The Petrified Forest (play)

The Petrified Forest is a 1934 two-act play by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood. It is a melodrama, with a large cast and one setting. The story takes place inside a cafe called the Black Mesa Bar-B-Q and Filling Station, on a lonely crossroads in eastern Arizona. The family who runs it, their employees, and some customers are taken hostage by a criminal gang which has just pulled off a bloody jail break in Oklahoma City. The entirety of the action occurs in the course of one afternoon and evening in 1934. The title comes from the nearby petrified forest, where the drifting protagonist feels he belongs.

The original play was produced by Gilbert Miller and Leslie Howard, in association with Arthur Hopkins. It was staged by Hopkins, had sets by Raymond Sovey, and starred Leslie Howard, with Peggy Conklin and Humphrey Bogart. It ran on Broadway from January thru June 1935, with four of the original cast then reprising their roles in the 1936 film version. The play had one minor revival on Broadway in 1943, and was adapted for television in 1955.

This was the breakthrough role for Bogart, and thereafter he abandoned Broadway for the movies. The play was listed among the ten best of the season by critic Burns Mantle, but wasn't on the shortlist of four plays recommended for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.