Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Time of Your Life by William Saroyan (1940)

Summary:  Characters move in and out of Nick’s Pacific Street Saloon, a bar in San Francisco.  As with most bars, some are regulars while others enter only to cause a stir and then quickly depart.  Most of the people who find their way into Nick’s looking for work are down on their luck, and though he attempts a tough exterior…he always tries to find a place for them.  Besides Nick, the most important character in the bar is Joe—a man who appears to have money for no discernible reason and gives it away willingly.

Thoughts:  My initial thought after reading this play was, “Did I miss something?”  Having read a number of these plays, I’ve developed an affinity for the slice of life, one-setting formula that has been so rewarded over the years.  However, I simply just didn’t find this one as compelling of some that surround it.  I appreciated the element of magical realism (Kit Carson is a character in the play)…but other than that I was left wondering, “Why this one?”

No comments:

Post a Comment