A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

The Traitor

Full-Length Play, Melodrama  /  3w, 15m

Herman Wouk

"There is a sense of pulsing melodrama in town in The Traitor, as hot as tomorrow's newspaper." - New York World-Telegram

"A first play of remarkable ideological and dramatic tension." - New York Herald-Tribune

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 15m

Details

Summary
This exciting and intelligent melodrama with Lee Tracy in the leading role opened to thunderous acclaim at the Forty-eighth Street Theatre, New York. The title figure of THE TRAITOR is a thoughtful and earnest atomic scientist who has no regard for communism, but who sincerely believes that the only way to prevent the catastrophe of a final world war is to surrender the secret of the atomic bomb to Russia. As he reasons, the sharing of an open secret would bring an end to hysteria and arms races. His fiancee receives in his school study an old friend of hers, a Lieutenant in Naval Intelligence. He proceeds cautiously, gathering evidence. Then, in the scientist's absence, a naval crew suddenly descends upon the study to make a sweeping examination and to wire it for sound. This scene is a breathtaking moment that Broadway has never forgotten. It precipitates the crisis in which the scientist finally understands his treachery. He lends himself heroically in the gun-battle climax when a high-ranking Russian secret agent appears.
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

"There is a sense of pulsing melodrama in town in The Traitor, as hot as tomorrow's newspaper." - New York World-Telegram

"A first play of remarkable ideological and dramatic tension." - New York Herald-Tribune

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Authors

Author

Herman Wouk

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