Awake and Sing!

play by Odets

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 17, 2026

Quick Summary

"Awake and Sing!" is a naturalistic family drama written by Clifford Odets and first produced in 1935. It is considered one of the best plays of the 1930s and a significant work of social protest theatre in the United States. The play explores themes of family conflict and youthful yearning within a working-class Jewish family during the Great Depression. Odets, a leading dramatist of his time, was affiliated with the influential Group Theatre, which premiered "Awake and Sing!".12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

2 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Group Theatre
The group also staged Odets’ Awake and Sing, a look at Jewish life in the Bronx during the Depression, as well as his Till the Day I Die (1935), Paradise Lost (1935), and Golden Boy (1937). Other productions included Paul Green’s Johnny Johnson, a satirical, anti-war play, partly in blank…
Read More
The group also staged Odets’ Awake and Sing, a look at Jewish life in the Bronx during the Depression, as well as his Till the Day I Die (1935), Paradise Lost (1935), and Golden Boy (1937). Other productions included Paul Green’s Johnny Johnson, a satirical, anti-war play, partly in blank…
Read More

Frances McDormand
…a revival of Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing! In 1985 McDormand had a recurring guest part in the TV series Hill Street Blues and a bit part in Sam Raimi’s comic horror film Crimewave, and she played the baby-mad Dot in the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona (1987). She won praise…
Read More
…a revival of Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing! In 1985 McDormand had a recurring guest part in the TV series Hill Street Blues and a bit part in Sam Raimi’s comic horror film Crimewave, and she played the baby-mad Dot in the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona (1987). She won praise…
Read More

Mark Ruffalo
Making a name in Hollywood: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Kids Are All Right
…Broadway debut, in Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing!. His performance earned him a nomination for a Tony Award. His primary focus remained the cinema, nonetheless. He was a police inspector in the well-received reality-based crime story Zodiac (2007) and a con man in the romantic comedy The Brothers Bloom (2008).…
Read More
…Broadway debut, in Clifford Odets’s Awake and Sing!. His performance earned him a nomination for a Tony Award. His primary focus remained the cinema, nonetheless. He was a police inspector in the well-received reality-based crime story Zodiac (2007) and a con man in the romantic comedy The Brothers Bloom (2008).…
Read More