This controversial prison drama first stunned audiences in the late 1960s with its graphic depiction for the power games played behind bars.The all-male five-character play begins when a youth is thrown into prison and shares a cell with a flamboyant homosexual and his tough bunkmate.The youth tentatively announces, “I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but I’m not queer,” but his cell-mates, who have recently victimized a young black prisoner, have other plans.This results in the “conversion” of the youth, who becomes a tyrant ruling the cell.He beats up the tough and then himself victimizes the black youth.The drama explodes into an intense exploration of the shifting relationship of the ill-fated cell-mates.Fortune and Men’s Eyes was first produced at Wabash College in 1973.When the play was originally produced in New York, the New York Post critic stated, “Nothing I have seen in many a long pale month has moved me so profoundly.”
This page is part of an ongoing project to document the history of the theatre productions performed at Wabash College. If you have information not included on this page, please contact the Theater Department or Professor Dwight Watson (watsond@wabash.edu).
