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HARVEY

Notes from the Director
Mary Chase was born in 1907 in Denver, Colorado to parents who immigrated to the United States from Ireland. In 1942, she began writing Harvey, a play about a friendly inebriate named Elwood P. Dowd and his invisible companion. The inspiration for the play came from a dream she had in which a psychiatrist was being chased by a giant white rabbit. It reminded her of stories her Irish uncles had told about pookas, mischievous goblins in Irish folklore who appear only to those who believe in them.

The pooka is well-known as one of the most powerful of Irish fairy folk. It is an adroit shape-shifter, and it may appear as a horse, rabbit, goat, goblin, or dog. Though the pooka enjoys confusing and sometimes terrifying humans, it is considered benevolent. It has the power of human speech, and it has been known to give advice and lead people away from danger. The names of both Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Winnie-the-Pooh are said to have derivations in common with the word "pooka."

Mary Chases's play Harvey enjoyed a phenomenally successful Broadway run, playing for nearly five years after its 1944 opening. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the 1950 film version starring James Stewart has achieved iconic status.

The dreamer that lies in each of us should never lose sight of the following: this play that has become a classic, this play that has endured for generations, this play that is about one of the most famous dreamers in literature was created because an artist listened to her dream.  

Alan Bailey