The Cocktail Party

The Cocktail Party is a play by T. S. Eliot. Elements of the play are based on Alcestis, by
the Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. The play was the most popular of Eliot's seven
plays in his lifetime, although his 1935 play, Murder in the Cathedral, is better
remembered today.
The Cocktail Party was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1949. In 1950 the
play had successful runs in London and New York theaters (the Broadway production
received the 1950 Tony Award for Best Play.) It focuses on a troubled married couple
who, through the intervention of a mysterious stranger, settle their problems and move on
with their lives. The play starts out seeming to be a light satire of the traditional British
drawing room comedy. As it progresses, however, the work becomes a darker
philosophical treatment of human relations. As in many of Eliot's works, the play uses
absurdist elements to expose the isolation of the human condition. In another recurring
theme of Eliot's plays, the Christian martyrdom of the mistress character is seen as a
sacrifice that permits the predominantly secular life of the community to continue.
In 1951, in the first Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture at Harvard University Eliot
criticized his own plays in the second half of the lecture, explicitly the plays Murder in
the Cathedral, The Family Reunion, and The Cocktail Party. The lecture was published
as "Poetry and Drama" and later included in Eliot's 1957 collection On Poetry and Poets.

Synopsis
Edward and Lavinia Chamberlayne are separated after five years of marriage. She leaves
Edward just as they are about to host a cocktail party at their London home, and he has to
come up with an explanation for why Lavinia is not present, in order to keep up social
appearances. Lavinia is brought back by a mysterious Unidentified Guest at the party,
who turns out to be a psychiatrist whom Edward and Lavinia both consult. They each
learn that they have been deceiving themselves and must face life's realities. They learn
that their life together, though hollow and superficial, is preferable to life apart. This
message is difficult for the play's third main character, Edward's mistress, to accept. She,
with the psychiatrist's urging, also moves on towards a life of greater honesty and
salvation and becomes a Christian martyr in Africa. Two years later, Edward and Lavinia,
now better adjusted, host another cocktail party.

Characters

Edward Chamberlayne
Lavinia Chamberlayne
Celia Coplestone, Edward's mistress
Sir Henry Harcourt-Reilly, the mysterious stranger/psychiatrist
Miss Barraway, Sir Henry's secretary
The couple's friends:

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Peter Quilpe, with whom Lavinia and also Celia has an affair
Julia Shuttlethwaite
Alexander MacColgie Gibbs