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Acadia: A Play in Five Acts

Mary Kinley Ingraham

Acadia: A Play in Five Acts takes as its subject Acadia University, a school located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. The play was published in 1920 when the playwright, Mary Kinley Ingraham, was serving as the university’s librarian, a position she held from 1917 to 1944. Ingraham had previously attended Acadia University as a student and received both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree there. Her love of her alma mater is apparent in this play. The characters are symbolic representations of different aspects of the university and its culture. These characters include personifications of academic subjects such as Science, Art, and Theology, as well as of other concepts important to the university such as Truth and Learning. At the time of this play’s publication, the university was still reeling from the effects of World War I, in which many members of the university community had fought and died. For this reason, War is featured prominently in the play. The dialogue evinces Christian themes, as the university had strong Baptist affiliations at the time, and Ingraham was the daughter of a Baptist minister. That this play is in verse points to the fact that Ingraham was not primarily a playwright but rather a poet; her poetry was published in a wide variety of periodicals throughout her lifetime. - Summary by David Purdy