The Silver Cord

Alternately hilarious and heart-stopping, Sidney Howard-s The Silver Cord (1926) tells the story of the sweetly tyrannical, Mrs. Phelps – the -mother of all mothers- and one of the great villains in all of American drama. Pathologically devoted to her two adult sons, Mrs. Phelps is driven to new heights of manipulation and intrigue when her eldest son returns home with his new bride – a modern woman with her own career and, more importantly, her own ideas about marriage and family. Add the budding romance between the younger son and his unconventional -flapper- girlfriend and you-ve got the makings of an explosive Freudian melodrama.

Charles Busch is the author and star of such plays as The Divine Sister, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and The Tale of the Allergist-s Wife, which ran for nearly two years on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2003, Mr. Busch received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright. He is also the subject of the acclaimed documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch.