Richard Kurt asks internationally known portrait painter Marion Froude to write her autobiography for his magazine. At first she laughs off the idea, but it’s Manhattan in 1932, during the Depression, and she can use the money. The prospect dismays a former lover, Leander Nolan from Tennessee who is running for United States Senate and is engaged to the daughter of one of Knoxville’s wealthiest families. Nolan and his future father-in-law exercise their influence to try to kill the story. Conversation in S. N. Behrman's entertaining comedy is sharp and witty, but beneath the polished surface is a satirical study of American morals and all the dogma that lies in the clash of differing points of views. Just in time for an election year!
When this scintillating play opened on Broadway in 1932, Brooks Atkinson’s, reviewer for “The New York Times” wrote “S. N. Behrman can write comedies that shine with the truth of character.”