THE STORY: The play takes place in the 1880s. Marcus Hubbard, rich, despotic, and despised, made a fortune during the Civil War by running the blockade—and worse. In his family life he is equally injurious: one son he bulldozes while the other he holds in contempt for his frailty. By Marcus’s side stands his mentally deranged wife and, finally, Regina, the adored daughter—amoral, conniving, and beautiful as an evil flower. Marcus, it would seem, has been on the top of the heap long enough and someone must depose him. Turning the tables on a tyrant has always made for high drama, and when Hellman puts her brilliant talents to work on such a theme the result is a play of great theatrical intensity.
ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST is not only heralded as one of the theater’s most hard-hitting domestic dramas, but it is also regarded as an important precursor to
The Little Foxes, Lillian Hellman’s most famous examination of a Southern family’s descent into wickedness and corruption.
