Thirst; And Other One Act Plays
Description
"Eugene O'Neill has been a totally white spot on my personal map of literature so far. I knew that he had a Nobel prize in 1936, but that had never, so far, motivated me to find out more about him.
I chose the LoA edition of his plays for my first encounter.
I found that EON spent some time at sea, which puts him in a respected neighborhood with Melville and Conrad. He grew up in a stage family, his father being an itinerant actor, an Irish immigrant traveling the US.
His father paid for the publication of EON's first book, a collection of 5 one-act plays. All of them are fairly sensationalist. None of them played any role in its author's later fame. The plays were written in 1913/14. Two of them were staged. Three are about shipwrecks, 2 about jealousy and revenge in love triangles.
The Web: consumption, domestic violence, jealousy, heroism, and murder in the underworld. A fugitive robber is the hero, a pimp the villain, and a sick prostitute the victim of bad police work.
Thirst: two men and a woman on a raft on a tropical ocean after a shipwreck. Sharks circle the raft. Sun burns down. Water has run out. No ship or island in sight.
The play was staged in Provincetown with Louise Bryant. I wonder how the production handled the constant movement of the raft in the swell, which is quite important to the writer.
Recklessness: young wife loves wealthy husband's chauffeur; husband lacks sense of humor and finds revenge easy.
Warnings: wireless operator falls deaf and sinks his ship, as he can't hear the warning messages from other ships; he also had had warnings about his hearing, but couldn't quit his job as he had to feed wife and 5 kids.
Fog: 3 people adrift in a lifeboat without oars after a shipwreck, in fog near Newfoundland. Unexpectedly it turns out to be a ghost story.
This one was also staged in Provincetown. " - Amazon Reviewer
I chose the LoA edition of his plays for my first encounter.
I found that EON spent some time at sea, which puts him in a respected neighborhood with Melville and Conrad. He grew up in a stage family, his father being an itinerant actor, an Irish immigrant traveling the US.
His father paid for the publication of EON's first book, a collection of 5 one-act plays. All of them are fairly sensationalist. None of them played any role in its author's later fame. The plays were written in 1913/14. Two of them were staged. Three are about shipwrecks, 2 about jealousy and revenge in love triangles.
The Web: consumption, domestic violence, jealousy, heroism, and murder in the underworld. A fugitive robber is the hero, a pimp the villain, and a sick prostitute the victim of bad police work.
Thirst: two men and a woman on a raft on a tropical ocean after a shipwreck. Sharks circle the raft. Sun burns down. Water has run out. No ship or island in sight.
The play was staged in Provincetown with Louise Bryant. I wonder how the production handled the constant movement of the raft in the swell, which is quite important to the writer.
Recklessness: young wife loves wealthy husband's chauffeur; husband lacks sense of humor and finds revenge easy.
Warnings: wireless operator falls deaf and sinks his ship, as he can't hear the warning messages from other ships; he also had had warnings about his hearing, but couldn't quit his job as he had to feed wife and 5 kids.
Fog: 3 people adrift in a lifeboat without oars after a shipwreck, in fog near Newfoundland. Unexpectedly it turns out to be a ghost story.
This one was also staged in Provincetown. " - Amazon Reviewer
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