Six One-Act Plays — A Reader’s Guide

Dialogue as Argument

In The Striker, two women, Mrs. Quinn and Mrs. Martin, debate the ethics of a trolley strike from their kitchens. Mrs. Martin echoes a walking delegate: "It's not only for ourselves, but for our children that the war must be waged." Mrs. Quinn counters with skepticism: "A principle's a fine excuse now and then, for a bunch of men to fight behind." Oliver lets the argument unfold without authorial commentary, letting each woman's voice reveal her class position and personal stakes. Mrs. Quinn's husband has been prying up trolley tracks; Mrs. Martin's Bill is "bitter as poison against the company." The dialogue does not resolve the conflict but exposes the costs of principle on domestic life.

Setting as Character

The plays use distinct settings to frame their conflicts. The Hand of the Prophet specifies a room with "rose petals strewn on the floor, platters heaped with fruits," and incense burning in braziers—a space of festivity that soon hosts tension over a missing kinsman. In The Striker, the setting is implied through dialogue: the women refer to a Lyceum lecture series, a police court, and a back gate where a man sneaks in "like a thief." Oliver does not describe the kitchen; instead, the characters' references to trolley tracks and strike breakers build the environment. The contrast between the ornate Arabian room and the implied working-class home underscores the collection's range in tone and place.

Recurring Motifs of Authority and Resistance

Across the excerpts, characters challenge or enforce authority. Kodama silences Halima's impatience with "I weary of these murmurings," while Mrs. Quinn and Mrs. Martin debate the legitimacy of the walking delegate's influence. Mrs. Martin notes that the delegate "gets paid for startin' strikes," and Mrs. Quinn retorts that "the men don't get paid for strikin'." The plays do not offer a unified stance; instead, they present authority as contested—whether in a marriage, a labor dispute, or a lecture hall. The repeated word "arbitrate" in The Striker signals a desire for resolution that the dialogue itself withholds, leaving the audience to weigh the arguments.

Structural Variety Across the Collection

The excerpts show Oliver experimenting with form. The Hand of the Prophet includes a repeated ritual: two desert men in white costumes appear between curtains, bow, and exit. This framing device gives the play a ceremonial quality. In contrast, The Striker is a continuous conversation between two women, with no stage business beyond the dialogue. The collection also includes Children of Granada and Murdering Selina, whose titles suggest further tonal shifts. The notes and music sections at the end imply that some plays were intended for performance with musical accompaniment, though the excerpts do not reveal which.

Readers approaching Six One-Act Plays should note that the excerpts represent only a fraction of the collection. The plays vary widely in setting and social milieu, from Arabian fantasy to American labor strife. Oliver's strength lies in crafting dialogue that reveals character through conflict rather than exposition. Pay attention to how each play uses its specific setting—whether a wedding dais or a kitchen table—to ground the arguments. The collection rewards those who read for voice and structure rather than plot resolution.

Leafing through Margaret Scott Oliver’s 1916 plays—that Arabian wedding, the Spanish siege—I kept circling back to the quiet ache in her domestic scenes. It reminded me of an older volume I once borrowed, Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: The Moth and the Flame — Edition Insights, where the same tension simmers beneath polite talk. Certain arguments, it seems, are timeless.