THE STORY: To quote Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times): “Everyone has to believe in something—religion preferred. Always a familiar writer with sympathy for ordinary people,” Mr. Van Druten “starts off proving his thesis in terms of two unmarried girl roommates. One is artfully trapping a suitor into marriage. The other, who has visions of grandeur in her soul, refuses to be either cynical or ambitious, but withholds herself for a great uncalculated love."
In his preface van Druten writes: “A number of years ago a friend of mine had told me that he had a subject for a play that he wished I would write. It was to answer the question of what made people go on living, carrying on their existence in the face of trouble, hopelessness, foreboding and fear. 'The riddle of the Universe: That is all you want me to write about?' I asked. Yet the question pursed me. It pursues all of us, and the ones who do not seek to find an answer are those who are lost."
