The Green Bay Tree; A Play In Three Acts Shairp, Mordaunt

[nice tight clean copy, minimal wear, light age-toning]. (Baker's Professional Plays) Series Drama which, according to the New York Times review of a 1951 revival, is about a "half-suggested homosexual relationship," with a young man whose wish to marry a woman he loves is thwarted by his adoptive father. (The NYT review of the 1933 Broadway production termed it, less delicately, "a tragedy of sexual degeneracy," while the Daily News critic stated it to be about "abnormal characters.") The original London production had opened at St. Martin's Theatre in January 1933; the Broadway production followed, running a respectable 166 performances during the 1933/1934 season. The stars on Broadway were James Dale, Laurence Olivier, and Jill Esmond (then the first Mrs. Olivier); also featured was Leo G. Carroll (as an "immaculate butler" by the name of Trump!). It was Olivier's third stage appearance in America, and followed in the wake of his early (unsuccessful) attempts to establish himself as a movie actor in Hollywood. (He subsequently decamped for Britain, not to return until he starred in WUTHERING HEIGHTS for producer Samuel Goldwyn, filmed in late 1938 and early 1939.) Note: this play was unrelated to the 1924 novel of the same name by American author Louis Bromfield; although uncredited in the published version, it apparently derived from an 1894 novel (again of the same name) by one William Henry Wilkins.