The Tunnel of Love

The Tunnel of Love is a three-act play with five scenes and a prologue, written by Joseph Fields and Peter De Vries, adapted from the latter's 1954 novel. It is a comedy with a simple plot, small cast, and only one setting. The action is concerned with the efforts of a married couple to conceive a child and the complications that set in when they decide to try adoption. The staging by Fields features many entrances and exits from the single set with moderate pacing. The Theatre Guild produced the play, which was a hit on Broadway, running for 417 performances. Although a box office success, largely due to the star Tom Ewell, it failed to garner any award nominations. When Ewell left after a full year playing the lead, the role was taken over by Johnny Carson for six weeks, in his only Broadway stage performances. Popular with regional and community theaters during 1957 through 1959, its thin plot seems to have precluded much interest in revivals during subsequent years. Characters Leads Augie Poole is a cartoonist with good ideas but unsalable drawings. However, he refuses to be a "gagman" and sell just his ideas. Isolde Poole is a former actress, and Augie's wife of five years. Her grandmother is their financial support. She and Augie want to have a child. Dick Pepper: is an editor for The Townsman magazine, who keeps rejecting Augie's drawings but wants to buy his ideas. He is a serial philanderer. Alice Pepper, is Dick's wife, mother of their three children with another on the way. She is sometimes frank in speech but is blind to Dick's cheating. Supporting Estelle Novick is a Polish-born D.Sc. candidate at La Sorbonne, currently studying at Columbia while working for Rock-a-bye Adoption Agency. Miss McCracken is another case worker with Rock-a-bye Adoption Agency.