The undercurrent : A one act play by Fay Ehlert
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"The undercurrent" by Fay Ehlert is a one-act play written in the early 20th century. Set in a New York tenement, it probes the harm wrought by a domineering father and the fragile hope extended by a sympathetic social worker. The focus is the Fishyer family—Pa, Ma, Annie, and Emil—plus a prying neighbor whose gossip stirs trouble. Expect a tense, compassionate slice of life about fear, judgment, and the longing to be
understood. The opening of the play situates us in the Fishyers’ cramped basement kitchen as Ma, taut with worry, waits for seventeen-year-old Annie while snow falls outside. A sharp-tongued neighbor barges in hinting at bad news, and Pa returns, gruff, punctual, and controlling, quoting Scripture about training children as he demands supper. A social worker, Miss Page from the Morals Court, arrives; to placate Pa and protect Annie, Ma nervously pretends Annie is employed by her and dutifully turns over “earnings.” As Annie slips in late, the room’s tension tightens: Pa’s rigid authority, the neighbor’s insinuations, and Miss Page’s quiet firmness establish the central conflict that will test this fearful household. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Ehlert, Fay, 1886-1973 |
|---|---|
| Author of introduction, etc. | Pollock, John, 1878-1963 |
| LoC No. | 29014787 |
| Title | The undercurrent : A one act play |
| Original Publication | New York: Samuel French, 1928, copyright 1929. |
| Credits | Mairi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Families -- Drama |
| Subject | One-act plays |
| Subject | Domestic drama |
| Subject | Abusive men -- Drama |
| Subject | Dialect drama |
| Subject | Dysfunctional families -- Drama |
| Subject | Young women -- Conduct of life -- Drama |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78852 |
| Release Date | Jun 12, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1598 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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