The Shrike is a 1952 play written by Joseph Kramm.
The story opens with Jim Downs, a theater director, being admitted to a hospital after a suicide attempt. Afterwards, he is confined to a psychiatric ward as a danger to himself. The audience soon learns that Jim, at the time of the incident, was separated from his wife Ann, had taken out his own apartment, and had a lover named Charlotte.
Ann comes to the hospital. While she acts loving and supportive, she actually manipulates events in order to have Jim committed to the psychiatric ward long-term. Eventually it becomes clear that her goal is to force him to return home and submit to her control, or else be permanently committed to an asylum.
José Ferrer directed the original production and also starred as Jim, and won two Tony Awards for his work. Ferrer also starred in a 1955 film version opposite June Allyson as Ann. Joseph Kramm's wife Isabel Bonner played Dr. Barrow in the original production, and later played Ann; in 1955 she suffered a brain hemorrhage and died onstage during a performance of this play.
Tropes:
- Downer Ending: The play ends with Jim being released, and forced to return to Ann's control—and, as the doctor makes clear by reminding Jim that he's in Ann's custody, she really is going to own him for the foreseeable future. The last stage directions at the end say "He knows he is trapped" and describe Jim as "convulsed with sobs" as he walks off.
- Everybody Smokes: Dr. Barrow lights up a cigarette in a hospital, something that you'd never see in a million years in the 21st century.
- The Ghost: Jim's girlfriend Charlotte, who never appears. She sends a message to the hospital in an unsuccessful attempt to get in touch with him. Ann forces Jim to break up with Charlotte as part of the price of getting out.
- Inkblot Test: Jim mentions in passing taking the Rorschach test. Unlike many instances of this trope the test seems to be part of the nonsense that the psychiatrists use to keep him confined.
- Most Writers Are Writers: The protagonist of this play is a theater director.
- Non-Indicative Title: A shrike is a harmless-looking songbird that is actually carnivorous, and kills its victims by impaling them on thorns or other pointy objects, after which the shrike tears them apart. One doesn't show up in the work, it's use in the title is symbolic of how Ann destroys Jim over the course of the play.
- Quitting to Get Married: In the backstory. Ann was an actress on the stage who retired from the theater to marry Jim. It's strongly implied that one of the reasons she hates her husband is that she quit her career to support him, while his career as a director hasn't been very successful.
- Shout-Out: One of the other inmates of the mental ward mentions "seven", the Bedlam House part of the hospital meant for violent inmates, and makes a comparison to hit film The Snake Pit. Jim realizes that he'll be put in a straitjacket on "seven" if he doesn't play ball.
- Starving Artist: Part of the reason Jim tried to kill himself. His theatrical career has been a failure, and he was down to "sixty cents to last me eight days" before a check from a part-time teaching job arrives.
- Suicide by Pills: Jim attempted this, swallowing 156 pills—the doctors attach inordinate importance to the fact that he counted them. The fact that he failed eventually leaves him worse off.
- Word Association Test: Dr. Barrow does one with Jim. Jim gets in trouble when Dr. Barrow says "wife" and he takes a long time to come up with "sweetheart" in response. Jim knows by this point that he has to convince the doctors that he's reconciled with his wife before he can get out, but Dr. Barrow realizes that he is faking it.
- Wrongfully Committed: As in many instances in fiction, the mental ward is portrayed as a Kafka-esque prison, even worse than a regular prison as there is no means of appeal or escape. Jim is trapped there, with psychiatrists who are looking for a reason to keep him committed and a wife who is manipulating events for her own advantage. Eventually Jim figures out that until he gives up his girlfriend, goes back to Ann, and submits to her control, he will be left in a state mental asylum to rot.
