States of grace: Eight plays

The comedies about Barry, a product of Baker's 47 Workshop, is best remembered for his witty and elegant marriage among the well-to-do. His most noted play is The Philadelphia Story (1939), about a wealthy young woman who on her wedding day switches from a dull social climber to remarry her first husband. Other drawing room successes include Paris show more Bound (1929) and Holiday (1928). Barry also wrote more serious plays but with less critical and popular success. Hotel Universe (1930), in which a group of strangers relive personal crises in their lives, and Here Come the Clowns (1938) are experimental dramas with a mystical side, reflecting a Freudian interpretation of character and existential doubt. In Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1931) a man discovers that his mistress is more his wife in behavior and love than the woman to whom he is legally married. Of Barry, Brendan Gill wrote, "No matter how ambitious the intentions of his plays, he kept the plays themselves modest in scale. He wrote often in the now unfashionable genre of high comedy but his comedies strove to be deeper than they were high." (Bowker Author Biography) show less