Reaction to the work of Eugene O'Neill
Our assignment was to use our fellow students as actors to stage scenes of his work. Of course, these students were people who thought the class would be an easy credit.
The work we read included.
*The Emperor Jones
Strange Interlude
Moon for the Misbegotten
The Iceman Cometh
Long Day's Journey Into Night
If you know O'Neill's work then perhaps you have accessed the situation correctly: It was a most depressing semester. I learned that I never ever wanted to be the kind of writer who kept writing the same emotional baggage over and over again.
My reaction to O'Neill's work back then was a visceral one: Get therapy dude. Work it out.
That directing class didn't teach me how to direct. Rather, it taught me to look for themes and unresolved issues when reading multiple works by the same author.
At the time, we all agreed that the drudgery of the rest of O'Neill's work made Long Day worth it. I suppose it did. I still have my copy of that play, but I have yet to pick it up again.
Isaac discusses O'Neill's work, especially Long Day's Journey Into Night.
*I never read The Emperor Jones because I have issues with stories that feature primitive tribes taken over by "civilized" characters. Seriously. In my book collection, I have studiously avoided collecting any books with variations of this storyline. It's not a rational thing. I can't trace it to a political opinion. It's a gut-level repulsion.
Avoiding this storyline is difficult if you collect books from 1920 through to 1970. It shows up in a myriad of ways, particularly through the 50s
