milamoo's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was a good play. I'd definitely want to see it staged.
irishannie's review against another edition
2.0
Because this is a play, it should be seen and not read. They're is also a musical component that doesn't translate onto the written page. I wish I had seen the original cast members: Swoosie Kurtz (Hellman) and Cherry Jones (McCarthy). I better their performances were great.
theanitaalvarez's review
5.0
A play written by Nora Ephron about the legendary feud between Lilian Hellman and Mary McCarthy. What is not to like?
Just to give you some context: Mary and Lilian hated each other’s guts and at one point Mary said on a TV interview that every word Hellman wrote was a lie “including ‘and’ and ‘the’”. I shit you not. Of course, Lilian sued her ass, though she died before the final veredict. The story is legendary among literary circles because it’s just so weird. What Nora Ephron does with this play is to try to explore the reasons behind their hatred.
As I read, I couldn’t help but stand up and read out loud (I often do that when reading really good plays). Nora Ephron’s wit is at its very best in this play, and I loved the snarky comments between the two authors, who spend the entire play arguing about fact and fiction, and about where did their feud begin.
Having said that, even if you know nothing about McCarthy and Hellman, the play is worth reading (and it would be amazing to see it staged). Questions about fact and fiction, the position of women in mid-century US, and the nature of writing are at the center of this play. Instead of focusing in the feud and showing the women antagonizing each other in a cat fight (which would’ve been a very clichéd take on their relationship), Ephron explores the nuances of their writing in relation to each other, and how both used writing to overcome their own questions regarding the truth. For Mary, truth was the most important thing, which is why she was almost obsessive regarding the honesty of her writing (Hellman wasn’t the only one to sue her, other people complained about her portraying them in fiction, thinly disguised). For Lilian, fact were secondary (while The Children’s Hour is based on a true story that happened in Edinburgh, it was only very loosely based on it, and the plot seems to be rather original), and she is annoyed by Mary’s obsession with the truth.
If you ask me, this theme of fact and fiction also comes across in Nora Ephron’s writing. She trained as a journalist (she appears as a secondary character in the Amazon series Good Girls Revolt), and also wrote tons of fiction. She had to live in the line between fact and fiction, and probably was deeply concerned with the idea of the truth (as it happens with a lots of journalists). Of course she felt that the conflict between Mary and Lilian hinged upon that distinction.
All in all, the play is fantastic and I’d really love to see it on the stage. Nora Ephron is one of my favorite screenwriters (and filmmakers) and I thoroughly enjoyed this little play. She’s witty, as witty as the women she shows here, and her writing is always a delight.
Just to give you some context: Mary and Lilian hated each other’s guts and at one point Mary said on a TV interview that every word Hellman wrote was a lie “including ‘and’ and ‘the’”. I shit you not. Of course, Lilian sued her ass, though she died before the final veredict. The story is legendary among literary circles because it’s just so weird. What Nora Ephron does with this play is to try to explore the reasons behind their hatred.
As I read, I couldn’t help but stand up and read out loud (I often do that when reading really good plays). Nora Ephron’s wit is at its very best in this play, and I loved the snarky comments between the two authors, who spend the entire play arguing about fact and fiction, and about where did their feud begin.
Having said that, even if you know nothing about McCarthy and Hellman, the play is worth reading (and it would be amazing to see it staged). Questions about fact and fiction, the position of women in mid-century US, and the nature of writing are at the center of this play. Instead of focusing in the feud and showing the women antagonizing each other in a cat fight (which would’ve been a very clichéd take on their relationship), Ephron explores the nuances of their writing in relation to each other, and how both used writing to overcome their own questions regarding the truth. For Mary, truth was the most important thing, which is why she was almost obsessive regarding the honesty of her writing (Hellman wasn’t the only one to sue her, other people complained about her portraying them in fiction, thinly disguised). For Lilian, fact were secondary (while The Children’s Hour is based on a true story that happened in Edinburgh, it was only very loosely based on it, and the plot seems to be rather original), and she is annoyed by Mary’s obsession with the truth.
If you ask me, this theme of fact and fiction also comes across in Nora Ephron’s writing. She trained as a journalist (she appears as a secondary character in the Amazon series Good Girls Revolt), and also wrote tons of fiction. She had to live in the line between fact and fiction, and probably was deeply concerned with the idea of the truth (as it happens with a lots of journalists). Of course she felt that the conflict between Mary and Lilian hinged upon that distinction.
All in all, the play is fantastic and I’d really love to see it on the stage. Nora Ephron is one of my favorite screenwriters (and filmmakers) and I thoroughly enjoyed this little play. She’s witty, as witty as the women she shows here, and her writing is always a delight.
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