| "Shadow Play" | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Dennis Weaver in "Shadow Play" |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 62 |
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| Written by | Charles Beaumont (adapted from his short story, "Traumerei") | ||||||
| Directed by | John Brahm | ||||||
| Production no. | 173-3657 | ||||||
| Original airdate | May 5, 1961 | ||||||
| Guest stars | |||||||
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Dennis Weaver Adam Grant |
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"Shadow Play" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It was remade under the same title as part of the 1980s series of the show.
Contents |
| “ | Adam Grant, a nondescript kind of man found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. Like every other criminal caught in the wheels of justice he's scared, right down to the marrow of his bones. But it isn't prison that scares him, the long, silent nights of waiting, the slow walk to the little room, or even death itself. It's something else that holds Adam Grant in the hot, sweaty grip of fear, something worse than any punishment this world has to offer, something found only in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
A man convicted of murder, Adam Grant (Weaver), tries to convince those about to execute him that the world all around them is just his recurring nightmare. He claims the District Attorney and the lawyers are all people he has known in his waking life now playing the parts in a dream. They ask why he cares about dying if it is all a dream. He explains that he cannot get a decent night's sleep because he always wakes up screaming. He tells the District Attorney to go home; what he originally thought was for dinner will be something else. This happens and unnerves the District Attorney, who discusses the issue with a friend. The friend reasons out that the man's claims constitute reasonable doubt as to his sanity, and that the District Attorney should ask the governor to issue a stay of execution. With some reservations, he places the call and asks the governor to do so. He tells the reporter that the governor said he would issue one. A stay of execution arrives too late, as we see the lights dim, presumably from the electric chair being activated. We discover he was correct: the world was a dream for them, and a nightmare for him, as everything begins to vanish and the world turns to black. The opening scene recurs as he's sentenced to death for murder once again, albeit with the same people in different roles (e.g. a fellow inmate is now the judge at the trial).
| “ | We know that a dream can be real, but whoever thought that reality could be a dream? We exist, of course, but how, in what way? As we believe, as flesh-and-blood human beings, or are we simply parts of someone's feverish, complicated nightmare? Think about it, and then ask yourself, do you live here, in this country, in this world, or do you live instead in the Twilight Zone? | ” |
Announcer: "And now, Mr. Serling."
| “ | Next week, the very considerable talents of Mr. Shelley Berman are utilized to bring you another in our weekly excursions into the never-never land of the wild, the woolly and the wondrous. He plays the part of a little man who yearns for the serenity of a world without people, and as it happens, he gets his wish - to walk an uninhabited Earth and face the consequences. Our story is called "The Mind and the Matter." I hope we see you then. | ” |
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