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| Hello Out There! | |
|---|---|
| Written by | William Saroyan |
| Date premiered | September 10, 1941 (1941-09-10) |
| Place premiered | Lobero Theatre inSanta Barbara, California |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | one-act play |
| Setting | A small jail inTexas |
Hello Out There! is aone-act play by theArmenian-American playwrightWilliam Saroyan written early in August 1941.
The play isset in a smallTexas jail. There are two majorcharacters, Photo-Finish and Emily, whom Saroyan refers to simply as "A Young Man" and "A Girl". Photo-Finish is a down on his luck gambler and ends up in jail in a hole-in-the-wall town as a result of a married harlot crying rape when he refused to pay her after coming over to her house.
There he meets Emily, an unhappy cook. When they meet, it islove at first sight. Emily and Photo-Finish fall in love and make plans to go to San Francisco, but their plans are crushed when the men looking for Photo-Finish find him and kill him.
The play was first performed in 1941 at theLobero Theatre inSanta Barbara, California as the curtain raiser to a revival ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sThe Devil's Disciple, and was first performed on Broadway in 1942. The Broadway production starredEddie Dowling andJulie Haydon.Al Pacino played the Young Man in a performance in 1963 that marked his first appearance on stage inNew York City.
In 1950, the play was adapted into a short film, directed byJames Whale and produced by millionaireHuntington Hartford. It starredHarry Morgan,Marjorie Steele (Hartford's then-wife),Lee Patrick, andRay Teal. The film, intended to be one episode in ananthology film in the style of similar films such asW. Somerset Maugham'sQuartet (1948), was never released.Hello Out There was Whale's last film.
In 1953, composerJack Beeson composed a one-act chamber opera based on the play.
In 1971, the Latvian composerImants Kalniņš composed a one-actrock opera "Ei, jūs tur!" based on the play, with a libretto by his brother, Viktors Kalniņš (Viks). This became the first rock opera in theSoviet Union.
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