Idiot's Delight by Robert E. Sherwood

First published: 1936

First produced: 1936, at the National Theatre, Washington, D.C.

Type of plot: Comedy

Time of work: 1935

Locale: The Italian Alps

Principal Characters:

• Harry Van, an American showman touring with a troupe of dancers
• Captain Locicero, an airfield commanding officer
• Irene, an American of uncertain ancestry
• Achille Weber, a French munitions manufacturer
• Quillery, a French radical socialist
• Dr. Hugo Waldersee, a German scientist
• Mr. Cherry, and
• Mrs. Cherry, English newlyweds on their honeymoon

The Play

Act 1 opens in the cocktail lounge of the Hotel Monte Gabriele overlooking Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Bavaria. Captain Locicero, commanding officer of the nearby military airfield, enters, followed by Dr. Waldersee, demanding that the captain permit him to cross into Switzerland for his important cancer research demands. The captain explains that the threat of war has closed the borders. They are joined by an English couple on their honeymoon, Mr. and Mrs. Cherry, and a group of six exotic dancers from the United States and their leader, Harry Van. The radical socialist Quillery also joins the group; he is returning to France, where he hopes to unite all the workers of Europe against war. Finally, arms magnate Achille Weber enters with his companion Irene, who boasts a Russian ancestry. Weber describes himself as one without a nationality since he does business with all nations. As airplanes roar overhead, Captain Locicero announces that Germany has mobilized and that Italy and France are at war. Harry calls for music and dance.

As act 2 opens it is the evening of the same day. The Cherrys are declaring that they will remain superior to the war. Harry is again playing the piano and drinking. Quillery, ranting about the “dynamite of jingoism,” attacks England, the “well-fed, pious hypocrite,” and the arms manufacturers who have formed a “League of Death.” He turns on Dr. Waldersee, who, as a German, represents the swastika, but the doctor declares that as a scientist he is not concerned with politics. Harry shifts the conversation, offering to put on a show for the other guests that evening. Irene continues telling of her escapes, hinting as the scene closes that she has seen Harry Van somewhere before.

Scene 2 opens later the same evening. Airplanes again drone overhead. Irene comments that war is a game that God plays called “Idiot’s Delight.” It “never means anything, and never ends.” She blames Weber for the death and destruction caused by war, but he says that the greatest criminals are those he supplies with arms and that he merely furnishes them with “the illusion of power.” Harry and his dancers perform for the guests, but they are interrupted when Quillery announces that Italian planes have bombed Paris. In a violent outburst, he blames the Fascists; the captain has him arrested and taken away to be executed. The scene ends with the guests dancing in the lurid lights of the color wheel. In scene 3, Harry and Irene are alone on stage, the others having gone to bed. Harry says that he dislikes Weber, who considers the “human race just so many clay pigeons,” but Irene defends him as being necessary to “the kind of civilization that we have got.” Harry reveals that he suspects her to be the woman he knew in Nebraska, but she coyly evades admitting the truth.

When act 3 opens, it is the following afternoon. Quillery has been executed by the Fascists. The captain announces that they all will be permitted to leave. The Cherrys are returning to England, where the husband will enlist and fight for “civilization.” Dr. Waldersee has abandoned his scientific research to return to Germany and use his scientific knowledge to kill rather than to cure. Although her passport is not in order, Irene will be permitted to leave because Weber will vouch for her. He declines, however, forcing the captain to detain her. Harry learns of Weber’s betrayal and offers to help her, but she declines his offer. Before he leaves, she admits that she knew him in Omaha. The others depart, but soon Harry returns. As he and Irene drink champagne and make plans for her to join his show and tour with him, bombs begin to fall around them and machine-gun fire can be heard. They stand together at the window singing “Onward, Christian Soldiers” as the curtain falls.

Dramatic Devices

Sherwood depicts the horrors of war by employing a number of subtle and dramatic devices. Mainly, he relies on his characters to demonstrate war’s “bestial frenzy” and its dangers. Quillery’s frenzied outbursts are shown to destroy him, Dr. Waldersee’s pessimism destroys his career, and patriotism lures the Cherrys from their honeymoon. The sound of machine-gun fire and the deafening roar of bombers create a vivid image of war’s menace.

