About the work
A comedy in three acts by American playwright Mary Chase, written from 1942 after many revisions; it premiered on Broadway on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre, directed by Antoinette Perry. Chase received the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play.
Plot
Amiable Elwood P. Dowd is inseparable from Harvey, an invisible white rabbit over six feet tall that only he can see. Embarrassed by his behaviour in polite society, his sister Veta tries to have him committed to a sanatorium, setting off a series of mix-ups that end with the doctors themselves uncertain who is really the one losing their mind.
Cultural significance
With well over 1,700 performances, Harvey became one of the longest-running Broadway hits of its era and remains a staple of American repertory theatre. The 1950 film adaptation starring James Stewart, with an Oscar-winning performance by Josephine Hull, cemented the story's place in popular culture.