Sunrise at Campobello by Dore Schary

First published: 1958

First produced: 1958, at the Cort Theatre, New York City

Type of plot: Biographical; history

Time of work: 1921-1924

Locale: Campobello, New Brunswick, and Madison Square Garden, New York City

Principal Characters:

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the future American president
• Eleanor Roosevelt, his wife
• Anna,
• Franklin Jr, .,
• James,
• John, and
• Elliott, his children
• Sara Delano Roosevelt, his mother
• Louis Howe, his friend and political adviser
• Al Smith, the governor of New York

The Play

Sunrise at Campobello chronicles the life of future American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the brutal onset of his infantile paralysis (polio) to his triumphant return to political life three years later. The curtain rises on the large living room of his summer home at Campobello in Canada’s New Brunswick province. Several of the Roosevelt children run in and report the day’s outdoor activities to their mother, Eleanor. Soon Franklin bounds in behind them. He is a forty-year-old man, fit, strong, and in the prime of life. The pleasant family chatter continues with some good-natured bickering among the children.

With Eleanor and Franklin momentarily alone, he reveals that the swim did not refresh him as it usually does. Franklin unexpectedly stumbles and grabs his back. He dismisses it as a spot of lumbago.

Scene 2 opens three weeks later to a changed world for the Roosevelts. The normally robust Franklin has fallen seriously ill and has been diagnosed with polio. His legs are paralyzed, he cannot sit up unsupported, and for a time, cannot even hold a spoon. Sara, Franklin’s mother, and Louis Howe, his friend and political adviser, have joined the family to assist with Franklin’s care. Sara, Eleanor, and Louis discuss Franklin’s condition and their interrelationships become clear. Sara, an indomitable matriarch, disapproves of the chain-smoking Howe, who she thinks enjoys riding on Franklin’s coattails. Eleanor, who respects Howe’s abilities, carefully defends him to her overpowering mother-in-law. Nevertheless, they all seem united in their love and devotion to the stricken Franklin.

Scene 3 takes place one month later, when preparations are under way for Franklin’s trip home to New York City. The journey begins with townsfolk carrying him downstairs into the living room on a stretcher. Though weakened from his illness, he still displays good humor and banters with Louis. Always the political mastermind, Howe discloses that he has diverted the press from Roosevelt’s true route and plans for their first glimpse of Franklin to be from the train. Pleased with Louis’s shenanigans, Franklin dons his familiar fedora hat, his favorite cigarette holder, and his Scottie dog Duffy, and is carried out of the home.

Act 2 is set in the Roosevelt home in New York City eight months later. Franklin is now quite adept at maneuvering his wheelchair and can crawl up the stairs to his bedroom. However, his usual high spirits have begun to wear thin, and at times he is grumpy, rude, and short-tempered.

Franklin reveals to Eleanor that the illness has created within him a deep loneliness and episodes of despair. He explains that in the beginning only his faith gave him the strength to endure. In the intervening months, Louis Howe has been busy promoting Eleanor as a political speaker to keep the Roosevelt name in the public eye. Eleanor lacks natural ability, but she gamely makes her best effort. However, the situation has taken its toll on everyone. Later, while reading to the children, Eleanor uncharacteristically breaks down crying.

While Howe works toward a political career for Franklin, Sara attempts to persuade him to retire to the family home at Hyde Park, where he can administer the estate and retire from public life. Franklin firmly states that he refuses to surrender to invalidism.

In the final act, Eleanor and Howe encourage Franklin to nominate Governor Al Smith for president at the Democratic National Convention. Reportedly, the governor has been considering asking Franklin to do the honors. Franklin understands that he will need to walk (in his heavy braces and crutches) from his wheelchair to the podium and then speak standing upright for forty-five minutes. Yet he and Howe realize that this speech will make or break Franklin’s political future. As anticipated, Smith arrives and asks Franklin to give the nomination speech. Franklin accepts.

The final scenes are at the Democratic National Convention in Madison Square Garden. After being introduced, Franklin rises from his wheelchair and walks the ten painful steps to the podium. The cheering swells while the band plays “Sidewalks of New York.” He reaches and holds onto the lectern, hands the crutches to his son, and waves to the crowd, smiling broadly. The roar continues as the curtain falls.

