“Atlantic abyss... The clangor of Judgment Day’s last trumpet dies away in the remotest pockets of space...”
Judgment Day is upon the world! As the moment of utter extinction arrives, three characters are swaying in the waters deep in the Atlantic. Although long dead, they are still wrestling with earthly identities and passions. What a crew! — An Empress of Newfoundland, a theatre producer, and a Christian priest. How will it end for this curious bunch?
This work, written in 1923, is one of only four Wilder playlets composed after he graduated from college. The title is drawn from Revelations 20:13. “And the sea gave up the dead in it…and all were judged by what they had done.” One critic, Donald Haberman, sees hints of Our Town here in the fact that the characters are “slowly liberating” their minds from “the prides and prejudices and trivialities of a lifetime.”
This short play is included in the collection Thornton Wilder's Playlets: Short, Short Plays for 3-5 Persons.