jill d #170087

Apr 22, 2012 8:16 AM

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Best Answer: There's an excellent summary of the play at the website linked below. You might want to look into
the character of Celia, as a morality play, Eliot seems to use her character as a martyr for Christian ideals. This
play is all about choices; the first paragraph of the article;

"The Cocktail Party is a twentieth century morality play, one that argues that people must accept their burdensome
roles as decision makers. Unlike medieval morality plays, which upbraided audiences to choose good deeds and
shun evil, The Cocktail Party simply places its characters in the crucible of choice, and diagnoses their indecision as
a malaise. Eliot means to demonstrate that it is the burden of the human race to face tough choices, and live with
the consequences."

I believe bookrags has a complete study guide, but it does have to be purchased.
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-cocktail-party/q-and-a/what-topic-in-cocktailparty-could-you-write-
an-essay-about-72641

The Cocktail Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cocktail Party

1st edition (Faber & Faber)
Written by T. S. Eliot
Characters Edward Chamberlayne
Lavinia Chamberlayne
Celia Coplestone
Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly
Miss Barraway
Peter Quilpe
Julia Shuttlethwaite
Alexander MacColgie Gibbs
Date premiered Edinburgh: August 22, 1949
Broadway: January 21, 1950
Place premiered Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh, Scotland
Broadway:
Henry Miller's Theatre
New York City, New York
Original language English
Setting London, England
IBDB profile
The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on Alcestis, by the Ancient
Greek playwright Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven plays in his lifetime, although his
1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better remembered today.
The Cocktail Party was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949. In 1950 the play had successful runs
in London and New York theaters (the Broadway production received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play.) It
focuses on a troubled married couple who, through the intervention of a mysterious stranger, settle their
problems and move on with their lives. The play starts out seeming to be a light satire of the traditional
British drawing room comedy. As it progresses, however, the work becomes a darker philosophical treatment of
human relations. As in many of Eliot's works, the play uses absurdist elements to expose the isolation of the
human condition. In another recurring theme of Eliot's plays, the Christian martyrdom of the mistress character
is seen as a sacrifice that permits the predominantly secular life of the community to continue.
In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University Eliot criticized his own plays in
the second half of the lecture, explicitly the plays Murder in the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The
Cocktail Party. The lecture was published as "Poetry and Drama" and later included in Eliot's 1957
collection On Poetry and Poets.
Contents
[hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Characters
3 Productions
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
[edit]Synopsis
Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne are separated after five years of marriage. She leaves Edward just as they
are about to host a cocktail party at their London home, and he has to come up with an explanation for why
Lavinia is not present, in order to keep up social appearances. Lavinia is brought back by a mysterious
Unidentified Guest at the party, who turns out to be a psychiatrist whom Edward and Lavinia both consult. They
each learn that they have been deceiving themselves and must face life's realities. They learn that their life
together, though hollow and superficial, is preferable to life apart. This message is difficult for the play's third
main character, Edward's mistress, to accept. She, with the psychiatrist's urging, also moves on towards a life
of greater honesty and salvation and becomes a Christian martyr in Africa. Two years later, Edward and
Lavinia, now better adjusted, host another cocktail party.
[edit]Characters
Edward Chamberlayne
Lavinia Chamberlayne
Celia Coplestone, Edward's mistress
Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, the mysterious stranger/psychiatrist
Miss Barraway, Sir Henry's secretary
The couple's friends:
Peter Quilpe, with whom Lavinia has an affair, but who yearns for Celia
Julia Shuttlethwaite
Alexander MacColgie Gibbs
[edit]Productions
After its debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949 with Alec Guinness in the role of the unidentified guest, The
Cocktail Party premiered on Broadway on January 21, 1950, at theHenry Miller's Theatre and ran for 409
performances. Produced by Gilbert Miller and directed by E. Martin Browne, the production starred Guinness
as the mysterious stranger. It received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play. The play also ran in London
with Rex Harrison as the uninvited guest.
A revival opened on October 7, 1968, at the Lyceum Theatre and ran for 44 performances. The
Chamberlaynes were played by Brian Bedford and Frances Sternhagen, with Sydney Walker as the mysterious
stranger.
Guinness returned to the role of the uninvited guest at the Chichester Festival Theatre under his own direction
in 1968, taking the production to London later in the year.
In the spring of 2010, the New York based Off-Broadway company The Actors Company Theatre
(TACT) presented the play.
[edit]References
Time writers (30 January 1950). "New Plays in Manhattan". Time. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
[edit]Further reading
T. S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays
Grover Smith, T.S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays: A Study in Sources and Meaning
E. Martin Browne, The Making of T.S. Eliot's Plays.
[edit]External links
The Cocktail Party at the Internet Broadway Database