Dramatic Devices

Roosevelt’s wheelchair is a prop of major symbolic importance and visual impact in Sunrise at Campobello. When he appears onstage sitting in the wheelchair, it is a startling moment for the audience. Although the general public was aware of his disability, the discreet contemporary press did not publish photographs of him in the wheelchair. To see the president, who had bravely led the country through two crises, the Great Depression and World War II, humbled by disability historically made a huge impression upon Americans, and, in the theater, conveyed a sense of intimacy with the audience.

Additional props related to Roosevelt’s illness take on similar significance, including his crutches and braces and the difficulties he experiences adapting to their use. Yet his proudest moments come when he rises above the constraints of these props, as in the stretcher scene, where he manages to emerge resplendent, optimistic, and cocky despite being crippled and unable to walk. The scene in which he crawls across the stage, demonstrating the extent of his helplessness and boundless determination to overcome his disability, is deeply poignant. Finally, the podium in Madison Square Garden represents the difficult challenges ahead for Roosevelt, and his ultimate success in overcoming them.

The stage lighting accomplished by oil lamps during hours of darkness not only conveys the cozy atmosphere of a summer cottage on an island but also suggests that this is an earlier era, when the medical profession was less advanced.

Sunrise at Campobello is a historically accurate play, as opposed to plays based on historical events or persons, which invent situations and characterizations, such as Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus (pr. 1979, pb. 1980). In addition to conducting considerable research into Roosevelt’s life, Dore Schary took special pains to portray accurately Roosevelt’s manner of speech at this time and consulted with Eleanor Roosevelt in order to depict it correctly. The dialogue effectively characterizes an aristocratic family, where French is spoken and taught by a governess, William Shakespeare is read aloud, cultured conversation is valued, and courtesy and noblesse oblige are observed.

Critical Context

Before writing Sunrise at Campobello, Dore Schary made his reputation in Hollywood as a studio executive, first as vice president of production for RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Studios, and later at MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Studios as head of all production. He supervised the production of more than 250 motion pictures, and wrote scripts for more than 40, including Boys Town (1938) for which he shared an Academy Award. When he was dismissed from MGM in 1956 as a result of company restructuring, he turned his talents to playwriting.

Sunrise at Campobello, his first playwriting effort, was a hit on Broadway, earning four Tony Awards, including awards for best play, best director, and best actor to Ralph Bellamy as Roosevelt (who repeated the role in the popular 1960 film version). Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom Schary had conferred while writing the play, was in the audience on opening night.

Schary’s subsequent theatrical works were considerably less successful, most receiving a harsh critical reception and closing within a few weeks. His Brightower (pr. 1970), about a suicidal writer, closed after one performance. He seemed to focus on themes from Sunrise at Campobello but with unconvincing results. The Highest Tree (pr. 1959, pb. 1960), about an atomic scientist opposed to nuclear proliferation, featured an aristocratic family who was supposed to be cohesive and supportive but came across as profoundly dull and tedious. One by One (pr. 1964) explored the romantic relationship of a couple, both of whom are disabled, one as a result of polio. Despite potentially engrossing subject matter, the failure of these plays lends some credence to the assertion by some critics that Sunrise at Campobello was not necessarily a great play, but rather a great story, populated with characters cherished by the audience.

Sources for Further Study

Atkinson, Brooks. “The Theatre: Sunrise at Campobello—Bellamy as Roosevelt Scores at the Cort.” New York Times, January 25, 1958, p. 25.

Eells, George. “Sunrise at Campobello: The Story of Two Comebacks.” Look 22 (April 1, 1958): 98-101, 103, 105.

Schary, Dore. “F. D. R. in Dramatic Focus.” Theatre Arts 42 (February, 1958): 62-64, 93, 94.

Schary, Dore. Heyday: An Autobiography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979.

Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. “F. D. R. on the Stage.” The New Republic 138 (February 10, 1958): 20.

“A Time of Ordeal for Young F. D. R.: Eleanor Roosevelt Helps Actors Prepare New Play.” Life 44 (February 10, 1958): 91-94.