The play also relies on lighting to reinforce content. The darkening of the stage signals oncoming night but symbolizes the approaching darkness of war. The color wheel in the cabaret sequence sheds a lurid light on the dancing couples, suggesting the unnatural effects that war brings with it. Lighting therefore becomes a visual connection throughout the play that also symbolizes events offstage.

Onstage, the characters often speak in different languages simultaneously. This device reflects, on one hand, the difficulty of communication among nations—suggesting one of the causes of war; on the other hand, it dramatizes the human characteristic of not listening to or hearing others—not being interested enough in what they are saying to shut up long enough to hear them out. The discordant chorus of voices is an apt symbol of human self-centeredness and the jangle of failed communication that contrasts with the musical elements in the play.

The play’s setting is important because it enables Sherwood realistically to bring together assorted characters representing not only a certain point of view but a certain nationality as well. The setting is also central to the antiwar theme and itself symbolizes the idealist’s appeal for international accord and the ideal place to be when human affairs grow heated. When Irene exclaims in the end, “Here we are, on the top of the world,” her meanings resonate throughout the play. High in the Alps she is indeed on top of the world, but morally she has ascended by embracing truth and love and by not succumbing to patriotic fervor. She has risen above the sordid horror of destruction and asks rhetorically, “Do you want to go in the cellar?” By placing the action on top of the world, Sherwood suggests that the best place to be is above it all.

Critical Context

In his early plays, Sherwood focused on relationships and individual concerns in a predominantly comic spirit, though antiwar sentiments are often evident. It has been said that all of his plays are about pacifism. In four plays his sharpest views on war may be traced. In Waterloo Bridge (pr., pb. 1930), the soldier finds love more attractive than war. Idiot’s Delight takes the view that the individual cannot escape being caught up in war’s consequences. Abe Lincoln in Illinois (pr. 1938, pb. 1939) shows a peace-loving man faced with the task of plunging the nation into war; and in There Shall Be No Night (pr., pb. 1940) a man who wins the Nobel Peace Prize is forced to fight for freedom and human dignity. Running throughout all of Sherwood’s plays is the belief that personal sacrifice is often necessary to achieve the common good, and this sacrifice establishes the individual’s worth and faith in human goodness.

The popularity of Sherwood’s plays, beginning with The Road to Rome (pr., pb. 1927) and extending to There Shall Be No Night, and his work with the Playwrights’ Company and the American National Theater helped to keep the American theater alive in times of great social change. When Idiot’s Delight won the 1936 Pulitzer Prize, Sherwood was established as an important voice in prewar American drama. He believed that drama should entertain yet reflect the realities of the world outside the play, and his dramas embrace this dual purpose. His early plays reflected the lighthearted mood of the American 1920’s, whereas by the 1930’s the grim realities of the Depression and the rise of communism and Nazism cast a darker shadow over the plays. Idiot’s Delight was written and produced when major nations were poised to start another war, so its plea for sanity and the preservation of peace is all the more effective for its timing.

During the war years, Sherwood became a speech writer for President Franklin Roosevelt, and by war’s end, it is generally agreed, his artistic powers had declined, though he continued to write for the stage. On the whole, his plays gave audiences something positive to ponder while reflecting their hope for peace and faith in reason and human goodwill. The shifts in Sherwood’s feelings and thinking, reflected in his popular plays, present a clear record of what most intelligent, liberal people were thinking and feeling as well. Without being overly preachy, Idiot’s Delight accurately reflects the general moral climate of the 1930’s and captures the sentiments and point of view of large groups of people in a time of national and international crisis.

Sources for Further Study

Brown, John Mason. The Ordeal of a Playwright: Robert E. Sherwood and the Challenge of War. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.

Brown, John Mason. The Worlds of Robert E. Sherwood: Mirror to His Times, 1896-1939. New York: Harper and Row, 1965.

Flexner, Eleanor. American Playwrights, 1918-1938. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1938.

Meserve, Walter J. Robert E. Sherwood: Reluctant Moralist. New York: Pegasus, 1970.

Sahu, N. S. Theatre of Protest and Anger: Studies in Dramatic Works of Maxwell Anderson and Robert E. Sherwood. Delhi, India: Amar Prakashan, 1988.

Shuman, Robert Baird. Robert Emmet Sherwood. New Haven, Conn.: College and University Press Publishers, 1964.