HARVEY

HARVEY

Syracuse Stage presents free reading of Harvey

Sunday, JAN. 26 at 7:30 PM

By Mary Chase | Directed by Melissa Crespo

Mary Chase’s 1944 comedy, which tells the story of a good-natured man whose best friend is an invisible six-foot-tall rabbit, served a major inspiration for playwright Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1945 and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1950, starring Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd.

About the play:

Elwood P. Dowd insists on including his friend Harvey in all of his sister Veta’s social gatherings. Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half-foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarrassment for her family—and especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae—Veta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood’s hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also, and so the doctors mistakenly commit her instead of her mild-mannered brother. The truth comes out, however; Veta is freed, and the search is on for Elwood, who eventually arrives at the sanitarium of his own volition, looking for Harvey. But it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn’t so bad after all.

Tickets are free, but must register in advance.