The Temperamental Journey
| The Temperamental Journey | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Leo Ditrichstein |
| Based on | Pour Vivre Heureux by André Rivoire and Yves Mirande |
| Directed by | Leo Ditrichstein |
| Date premiered | September 4, 1913 |
| Place premiered | Belasco Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Artist mortality brings commercial success |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Setting | The Italian Inn, a Greenwich Village studio, the Shepherd's home. |
The Temperamental Journey, originally titled Such Is Life, is a 1913 play by Leo Ditrichstein, adapted from Pour Vivre Heureux by André Rivoire and Yves Mirande. It is a three-act comedy with three settings and twenty characters. The story concerns an unhappy artist who survives a suicide attempt but is assumed to have died, and finds the commercial success in "death" that escaped him in life.
The play was produced by David Belasco, staged by Ditrichstein who also starred, with Isabel Irving, Josephine Victor, Richie Ling, and Cora Witherspoon in support. It had a tryout in San Francisco under its original name in June 1913, and another in Rochester, New York in late August 1913, before its Broadway premiere in September 1913. It ran through December 1913 for 123 performances, started on tour in Brooklyn, but closed down when Ditrichstein fell seriously ill.
The play was never revived on Broadway, nor adapted for other media.