Conversations at Midnight

Tony-Nominated Actor Paul Hecht directs a staged reading of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s dramatic poem Conversations at Midnight, originally published in 1937. When she wrote Conversations, Edna St. Vincent Millay departed from her characteristic lyric style and created a multi-character conversational poem, imagining the after-dinner discussion of seven men from diverse backgrounds as they held sway over a number of topics, including politics, shooting, horse racing, poetry, love and war. The text won critical praise because of its unconventional use of mixed poetic forms, including couplets, free verse and sonnets. Upon its publication, a review from The New York Times called Conversations at Midnight a “dramatic dialogue in verse that is unquestionably [Millay’s] best and soundest book.”

The staged reading stars Roscoe Lee Browne; Larry Pine; Peter Francis James; Michael Stuhlbarg; Quentin Mare; Ken Marks and Paul Hecht.

Conversations at Midnight is presented as part of the 2006/07 season of literary programs presented by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center.