Charity Case, winner of the superior rating at a statewide junior college drama festival, is an ideal contest play. The characterizations are well drawn, giving all four actors an opportunity to exercise their talents. The plot is suspenseful, and the theme is dramatic and significant.

This play opens in a cemetery, where an orphaned boy is searching for relatives. The thing he dreads most is being returned to the "Haven," from which he has escaped. This poignant drama shows one of the major problems of our times: the impersonal "institutions," which are supposed to aid the helpless, the lonely, the handicapped, but can't provide the needed help without depriving the individual of his freedom; to be helped, he must be locked up. The play has a timeless quality which will affect audiences anytime, anywhere. It deals with man's fear of captivity, of repression of spirit; and his resentment of institutionalism. It portrays one of man's most desperate tragedies—loneliness. And one of his most basic necessities —the need to belong. A gripping play for all groups.

"The thesis of the play grew out of the character of Tommy as I imagined him," author Ford Ainsworth said. "He became a double symbol. He is the imaginative dreamer who can cope with the 'real' world only in terms of his imagination, but he is also the hapless individual who is unintentionally victimized by the impersonal social institutions which are designed to rescue him from his plight. Neither the law nor organized charity can help him without 'locking him up' in one way or another. His only escape from the bars that threaten to cage his free spirit is through the world of his imagination. His 'escape,' of course, only removes him further from the world of reality."

Other Ainsworth plays: The Bridge, Farewell to Galatea, Persephone, The Sheep Thief (The Second Shepherd's Play)

See also: Plays About Family Relationships