Outward Bound

Outward Bound is a play by Sutton Vane Jr (1888-1963)[1].

The original text

A play dealing in semi-symbolic fashion with the hereafter and the burden of personal guilt and offers a presentation of the world after death as a ship carrying souls from the country of the living to heaven's custom-house. It shows a collection of people who embark on the fateful journey across the Styx with an ordinary boat steward as their Charon. At first they do not realize that they are dead, but when they are finally convinced that this is no ordinary journey, they decide to combine forces for the purpose of meeting the Examiner, who is to come aboard at the end of the journey. When the Examiner sorts out the sheep from the goats, there are surprises in store for the passengers. Two of them, a young couple, are not called: they are half-ways, two suicides who refuse to face life. Now, with this momentous choice before them, they finally decide to return to the world, which they may face with greater courage.

As he could not find a producer to take on this unusual combination of fantasy and drama, Vane mounted his own production, which turned out an immense success. First produced at the Everyman Theatre, Hampstead, London, on Monday, September 17th, 1923, and subsequently at the Garrick, Royalty, Adelphi, Criterion, Comedy, Fortune, and Prince of Wales Theatres. The play was the hit of the 1923 London season and did equally well at the Ritz Theatre on Broadway in 1924 and in Paris at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees in 1926.