The Shrike

Semi Staged. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is an intimate psychological play that is also, as the New York Times critic wrote, “likely to scare the living daylights out of you.” Committed to a mental institution after he tried to commit suicide, the main character, a theatre director, quickly regains his sanity but finds that the doctors won’t believe him. They trust only his sweet but really vindictive wife, who wants to keep him there. Jos? Ferrer was the star of the Broadway play and subsequent movie, and his co-star in the movie was an actress shockingly cast against type, June Allyson. The movie could not be made without compromises (a pretty girlfriend, a hopeful ending), but now the original play can be seen in all it’s chilling reality.