The Outside is a play written by Susan Glaspell in 1917. Most of her plays were produced and performed at the Provincetown Players in Provincetown Massachusetts. Although, my resource does not say whether or not The Outside was specifically produced by them, there is a good chance that it was. The script was copyrighted in 1948 for production. A copy of the script can be found in a book called A Century of Plays by American Women. This book also gives a brief biography of Susan Glaspell.
The Outside is a story about a woman, Mrs. Patrick, and her maid, Allie Mayo, coming to terms with a mystery of a boy at sea who was brought to her house near Cape Cod. The scene opens with the Captain, who is the head of "The Bars" Life-Saving Station; Bradford, as life saver; and Tony, a Portuguese life saver discussing what may have happened to the strange boy who washed up on shore dead. They have brought the body to Mrs. Patrick's house because it had been a Life-Saving Station in the past.
Mrs. Patrick is upset that they think her house is still a Life-Saving Station and tells the men, "This isn't a Life-Saving Station any more... This is my house! And -- I want my house to myself!" Despite her objections, they still try to revive the dead boy.
After they finally leave to get a stretcher, Mrs Patrick and Allie Mayo have a conversation. Allie Mayo is a quiet person and does not say much unless it is important which is why Mrs. Patrick hired her. Through the conversation, we find that Mrs. Patrick had visited the cape and had picnics on the sand dunes with her husband who had later died. She bought the Life-Saving Station to make it her home. She loves the dunes and calls it "The Outside." At the end, the script directions describe Mrs Patrick as "Herself lost, feeling her way into a wonder of Life,"
One dramaturgical choice was having the men bring the dead body to Mrs. Patrick's house. They could have easily brought the body up on the dunes to try to revive it. It made her have to confront the loss of her husband even though she insisted that they leave her alone. She was living in a dream world that the "Outside" was keeping her isolated. from the real world in which her husband was no longer with her. Bradford thinks the Mrs. Patrick and Allie Mayo "are both crazy" and doesn't want to bring the body in the house. He says, "Lord, I just wanted to get him somewhere else." and, talking about the dead body, "If he did have any notion of comin' back to life, he wouldn't a come if he'd seen her." To the men, it is just the normal place to bring a dead person. They had brought many bodies there in the past from ship wrecks. They were surprised when Mrs. Patrick decided to buy the old place. They knew that she had spent her summers there on the dunes with her husband.
The play talks about a line of trees that separated the dunes from the town. Allie Mayo says, "...woods, town and harbor. The line! Stunted straggly line that meets the outside face to face -- and fights for what itself can never be. Lonely line." This line of trees would be a second dramaturgical choice. In the description of the stage setting, Susan says that the sand dunes and line of trees should be seen through the door of the house. This is a constant reminder to Mrs. Patrick of the life she had with her husband even though the line of trees keeps her isolated.
Book cited:
France, Rachel. A Century of Plays by American Women. New York: Richards Rosen, 1979. Print.
I think this sounds like a really interesting play. I read a play by Glaspell as well and I find that she seems to deal with issues of varying degrees of seriousness with some level of humor. I do not know if this particular work was meant to have elements of comedy but I imagine there may have been some dark humor in the attempt to revive a person who is very much dead, and in the initial shock of Mrs. Patrick when a dead man is brought to her door.
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