Show-and-Tell Blog Post: Alice Gerstenberg's Fourteen

Basic Information

Well, since this is my last blog post, I guess it’s only fitting that I come full circle and read a play by the first playwright we discussed in class. Alice Gerstenberg’s Fourteen was originally published in Drama Magazine in 1920. (Theatre History Website) I was unable to find a ton of information concerning productions. However, I do know that Fourteen was performed at the One Act Play Festival in 2011 in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada. (Elliot Lake News) This play was also presented in a series of six short plays by and about women in 2007 in the East Village, New York. (New York Times) I was able to access this play through the North America Women’s Drama Database.

Basic Plot

Fourteen features three characters: Mrs. Pringle, a fashionable matron; Elaine, her daughter, a debutante; and Dunham, the maid or butler. The entirety of this play takes place immediately before Mrs. Pringle’s dinner party. The number of guests is originally to be fourteen. However, because of a blizzard, the guests cancel continually, and the characters scramble to adjust the seating arrangements. First, the characters attempt to add or eliminate guests in order to avoid having thirteen at a table. As more guests confirm or cancel, other concerns arise. For example, the family adjusts the numbers so that the father can sit at the head of the table. In addition, Mrs. Pringle has invited one of the guests, the wealthy Oliver Farnsworth, to dine in the hopes that he will marry Elaine. As the chaos builds, Farnsworth cancels, causing Mrs. Pringle to denounce him and social life. At the height of her mania, it turns out that Farnsworth has sent the Prince of Wales and his bodyguard to dine in his stead. As a result, the number is back to fourteen, and an elated Mrs. Pringle hopes to marry Elaine off to the Prince.

Dramaturgical Choice #1: Duration

One significant dramaturgical choice pertains to duration. Gerstenberg chooses to assign all the stage time to the preparation for the party instead of the party itself. At first, this seems like an odd choice, considering how much Mrs. Pringle builds up the dinner. However, I think Gerstenberg assigns the stage time to the preparations in order to show the intricate details attached to social life. These details, while seeming inconsequential, hold enormous weight for the characters. For example, the characters work themselves into a frenzy in order to avoid the number thirteen or to allow the father to sit at the head of the table.

Mrs. Pringle ignores all else in an attempt to maintain the etiquette of high society. She places Elaine’s (and, therefore, her own) social position above all else. Mrs. Pringle goes to great lengths to ensure that Elaine will sit beside Oliver Farnsworth. When Elaine says that it is useless to sit next to him, her mother says, “Aren’t you going to try to make a good match for yourself? I fling every eligible man I can at your head. Can’t you finish the rest yourself?” Gerstenberg spends so much time on the details, exposing their ridiculous intricacies, that determine Mrs. Pringle’s social position.

Dramaturgical Choice #2: Progression

Gerstenberg also makes a dramaturgical choice pertaining to progression. Namely, Gerstenberg foreshadows the Prince’s arrival by discussing him earlier in the script. When Mrs. Pringle and Elaine discuss Oliver Farnsworth, Elaine says that he intimidates her as much as would the Prince of Wales. Mrs. Pringle then says, “The Prince of Wales! Oh! What wouldn’t I give to have the Prince of Wales in my house! New York has lost its heart to him. I was just telling Mr. Farnsworth yesterday that I’d give anything to have the Prince here. I would establish my social position for life!” The prospect of the Prince's arrival is dismissed as an improbable fantasy.

I think that Gerstenberg foreshadows the Prince’s arrival in order to indicate that there will always be a chance to climb higher on the social ladder. When the Prince of Wales is first mentioned, he is an unattainable hypothetical, representing the hopes for extremely high social position. Before the Prince arrives, Mrs. Pringle has become so frustrated that she forswears the intricacies of social life. However, when the Prince actually goes to Mrs. Pringle’s house, his arrival snaps the matron out of her mood. As a result, her mind immediately turns to social climbing.