Hairy Ape, The (1922), a play by Eugene O'Neill. [Provincetown Theatre, 120 perf.] Richard “Yank” Smith (Louis Wolheim) is an apelike coal stoker on a luxury liner. Mildred Douglas (Mary Blair), do‐gooder daughter of the line's president, visits the boiler room and faints at the sight of the brutish man. Her behavior causes Yank to question his worth and his place in society. He leaves the ship to stroll up Fifth Avenue, where his boorish behavior lands him in jail. Cell mates urge him to join the “Wobblies,” but the union refuses him. Confused and upset, he heads for a zoo. After asking a gorilla, “Where do I fit in?” he attempts to release the animal. But the beast, like everyone else, misunderstands him, and kills him. One of O'Neill's most popular early plays, the innovative Provincetown Players production was welcomed by Alexander Woollcott as “a bitter, brutal, wildly fantastic play of nightmare hue and nightmare distortion.” It has enjoyed occasional revivals, including a dynamic mounting by the Wooster Group in 1997.
The Hairy Ape
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Contents: Plot Summary Characters Themes Style Critical Overview Criticism Sources Further Reading |
Eugene O’neill 1922
Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape was first produced on March 9, 1922, by the Provincetown Players, a theatrical group that he co-founded. The work was staged in New York City at the company’s own Provincetown Theatre. Publication of the play occurred that same year. By this time O’Neill was already an established playwright, having won two Pulitzer Prizes. The Hairy Ape represented something of a departure for him, being an exploration into a more expressionistic style than his previous plays.
The Hairy Ape had been written rather quickly in 1921, and the first production left little time between the final draft and the start of rehearsals. There is some dispute as to who actually directed the first production, with evidence that a triumvirate of Anthony Hopkins, James Light, and O’Neill contributed to the stage direction.
Alexander Woollcot reported in the New York Times that this Provincetown production was “a bitter, brutal, wildly fantastic play of nightmare hue and nightmare distortion.” Other critics agreed, finding the play to be a powerful commentary on the human toll exacted from America’s bumpy transition from an agrarian to industrial nation. Audiences also identified with O’Neill’s characters, who represented, in some form, people from their everyday life.
The Hairy Ape’s strong condemnation of the dehumanizing effects of industrialization made it appealing to many labor groups and unions, who seized upon its concepts to further their cause for better working conditions. The play also attracted the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had kept a file on O’Neill. The organization’s report on the playwright stated that “The Hairy Ape could easily lend itself to radical propaganda, and it is somewhat surprising that it has not already been used for this purpose.”
The Hairy Ape’s New York production faced more concrete bureaucratic interference: an attempt was made by the mayor to close the play down for fear that it would provoke labor disputes or riots. Despite the fears of local and federal governments, the play never became a threat in that sense. Rather audiences and critics embraced it as thought-provoking entertainment. Although Woolcott found fault with the play’s initial production, he also concluded his review by stating that he found The Hairy Ape to be “a turbulent and tremendous play, so full of blemishes that the merest fledgling among the critics could point out a dozen, yet so vital and interesting and teeming with life that those playgoers who let it escape them will be missing one of the real events of the year.” In the years since its debut the play has become one of O’Neill’s better-known works and a distinctive exploration of a pivotal period in American society.
| Wikipedia: The Hairy Ape |
The Hairy Ape is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill (1922).
Contents |
Plot
The play tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer known as Yank, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an oceanliner, and is highly confident in his physical power over the ship's engines. However, when the weak but rich daughter of an industrialist in the steel business refers to him as a "filthy beast," Yank undergoes a crisis of identity. He leaves the ship and wanders into Manhattan, only to find he does not belong anywhere—neither with the socialites on Fifth Avenue, nor with the labor organizers on the waterfront. Finally he is reduced to seeking a kindred being with the gorilla in the zoo and dies in the animal's embrace.
Scene by scene synopsis
The play is divided into 8 scenes. Scene 1 takes place in the fireman's forecastle of a cruise ship, where they sleep. Their racks resemble the bars of a cage. They are sailing from New York, where Yank and the other firemen are talking and singing drunkenly. Yank is shown to be a leader among them. Other featured characters are Long, a socialist, and Paddy, a particularly drunken Irishman.
Scene 2 takes place on the deck, where Mildred Douglas (the rich girl) and her aunt are talking. They are almost constantly arguing.
Scene 3 takes place in the stokehole. Yank and the other firemen take pride in their work. When Mildred comes to visit the stokehole, Mildred hears Yank cursing. When he turns around and she sees him, she is so shocked by him she calls Yank a filthy beast and faints.
Scene 4 also takes place on the ship. Yank is very depressed and the other men try to understand why.
In scene 5, Yank and Long go to 5th Avenue in New York. Yank argues with Long about how best to attack the upper class. Long leaves, fearing arrest, and Yank is arrested after attacking a Gentleman.
Scene 6 takes place at the prison at Blackwell’s Island. Yank tells the prisoners his story and one of the prisoners gives him an article about the Industrial Workers of the World. Yank tries to escape.
Scene 7 takes place at the IWW office that Yank goes to after his month in jail. They are happy to have him at first because there are not many ship firemen in the union - but he is thrown out after he says that he wants to blow up things, and they think he is a spy.
Scene 8 takes place at the zoo, when Yank is crushed after trying to talk to an ape and releasing it from its cage.
Themes
The Hairy Ape displays O'Neill's social concern for the oppressed industrial working class. Despite demonstrating in The Hairy Ape his clear belief that the capitalist system persecuted the working man, O'Neill is critical of a socialist movement that can't fulfill individual needs or solve unique problems. The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any social group or environment.
Production history
The Hairy Ape was first produced by the Provincetown Players in 1922. The production, directed and designed by Robert Edmond Jones, was praised for its use of expressionistic set design and staging techniques, and was transferred to a theatre on Broadway. Actor Louis Wolheim became famous for his interpretation of Yank.
A 1930s London production featuring Paul Robeson, an African American, playing the lead white role, was a critical success despite having only five performances.[1]
A low-budget 1944 film version produced by Jules Levey, released by United Artists, starred William Bendix, Susan Hayward, Dorothy Comingore, and John Loder. Later notable productions include Peter Stein's 1986 revival, and a postmodern multimedia interpretation by the Wooster Group in 1996, with Willem Dafoe playing the protagonist.
In fall 2006, The Hairy Ape was staged to positive reviews by the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City. The Irish Voice declared, "O'Neill's spirit still resonates. The Irish Repertory Theatre's new production of The Hairy Ape reminds us why O'Neill is considered the first Irish American playwright."
In February 2009 Director Sean Graney of the Hypocrites Theatre Company staged a production of "The Hairy Ape," at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago Illinois.
References
- ^ Duberman, Martin,Paul Robeson 1989.Othello 1930-1931pg148-149
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Some good "The Hairy Ape" pages on the web:
 Study Guide www.sparknotes.com |
 | The Hairy Ape (1944 Drama Film) |
| The Hairy Ape (Critical Overview) (play) |
| Louis [Robert] Wolheim (American Theater) |
 | Is a yak a hairy ape or a ox like animal? Read answer... |
| Who plays the role of Mildred's foil in The Hairy Ape? Read answer... |
| In which location did Yank most belon in The Hairy Ape? Read answer... |
 | How was yanks childhood in the hairy ape? |
| The life if yank in the hairy ape? |
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Notes on Drama. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Hairy Ape". Read more |
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Mentioned in
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