The Magnificent Ambersons: A Dramatic Adaptation of Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel

This Pulitzer Prize-winning tragic romance by Booth Tarkington follows the decline of a "magnificent" Midwest family, the Ambersons, as their reputations and resources disintegrate in a society that loses respect for their past success. Instead, the town turns its attentions to the industrialized future symbolized by dirty motorcars that drive the Amberton's horse-drawn carriage off the road and out of their lives. The drama centers around the entitled scion of the family's fading fortune, who refuses to change with the times, even as his beloved's father builds a successful automobile business. Like the land-owning aristocracy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard , this privileged family in early 20th century America ignores progress at its own peril -- and loses its way along with its wealth.This fast-paced dramatic adaptation is faithful to the novel's character detail and social milieu. The action is driven by the blatant arrogance of the young man, humorous when first encountered, but inevitably it brings ruin and heartbreak. Like the novel, the play's exploration of misguided motives proves deeply moving as each character's misunderstandings yield more and more devastating consequences. A meaningful tale for our time, this story asks when is it too late to change and does love heal all wounds.According to The New York Times' literary critic, Van Wyck Brooks, “The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington’s best novel. It is a typical story of an American family and town – the great family that locally ruled the roost and vanished virtually in a day as the town spread and darkened into a city. This novel no doubt was a permanent page in the social history of the United States, so admirably conceived and written was the tale of the Ambersons, their house, their fate, and the growth of the community in which they were submerged in the end.”