The Chase
by Horton Foote

Name: The Chase
Brand: Horton Foote
SKU: 9780822201984
Rating: 3.67 (46 reviews)

Highlights

Medium Cast

Female

Male

90 mins Unit Set/Multiple Settings American

Synopsis

Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement.

A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term.

He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates.

The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed.

Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary.

Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him.

Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.

Press Reviews

"A drama of action and suspense, by a playwright who combines theatrical power with probing characterization. This is the work on which the motion picture, also entitled THE CHASE, was based. “A vivid piece of theatre.” —New York Daily News. “One of the best plays on Broadway…Suspense was created in the first act; mounted in the second; exploded into violence in the third. THE CHASE held me from beginning to end."
— New York Journal-American