Plot
Sweet Bird of Youth originated circa 1956 as two plays: a two-character version of the final play featuring only Chance and the Princess, and a one-act play titled The Pink Bedroom that was later developed into Act Two of the play, featuring Boss Finley and his family.
Self-professed to be from the "wrong side of the tracks" of St. Cloud, Florida, Chance Wayne loves Heavenly Finley. She is the daughter of wealthy 'Boss' Thomas J. Finley, a corrupt and ruthless politician/businessman who has a strong belief in chastity and parades his daughter around in a white dress showcasing her as the perfect virgin. Finley doesn't like bastards, or any one he considers less than well bred, around his "puppet" Heavenly.
Chance first meets Heavenly at the Finley's country club, where he was a waiter. Chance approaches Boss Finley, seeking permission to see Heavenly formally, en route to a future proposal of marriage. Finley will of course never allow this. So, he entices Chance with the American Dream of fame and fortune in Hollywood to get Chance to just leave town, and he sends his daughter away on a long tour of Europe to get her away from Chance as well.
Years later, Chance returns to St. Cloud with temperamental and drunken movie star Alexandra Del Lago. She intends to retire because she is embarrassed about her last movie role. Chance hopes to blackmail Del Lago with a surreptitious tape recording in order to get a part in a film. However, Chance is distracted by Heavenly and stops pursuing Del Lago. Heavenly still loves Chance and wants to escape her dictating father. Boss Finley wants to run Chance out of town again, but it will be a little more difficult this time if only because of the notoriety of Miss Del Lago.
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Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If you need a certain vitality you can only supply it yourself, or there comes a point, anyway, when no one’s actions but your own seem dramatically convincing and justifiable in the plot that the number of your days concocts.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)