The Petrified Forest

The Petrified Forest is a 1934 two-act play by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood. It is a melodrama, with a large cast and one setting. The story takes place inside a cafe called the Black Mesa Bar-B-Q and Filling Station, on a lonely crossroads in eastern Arizona. The family who runs it, their employees, and some customers are taken hostage by a criminal gang which just pulled off a bloody jail break in Oklahoma City. The action all occurs in the course of one afternoon and evening in 1934. The title comes from the nearby petrified forest, where the drifting protagonist feels he belongs.