The Mirage (play)

{{Short description|1920 play by American Edgar Selwyn}} {{Infobox play | name = The Mirage | image = File:Florence Reed - Feb 1921 Tatler.jpg | image_size = | caption = Florence Reed in ''The Mirage'', February 1921 issue of ''The Tatler'' | writer = Edgar Selwyn | genre = | setting = | subject = | premiere = 30 September 1920 | place = Times Square Theater | orig_lang = English }} '''''The Mirage''''' is a play by Edgar Selwyn. It was the first play presented at the Times Square Theater and debuted on September 30, 1920. It closed in March 1921 after 192 performances.<ref name="hirschak">Hirschak, Thomas S. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GzeiySJZXF4C&pg=PA302 Broadway Plays and Musicals], p. 302 (2009)</ref>

==Synopsis== Burns Mantle summarized the plot as follows in his 1920-21 ''Best Plays'' annual: "Irene Martin of Erie, Pa., comes to New York in search of work and a broader life. Falling in with the wrong crowd, she gives up the fight to be respectable and for seven years permits a traction magnate to maintain an apartment for her and help her care for the folks at home. By putting a Mrs. before her name she first convinces her family she is married, and later writes them she is a widow. Her Erie sweetheart, having got on in the world, comes to New York to get her. By this time she is tired of the life she is living and eager to return to Erie and respectability, but her sweetheart finds her out. She convinces him, however, that her reformation is complete and he is willing to overlook her past, but her traction magnate succeeds in planting a doubt in her mind that she will ever be able to stand Erie and its group after the magnificence and freedom she has been used to in New York. So she sends the Erie boy home to wait until she feels she is worthy to come to him."<ref name="mantle">Mantle, Burns, ed. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=GrlEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA389 The Best Plays of 1920-21 and the Year Book of the Drama in America]'', pp. 389-90 (1921)</ref>

In response to those questioning the plausibility of the plot, Selwyn said it was based on "not at all uncommon" situations in New York.<ref name="true">(7 November 1920). [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045774/1920-11-07/ed-1/seq-39/ Say 'The Mirage' Is Based on Facts], ''The New York Herald''</ref>

==Original Broadway cast== * Florence Nash as Betty Bond * Mildred Whitney as Mack * Florence Reed as Mrs. Irene Moreland * Reginald Mason as Wallace Stuart * Alison Bradshaw at Ruth Martin * Catherine Proctor as Mrs. Martin * William Williams as Chester Martin * Alan Dinehart as Al Manning * Bert J. Norton as William * Wanda Lawrence as Mlle. Elise * Helen Maginnis as Dolly McMann * Malcolm Williams as Henry M. Galt * William Bain as Stanley Northrup * George Le Soir as Edward Godding<ref name="theatre1">(December 1920). [https://books.google.com/books?id=BKdOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA414 Mr. Hornblow Goes to the Play (review)], ''Theatre Magazine'' p. 414</ref>

==Adaptations==

The 1931 movie ''Possessed'', starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, in an adaptation of the play.<ref name="1931review">Hall, Mordaunt (28 November 1931). [https://www.nytimes.com/1931/11/28/archives/the-screen-the-mirage-in-a-war-prison-camp-german-espionage-work-on.html "The Mirage." In a War Prison Camp. German Espionage Work. On the Race Track], ''The New York Times''</ref> The 1924 silent movie ''The Mirage'' was also an adaptation.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IBDB show|6115|The Mirage}}

Category:1920 plays