TEA AND SYMPATHY

A play in three acts by Robert Anderson, which opened in London in 1957In a New England boys’ boarding school the only intimacy encouraged between the pupils and the masters’ wives is ‘tea and sympathy’. Laura though has more than sympathy for young Tom; he reminds her of her first husband-a sensitive boy who died in the Second World War proving his courage and manhood. Tom is persecuted for being different and is labelled a homosexual. In fact he is quite normal and is secretly crazy about Laura whose marriage to second husband Bill is distinctly rocky.Rejected by father friends and teachers tom tries to prove himself with the local whore but is impotent and tries to kill himself. For this act he must leave the school but on his last day Laura declares that she is leaving Bill whose persecution of Tom has made her see what Bill is covering up. She goes to Tom and finds him doubting himself so much that she offers herself – and he responds.