First produced by the Provincetown Players in 1916.
SUMMARY
Life tallies casualties of the Great War and Death comments that she don’t care about losing soldiers. Life and Death play a game of dice to determine whether a poet (the Youth) and a dancer (the Girl) will die immediately or fall in love and die at the end of a long life. Life wins but Death says he’ll see the Youth and the Girl eventually. After the couple leaves, Life and Death discuss their next game. Alone onstage, Life admits that she does actually mourn the deaths of soldiers.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS PLAY
- The play is a shorter example of a morality play. Typically, morality plays such as Everyman, Castle of Perseverance, and Mankind are quite long. The Game is a one-act play that can be read in 10-15 minutes.
- The game and banter between Life and Death is reminiscent of the Seventh Seal, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.
- Death likes to name drop. In response to Love being stronger than Death, Death lists off great lovers in Dante, Shakespeare, and Wagner, stating everyone eventually dies.
- Although the characters are gendered, they could be played by people of any gender, race, ethnicity, age, etc. The text uses some pronouns, but there is very little reference to the characters’ specific gender or age.
- There are many comedic moments in the play that contrasts with the discussion of life and death.
MEMORABLE LINES
LIFE: Are you sure it was Love? I think it was only Desire I gave you; you did not seem ready for Love.
YOUTH: (Passionately) Falsehoods. Evasions. What is Love, then? You gave me a girl who sold flowers on the street. She had hair like gold and a body all curves and rose-white like marble. I sang my songs for her, and the whole world listened. Then an ugly beast came and offered her gold … and she laughed at me–and went away.
* * *
LIFE: I warn you I will stop at nothing. By the way, what’s the game tomorrow night?
DEATH: A Plague. And in that game, I regret to say you haven’t a chance in the world.
LIFE: Don’t forget I have Science to help me.
***
DEATH: (Rising with cheerful complacency) I am Death!
YOUTH: (Taken aback) Death! How different from my dream of you. I thought you were sombre, austere; and instead, you’re–if I may say so–just a trifle commonplace.
DEATH: I’m not as young as I once was. One’s figure, you know–
***
HISTORICAL NOTES
- Louise Bryant was a journalist who is best known for writing about Russia.
- Written in 1916, the play contains an eerie reference to a coming plague alongside the deaths of soldiers in the Great War.
- The Game was the first play the Provincetown Players produced in New York after first being staged in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
- Bryant was played by Diane Keaton in Warren Beatty’s 1981 historical drama Reds, in which Beatty stars as Ten Days That Shook the World author John Reed and Jack Nicholson plays Eugene O’Neill.
Read The Game HERE
Photo Credit: Günther, “Dice Game,” 1916