The Petrified Forest: A Play in 3 Acts (Acting Edition for Theater Productions) Paperback – 31 Dec. 1998

This excellent play by Robert Emmet Sherwood is very typical of the pessimistic world view of the intellectuals of the 1930s, but is still very contemporary.Failed and disillusioned writer Alan Squier, wandering in the Arizona desert, trying to discover the "Petrified Forest" and the meaning of his existence, finds himself at a local restaurant. He is drawn to the owner's daughter and aspiring artist Gabby Maple and is moved by her eagerness to experience the world and to escape the suffocating life she is trapped in. A catalyst to both their lives will prove to be the outlaw and murderer Duke Mantee, who seeks refuge in Gabby's restaurant.The two act play has a cast of twenty-one characters. The action of the entire play takes place in the "Black Medusa Bar-B-Q, gas station and lunchroom at a lonely crossroads in the eastern Arizona desert", during an evening of an autumn day in 1934.The play was a big success with Leslie Howard as Alan Squier and Humphrey Bogart as Duke Mantee. After this success, the play was adapted into the 1936 American film  The Petrified Forest [DVD ], with both Howard and Bogart. Notably, the very influential star at the time Howard insisted that newcomer Bogart should be cast in the film, giving his friend's film career a breakthrough.This very nice acting edition by the Dramatists Play Service Inc, includes information on the original 1935 New York production, and a property list, but sadly no introduction.