The Schaffner Players

engaged. The uncle visits and mistakes the wife of the man’s best friend as the girlfriend. A comic maid and tipsy neighbor complicate the mistaken identity.

A list of Schaffner plays is included in Appendix B. Other of the most successful Schaffner plays include: Toby Goes to Washington (also titled Toby and the Nazi Spies)(1942) in which Toby is a smalltown newspaper editor who helps outwit potential saboteurs, was written at the time the FBI was looking for sabotage and Nazi spies.

Joseph Toniutti, director of a Midwest Stock Company said; “If this play were produced on Broadway, the critics would cry, the reviewers would retch, but the public would buy a million dollars worth of it”[10] The Return of Aunt Susan (1949) was also titled Truth or Consequences and She Learned about Men. Neil wrote it to capitalize on the popular radio and later television show People Are Funny.

The play illustrated how other people’s behavior can be strange and funny.