level of intensity that characterizes A Streetcar Named Desire is
not perhaps remarkable. The fact that he could achieve it at all, there and in a few
other plays, is. Indeed, it is little short of miraculous. And it makes him one of the
two or three greatest American dramatists.
Between them, Williams and Miller, together with the later O’Neill, dominated
the American stage for more than a decade after World War II. There were other new
dramatists: among them, Lorraine Hansbery, Robert Anderson (1917–2009), whose
Tea and Sympathy (1953) was an enormous success, and Paddy Chayefsky
(1923–1981), who established a reputation with such plays as Middle of the Night
(1956) before departing for Hollywood to become a screenwriter. But the only
playwright of the period who came even close to the triumvirate of Williams, Miller,
and O’Neill – and that was not very close at all – was William Inge (1913–1973). Inge
received help and encouragement from Williams; and, like his mentor, he wrote
about scared, lonely people – who feel, as one of his characters puts it in Bus Stop
(1955), “left out in the cold.” But none of his plays has the exotic poetry, or the
gothicism, of Williams’s work. Plays like Come Back, Little Sheba (1950), Picnic
(1953), Bus Stop, and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957) depict, simply and with
quiet sympathy, the lives of ordinary people leading ordinary lives. Even their dreams
have only a muted romanticism to them. And, while they may enjoy moments of
happiness, what most of Inge’s characters have to learn is the peace, the quietude of
resignation: a gentle, shrugging acceptance of their own mediocrity and the littleness
of their lives. So, in Come Back, Little Sheba, the failed dreams and lost romance of a
married couple are emblematized for them, and us, in the loss of their dog, little
Sheba, who gives the play its title. At one point the husband, Doc, is driven to recall
and record all their losses and disappointments, all the things the couple hoped for
and never had. “But we don’t have any of those things,” he concludes. “So what! We
gotta keep on living, don’t we? I can’t stop just ‘cause I made a few mistakes. I gotta
keep goin’ ... somehow.”
Inge enjoyed his last commercial success in the late 1950s. By that time, the
dominance of Broadway was being challenged. Alternative theater was appearing in
New York City, first “Off-Broadway” as it was called, and then, when “Off-Broadway”
came to acquire respectability and status, “Off Off-Broadway.” New theaters and
theater companies were also developing in other parts of the country. With these
new theaters, too, came new forms of organization and financing: theaters as non-
profit corporations, support from private foundations, repertory companies and the
sale of tickets for an entire season. By the 1980s, up to ten times as many new
American plays were being produced outside Broadway as on; and the expanded
theatrical arena inevitably encouraged a degree of experiment. Some new
dramatists and companies, at least, challenged domestic realism. Especially in the
1960s, but even beyond that, a significant experimental theater developed.
Companies like the Performance Group and the Open Theatre in New York, the
Firehouse Theatre in Minneapolis, the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, and theGGray_c05.indd 688ray_c 05 .indd 688 8 8/1/2011 7:31:39 PM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 31 : 39 PM