Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953)

I don't know how else to describe this play other than "heart-breakingly beautiful". I absolutely love it. What a fabulous insight into raw human emotion. The tragedy is that the love between Josie and Tyrone isn't unrequited at all--it's very real, and very deep; it's impossible to say who needs eachother more. Yet despite the strength of the the emotion between them, regret, shame, and pride keep them apart. For just one night they let their follies fall away, but each has a conflicting show more view on what it means to show their love to each other. This play reminds me very much of Gone with the Wind-- the complexity of the characters and their relations, the pride that keeps them from letting each other in. The challenge of this play's character development would be a gift to any actor. As a counselor and an actress, this is one of my favorite pieces of American writing. show less

I really like the structure of this play - how the story unfolds in the tiniest bits and pieces, edging along so that you never quite know what's entirely going on until the end of the play. Mary's addiction was heartbreaking, as were her confessions about what she felt drove her to them, and each of the other character's stories really broke my heart. It felt like they all hated the decisions they had made in the past, but couldn't repent them or change their direction - Tyrone would always show more be a tightwad, James wouldn't change his self-destructive nature, Edmund couldn't do anything for himself and didn't even try to. show less

O'Neill's brilliance and his place as America's foremost playwright locks into place, if it hadn't already, with this third volume of plays from the last decade of his writing life. Three of the plays presented here (The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and A Moon for the Misbegotten) are utter masterpieces, works of art so powerful that they rank among the great accomplishments in English letters. Two other plays (Ah, Wilderness! and A Touch of the Poet) are great plays. A show more third (More Stately Mansions) is the one great failure of O'Neill's career, I believe, an endless epic back-and-forth set of soulful arguments that could have been (and sometimes was) better played in an infinitely shorter play. But it's my belief that no American playwright has ever come within miles of capturing O'Neill's ability to see the pain at the heart of human beings and to encapsulate so perfectly the pity which the lost heart yearns for and requires. show less

This sad saga chronicles a group of drunks who meet up at a local saloon. They are full of big dreams for the future, but anyone who knows them knows that they are all talk and no action. Each man has glossed over the story of his life in his own mind, leaving out the bad bits and chalk any failures up to someone else’s fault or a tragedy that befell him.

The patrons look up to a salesman named Hickman ("Hickey") who stops in when he can. During the first half of the play everyone gathers show more at the saloon for a birthday party and just waits for Hickey to arrive. When he finally gets there something is different about him and immediately everyone is concerned. He has lost his happy-go-lucky attitude. Hickey forces each of the individuals to reevaluate their lives and ask themselves whether they are truly trying to improve it.

The owner of the saloon, Harry Hope, watches the drama unfolds in his establishment. He is concerned by the direction in which Hickey’s “ideas” are steering everyone. In this world people embrace only the possibility of a better life, they never intend to take the steps that would actually lead to one, but it's that hope that keeps them going.

It’s hard to explain why this was such a powerful story to me. I think part of it is the context in which it was written. It was published in 1940, and written during the Great Depression, a time of disillusionment in America. It captures that feeling of hopelessness in such a palpable way. I could see each of the characters thinking about their “one day” plans and truly believing that those dreams were attainable.

BOTTOM LINE: This play paints a beautiful picture of the crumbling American dream. It asks the question, do people really want to reach their goals or is the fact that they have those dreams enough for them? There’s something to be said for having a distant hope, especially for those living such desperate lives. show less