A Matter of Husbands

• Characters:
  • Famous Actress
  • Earnest Young Woman
• Setting:
  • Famous Actress’s drawing room

About the Play

This one-act play written by Ferenc Molnar, a Hungarian playwright, and translated by Benjamin Glazer into English from Hungarian is about the ability of actors to make audience believe in illusion. Professional actors can act realistically; whatever the character they assume and do and say accordingly, it looks real. This is what makes the audience believe, feel and move emotionally. What if these actors act in their real life too in order to deceive someone? What if they use this craft of making others believe in order to manipulate them? There’s a high chance that their audience will be deceived. Here is one such instance in this play.

Summary of the Plot

An Earnest young woman has gone to meet a Hungarian Famous Actress. (They don’t have any name given to them by the playwright.) The two are having the conversation in the latter’s drawing room. The Earnest Young Woman beseeches the Famous Actress to return her husband Alfred, a lawyer, to her. She accuses the Famous Actress of stealing her husband from her by enticing him with her charm. She provides some evidence too, like Alfred sending flower to the Famous Actress twice a week, and a love letter. She also has a lock of hair found in her husband’s desk drawer. But the Famous Actress denies everything, and pretends to have not known Alfred closely. She then explains that Alfred must have been using her name and fame and making everything up just to make his wife jealous and revive her interest in him. She does it so skillfully that the Earnest Young Woman becomes convinced by her fabricated tale. Earnest Young Woman then thanks the Famous Actress and leaves. As soon as she is gone, the Famous Actress calls Alfred to appear from her bedroom. Only at this point the reader understands that the Famous Actress is actually having an affair with the Earnest Young Woman’s husband, and rather than being caught, she has just now fooled the poor woman into believing her lies. The play ends right here. Thus, this play has a surprise ending too.