The Critical Response to Eugene O'Neill

Autorentext

JOHN H. HOUCHIN teaches at the Southern Illinois University. His publications have appeared in the Dictionary of Stage Directors published by Greenwood Press and The Drama Review.

Klappentext

Extolled and maligned, Eugene O'Neill was unquestionably the first American playwright of international stature, and his major plays, such as The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey Into Night, remain giants of the American stage. Acres of print have been devoted to O'Neill by theatre critics and literary scholars. This new collection assesses the full range of critical response, considered historically through the entire oeuvre and covering major themes and critical stances. It culls from opening night reviews of premieres and revivals as well as scholarly essays from influential critics and anonymous writers, from boosters and detractors, with the uniqueness of the critical observation being the main criterion for selection. An introduction outlines the major issues and avenues of O'Neill discourse, and a selective bibliography provides additional sources for O'Neill study.

Inhalt

Series Foreword by Cameron Northouse Preface Introduction: The O'Neill Discourse by John H. Houchin Early Success: Down and Alley on Drama Trail Washington Square Players The Play: New Bill at the Greenwich Village Seen on the Stage: The Provincetown Players Theatre Arts Bookshelf The Plays of Eugene O'Neill Second Thoughts on First Nights: The Provincetown Plays The Drama: Beyond the Horizon (Towse) Beyond the Horizon (Ridge) Chris Eugene O'Neill's Remarkable Play: The Emperor Jones The New Season Emperor Jones Revived Experimentation and Controversy: The Play Drama: Gold Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie Is Thrilling Drama, Perfectly Acted with a Bad Ending Second Thoughts on First Nights Chris and Poseidon: Man Versus God in Anna Christie Theatre Eugene O'Neill's The Straw Is Gruesome Clinical Tale First Man, New O'Neill Play, Is Gloomy Suburban Story The New Play The Hairy Ape Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape as Mirror Plays The Theatre: Eugene O'Neill The Theatre: Welded New O'Neill Play and the Mayor All God's Chillun and Others O'Neill and Racial Myths O'Neill Rarity in Weak Revival Drama: The God of Stumps Desire Under the Elms Biblical Perversion in Desire Under the Elms The New O'Neill Play and Some Others The Great God Brown (Skinner) The Great God Brown (Young) Theatre The Birth of Tragedy and The Great God Brown After the Battle The Theatres: Strange Interlude Eugene O'Neill and the Guild Strange Interlude and Schopenhauer O'Neill's Strange Interlude Retains Its Dramatic Power Reviews of O'Neill Plays in Performance: Strange Interlude Lazarus Laughed Produced on Coast Seen on Stage: Dynamo The Theatre: The American Dramatist Tragedy Becomes O'Neill The Theatre: The Top Our Electra The Circle Moves Up Masking Becomes Electra: O'Neill, Freud and the Feminine A Great American Comedy Ah, Wilderness Revived by Guild Singing in the Wilderness: The Dark Vision in Eugene O'Neill's Only Mature Comedy Great Day for the Irish The Theatre: L'amour et--Mon Dieu O'Neill Discovers the Cross Eugene O'Neill The Late Plays: Eugene O'Neill's New Play Is Powerful and Moving O'Neill--at Long Last Iceman Returns The Iceman and the Bridegroom: Some Observations on the Death of O'Neill's Salesman Stage: Iceman Cometh to Broadway Absence as Presence: The Second Sex in The Iceman Cometh Robert Brustein on Theatre: Souls on Ice Theatre: Long Day's Journey Into Night Theatre: Tragic Journey Off Broadway: Return Journey Theatre: The Haunted Tyrones Long Day's Worth the Journey Review of O'Neill Plays in Performance: Long Day's Journey Into Night Communal, Familial, and Personal Memories in O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night Great Day for the Irish O'Neill Opus Long but Fiercely Great The Stage: The Image and the Search Theatre: A Moon for the Misbegotten "and yet . . . " Theatre A Moon for the Misbegotten The Metatheatrics of A Moon for the Misbegotten Portman, Hayes and Stanley Magnificent in Touch of Poet Theatre Theatre: Dream Addict A Touch of the Poet: Memory and the Creative Imagination The Stage: Late O'Neill Theatre: More Stately Mansions Opens The Stage: Unfinished Mansions The Brothel in O'Neill's Mansions Thematic Analysis The Idea of Puritanism in the Plays of O'Neill Freedom and Fixity in the Plays of Eugene O'Neill O'Neill's Many Mothers: Mary Tyrone, Josie Hogan, and Their Antecedents An O'Neill Chronology Selected Bibliography Index