Writer: Mae West

I finished with Mar West's plays collected in Three Plays: Sex / The Drag / The Pleasure Man last night. It should not have taken so long to read the plays. Put it down to my being tired and a bit harried rather than any problem with the writing.

These plays were written in the late Twenties. 

Let me be clear she is no Eugene O'Neil. Who is? What other playwright can I say that of? What other Twenties playwright is even readable today? West provides her characters with good lines. She gives the audience action and a reason to stay in their seats. What more is expected of a playwright?

Plotting seems to be her weak spot. The third acts of The Drag and The Pleasure Man. She wraps things up quickly, neatly with an offstage murder. I am thinking this was for commercial reasons. 

Sex is the weakest of the three, the only one in which West had a part, and one with a subtle ending. Here the bad girl goes off to have a good life.

The Drag is a play about gay men. It also has been performed. Read BWW Review: THE DRAG by Mae West Presented by The City Of West Hollywood and Classical Theatre Lab and Mae West Double Feature Sex & The Drag. Stage Agent has a short video here with s good argument on its current relevance. Boise State has a behind the scenes video which includes scenes from the play.

Pleasure Man gets less attention. From 2003, I found What a Drag! Mae West's Pleasure Man Gets NYC Reading With Charles Busch March 17. That it has a huge cast would make it a tough one to produce.

Another short video giving a general overview is here.

Check them out, please. The biggest surprise is why she stopped writing plays.

sch 4/2/22