infancy

“It is wonderful to have an original, ever youthful and increasingly wise writer like Thornton Wilder back in the theatre.”
— The New York Times
“All children, emerging from the egocentric monsterhood of infancy-
‘Gimme! Gimme!’ cries the Nero in the bassinet-are out to win their way-from their parents, playmates, from ‘life,’ from all that is bewildering and inexplicable in themselves. They are also out to win some expression of themselves as individuals.”
— Thornton Wilder in The Paris Review Interviews, 1957

A comedy
3 men, 2 women (all adults)

Millie the nursemaid brings baby Tommy to Central Park in the hopes of a rendezvous with the handsome Patrolman Avonzino. Mrs. Boker soon arrives with baby Moe, and as the two ladies trade snacks and advice on child rearing, the infants compare notes on their parents’ bad behavior and pitiful lack of understanding. Babies act like grown-ups and grown-ups act like babies in this comedy about fulfilling basic human needs. Infancy was first produced at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York January 10, 1962, as one of three plays grouped as “Plays for Bleecker Street”. It was televised in 1966, and repeated in 1970.

A Note on Publication:

Infancy was first published in 1997 by TCG in The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, edited by Donald Gallup and Tappan Wilder. It is also included in Collected Plays & Writings on Theater edited by J. D. McClatchy, published by The Library of America in 2007.