The reputations of two teachers are ruined and the boarding school they have founded is destroyed when one of their pupils falsely accuses them of being lovers. The girl’s grandmother alerts the other parents who withdraw their children. The teachers decide to brazen it out in court and lose.
Lillian Hellman’s melodrama, one of the major American plays of the 1930s, is based on a trial, which happened in Scotland at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The critics compared her to Ibsen and Strindberg and she was nominated for The Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious of all drama awards; but the committee didn’t dare award it to her because of the subject matter. The play was in fact banned in a number of American cities and also in London in 1936 when it could only be performed in a private club theatre for members.
Hellman was adamant. Her play had nothing to do with lesbianism; it was just one of the side issues. The real subject matter was the power of lies and how gossip and the media can ruin lives for ever. 50 years later Hellman appeared before Senator McCarthy’ House of un-American Activities and she was blacklisted
You may have seen the film with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley Maclaine when it was called The Loudest Whisper. Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss now play the teachers. Ellen Burstyn is the formidable grandmother and Byrony Hannah is the malicious monster. Ian Rickson’s production gets off to a slow start with an over-extended sequence with the pupils and a silly affected teacher; but once the story-line gets going, it grips. The play may not be subtle but it still works and all four actresses are excellent.