A play which poignantly evokes the national mood just prior to World War II – a period of thwarted aspirations, bewildered disenchantment, with character who remain through it all naïve and wholesome. Set in a San Francisco waterfront bar in 1939, there’s a helter-skelter- mixture of colorful players, who are at times humorous, sentimental, philosophical, and melodramatic. It is a play that has stood the test of time, as well as having been a success from its beginning – it won both the Pulitzer and Drama Critics’ Circle Awards in 1940. You must see it to believe it, to get the delight of it, to be enchanted by it. This is the first of our two Bicentennial classical this season.