Overview
This one-act comedy, set in a Pullman car on a train traveling from New York to Chicago in December, 1930, introduces techniques Wilder would use in future three-act plays: The stage is virtually bare, with only a balcony or bridge and two flights of stairs, and the play is narrated by a Stage Manager. One of the characters speaks words that foreshadow Emily's words in Our Town. The play includes a character representing Grover's Corners, Ohio-a forerunner of Our Town's Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. The cast includes the hours of the day, the weather, the planets and supernatural beings. Conventional time is suspended, and the only true measures of existence are life and death. Pullman Car takes a metaphorical journey by train through the American landscape, as a diverse band of travelers encapsulated in a Pullman car hurtles through time, space and a range of emotions.