The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1957 play by William Inge about family conflicts during the early 1920s in a small town near Oklahoma City. It won a Tony Award for Best Play and was made into a film in 1960. The drama centers on Reuben Flood, who loses his salesman job. While searching for a new job, he must deal with his wife, Cora, who shuns intimacy and mistakes his joblessness for stinginess, his shy daughter who prepares for her first... more

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs is a 1957 play by William Inge about family conflicts during the early 1920s in a small town near Oklahoma City. It won a Tony Award for Best Play and was made into a film in 1960. The drama centers on Reuben Flood, who loses his salesman job. While searching for a new job, he must deal with his wife, Cora, who shuns intimacy and mistakes his joblessness for stinginess, his shy daughter who prepares for her first dance and his pre-teen son who runs to his mother instead of dealing with bullies. He tries to comfort himself with childhood friend Mavis Pruitt, whom the town rumor mill believes is a loose woman. In addition to the themes of modernization (i.e., not enough demand for horse harness, and the impending arrival of the oil industry), Inge's characters all face one set of demons or another on their way to the play's conclusion. Directed by Elia Kazan, the play opened December 5, 1957, at New York's Music Box Theatre and ran for a total of 468... less