Night Brings a Counselor, Columbine, and The Silent System

Performances

February 19, 1924

Venue

Turner Hall

Synopsis - Night Brings a Counselor

This Lillian Saunders one-act play is set in a modern business office late at night. A man enters to speak on the telephone in a fruitless conversation with his wife who is miles away. In frustration and despair, the man prepares to take his own life. He is stopped by the entrance of the office scrub woman. Her force of personality combined with a call to his wife averts tragedy.

Synopsis - Columbine

Colin Clements’ translation of the Perrot and Columbine characters is given an American spin on the Commedia d’Arte characters in this 1923 one-act play. In a rented bedroom expressing both girlhood and straitened circumstances live two women: Sallie, the idealist, who saw herself as the poetic Columbine character, drifting away in happiness; and Millie, kind hearted and loving, who also believes that good fortune is coming her way.

Synopsis - The Silent System

This freely translated sketch shows us a wife awaiting her not too late husband. As he enters, the wife starts questioning him about his tardiness and behavior of late. This is a show to be seen as one cannot but appreciate that the wife carries all of the dialogue while the husband silently responds to all of her queries through to the happy conclusion.

Night Brings a Counselor - Author

Lillian Saunders

Columbine - Author

Colin Campbell Clements

The Silent System - Author

A. Drefus, translated by Brander Matthews

Historian’s Corner

The selection of these three plays showed the thought that went into using one setting and then cleverly changing the furniture to establish three separate locals. These shows also gave the opportunity for strong women characters to face a diverse set of situations. All three plays show how the resolutions of these situations come about, whether they be tragic or comic.