Early Ray Bradbury Play

To The Chicago Abyss [Playscript]

Bradbury, Ray

Notes: One of the three plays staged by Bradbury in his first major theatrical venture, The World of Ray Bradbury, which debuted in Los Angeles on October 14, 1964, and ran for 20 weeks. In this play, based on a short story with the same title, an old man upsets the social order in a post-apocalyptic city by recounting his memory of the before times. Acknowledging that life was once better is forbidden and soon the special police come to take him away.

Bradbury loved writing for the stage and put on plays regularly in Los Angeles beginning in 1964. He refurbished the Coronet theater and renamed it the Pandemonium Theater, installing sound and visual equipment for special effects.

[1], 24 leaves printed on green paper and bound in the original blue brad-bound cardstock covers.

A note on dating: William Nolan dates this play to 1965 in the Ray Bradbury Companion. Ben P. Indick dates it to October 1, 1964, in Ray Bradbury: Dramatist. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, the play opened on Wednesday, October 14, after a few days' delay related to the new sound equipment.

OCLC seems to record two copies (#10894358) at Northwestern and the HRC.

Edition + Condition: First edition. Some tanning to the page cover edges, else near fine. Signed by Bradbury on the front cover below his printed name. The publisher's imprint is stamped on the inside back cover with the 8014 W. 3rd St. address and the OL 3-2103 phone number.

Publication: [Los Angeles]: Alert [Duplicating Service], [1964].

Item No: #308016

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