Fifth of July

Fifth of July (1978), by American playwright Lanford Wilson (1937-*). Set in rural Missouri in 1977, it revolves around the Talley family and their friends, and focuses on the disillusionment with America in the wake of the Vietnam War. It premiered on Broadway in 1980 and was later produced as a made-for-television movie. This is part of the Talley Trilogy, a series of Wilson plays revolving around the Talley family of Lebanon, Missouri. The other plays, both set on July 4, 1944, are Talley's Folly, a one-act dialogue between Sally Talley and her husband-to-be, Matthew Friedman, and Talley & Son, which tells the story of a power struggle between Sally's father and grandfather.

In South Africa the play was directed by Nikolas Simmonds for Pieter Toerien in the Baxter Theatre, 1982. The cast: Eckard Rabe, Deon van Zyl, Liz Dick, Suzie Gehr, Tim Plewman, Dorothy-Ann Gould, Jonathan Rands, Bess Finney.