The Mirage

About the show

Burns Mantle summarized the plot as follows in his 1920-21 Best Plays annual: "Irene Martin of Erie, Pa., comes to New York in search of work and a broader life. Falling in with the wrong crowd, she gives up the fight to be respectable and for seven years permits a traction magnate to maintain an apartment for her and help her care for the folks at home. By putting a Mrs. before her name she first convinces her family she is married, and later writes them she is a widow. Her Erie sweetheart, having got on in the world, comes to New York to get her. By this time she is tired of the life she is living and eager to return to Erie and respectability, but her sweetheart finds her out. She convinces him, however, that her reformation is complete and he is willing to overlook her past, but her traction magnate succeeds in planting a doubt in her mind that she will ever be able to stand Erie and its group after the magnificence and freedom she has been used to in New York. So she sends the Erie boy home to wait until she feels she is worthy to come to him." In response to those questioning the plausibility of the plot, Selwyn said it was based on "not at all uncommon" situations in New York.