The Trip to Bountiful: play
by Horton Foote
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Description
Presents the script of Horton Foote's 1953 drama in which aging widow Mrs. Watts, living a restricted life with her son and daughter-in-law in Houston, tries to return to her old home in the town of Bountiful in an attempt to regain her strength and dignity.Tags
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Member Reviews
A beautiful story about aging and one's desire to return to a past that is long gone. Horton Foote, who also wrote Tender Mercies and the screenplay to [book:To Kill a Mockingbird|2657], nailed the sense of yearning of an elderly woman far from the home she identifies with.
Great book. Lots of elderly people just want to go home 1 more time before they die.
What a sad, sad play! If you're looking for natural dialogue, you won't find it here. Horton Foote's stage play is practically a one-woman show, with an actress taking the lead as a very unhappy woman with nothing to live for except her memory of how wonderful her youth was in her hometown, Bountiful. She stays in her son's house and drives his wife crazy. They fight incessantly, which makes the only man in the house feel helpless and emasculated. Te couple have their own troubles without a meddling mother-in-law. When the protagonist tries to run away from home to visit Bountiful, the couple feel compelled to alert the authorities and try to stop her. Why stop her? Why can't they let a sorrowful old woman have one little dream show more fulfilled? Because this is a tragic play, not a comedy, not even a dramedy, that's why. There won't be a dry eye in the house when Mrs Watts pleads with the police for just an ounce of freedom, as she explains that she really isn't a terrible woman... show less
Oct 10, 2025English (UK)
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Author Information
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Horton Foote was born in Wharton, Texas on March 14, 1916. He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California for two years before going to New York and joining Mary Hunter's American Actors Company. While there, he wrote a one-act play called Wharton Dance. After that, he continued to pursue acting and appeared in a few other plays, but show more primarily focused on writing. After World War II, he moved to Washington D. C. to run the King Smith School with Vincent Donehue. While he was there, he opened the King Smith Theater to all races, the first integrated audiences in the nation's capital. In addition to plays, he wrote for television and film. He was one of the writers for The Gabby Hayes Show on NBC. He wrote numerous plays including The Chase, The Carpetbagger's Children, and The Orphans' Home. He wrote numerous screenplays for movies including Baby, the Rain Must Fall and The Trip to Bountiful. He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Young Man from Atlanta and two Academy Awards for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. He died on March 4, 2009 at the age of 92. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Trip to Bountiful: play
- Related movies
- The Trip to Bountiful (1953 | IMDb); The Trip to Bountiful (1985 | IMDb); The Trip to Bountiful (2014 | IMDb)
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the play/script
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 90
- Popularity
- 355,997
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.50)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 6
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 1
