Fifth of July

[edit] Americola's celebrity biographies are provided by AmericolaWiki, a celebrity wiki. You can help contribute to Americola and edit this article.

Fifth of July is a 1979 play by American playwright Lanford Wilson. Set in rural Missouri in 1977, it revolves around the Talley family and their friends, and focuses on the disillusionment with America in the wake of the Vietnam War.

Contents 1 Plot Summary 2 Trivia 3 Production History 4 References

Plot Summary

Kenneth Talley, Jr. is a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran, living in his childhood home with his boyfriend, botanist Jed Jenkins. At the beginning of the play, he is due to soon return to his former high school to teach English, but has decided not to. Visiting Ken and Jed are Ken's sister, June Talley, and her daughter, Shirley, as well as Ken and June's longtime friends, John Landis and his wife Gwen, inheritor of a large industrial conglomerate. John is ostensibly visiting to purchase the Talley House for Gwen to convert to a recording studio, so that she can have a career as a country singer. Unbeknownst to anyone but June, John and Ken, Shirley is John's daughter, and his visit has as much to do with a desire to gain joint custody of Shirley as it does with the house. Ken, meanwhile, believes that the singing career is a way of distracting Gwen, so that John could take control of her businesses. Other visitors include Weston Hurley, Gwen's guitarist, and Ken's aunt, Sally Talley, who a year after his death still has her husband Matt's ashes in a candy box.

Trivia

This is part of the Talley Trilogy, a series of Wilson plays revolving around the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri. The other plays are Talley's Folly, featuring Sally Talley and her husband-to-be, Matthew Friedman, and Talley & Son, which tells the story of Sally's family in the same chronological time period as Talley's Folly is taking place.

Production History

Fifth of July debuted in New York City at the Circle Repertory Company on April 27, 1978, directed by Marshall W. Mason and starring William Hurt, Jeff Daniels, Amy Wright, and Jonathan Hogan, who also composed the incidental music. It ran for 168 performances.

It made its Broadway debut at the New Apollo Theatre on November 5 1980, again directed by Mason with Daniels reprising the role of Jed, Christopher Reeve as Ken and Swoosie Kurtz as Gwen.

A television film was made of the play in 1982, directed by Mason and Kirk Browning, and again starring Daniels, Kurtz, and Richard Thomas as Ken, the role in which he succeeded Reeve on Broadway.

References

• Fifth of July at the Internet Movie Database
• Fifth of July at The Internet Broadway Database
• Wilson, Lanford. Fifth of July. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1982.

Wikipedia information about Fifth of July This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fifth of July". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.