I bought two (well...really three) plays at Half-Price Books the other day:
One because I love LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), the other because I love Frank Lloyd Wright (I'd never even heard of the play or either of the playwrights).
Total Cost: $3.18...including tax.
I've been picking up Plays every now and then for awhile now, but I haven't gotten around to reading many of them. I'm thinking that it might be time to get to that. And I just happen to have finished my My Seditious Heart DDR and was wondering what to go for next, so...maybe some plays?
Day 1 (DDRD 2,691) March 13, 2025
Yes, Plays. Starting with Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson. This one is 83 pages long, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of days. All I know about Frank Lloyd Wright is that he created some beautiful buildings, so this should be revelatory to me. 😗
Read to page...oops. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. Didn't really mean to. And to be honest, the play wasn't even all that good. But once I got rolling I didn't feel like stopping, so I didn't. Unfortunately, I don't love Frank Lloyd Wright as much as I did before I read this play and (since I'm not stupid) did a bit of Googling around.
E.g.:
"Though married with six children, Wright fell hard for Mamah (who herself had two children), and their clandestine affair began."
https://artfulliving.com
And he continued to cheat after that affair ended.
I've no respect for a person who cheats on his or her spouse. If you feel the need to wander outside of your marriage, then have the guts to end the marriage before you fuck. Cheating is not only the breaking of a vow, it's a cowardly attempt to walk a tightrope with a safety net three feet below you.
I'll admit that this is very personal for me because (1) I had a partner who cheated on me and (2) during my time with that same partner, I had the opportunity to cheat on her four times...two of them with astoundingly beautiful young women...and I didn't do it. And when I say "opportunity," I don't mean "I think I could've." I mean four women who literally said, "Let's have sex." And two of them were after I knew that my partner had cheated and wanted out of the relationship. Which was stupid on my part, and I've often regretted it, but on the other hand, like Horselover Fat, I kept my commission, so I'm kind of proud of it, too.
Meanwhile...this is the house FLW built in Wisconsin:
 |
https://www.springvalleyinn.com/taliesin I just checked out the website for this house, and it costs $98 for a 4 hour tour. (🎵A four hour tour.🎵) However, "Students, Seniors, Teachers, and Military pay only $93. But please note: "Children including infants under the age of 8 are not permitted on the Estate Tour." So there's that. Ayn Rand is a character in the play and she asks Frank Lloyd Wright if he will allow her to interview him so that she can create a novel around him. Obviously, this makes me lean towards The Fountainhead. When I Googled around to check on this, I found out that Ayn Rand and Frank Lloyd Wright did indeed know each other. In fact, they had a relationship (primarily via correspondence) which lasted from 1937 to 1957, and apparently it is widely known to people who are not me that The Fountainhead was based around his character and philosophy. Hmpf. So maybe it wasn't a good play, but it had some interesting moments. So maybe tomorrow it's Dutchman / The Slave? Day 2 (DDRD 2,692) March 14, 2025 Speaking of plays, I just did a quick look-see and already have this stack--  --and I know that there are more hiding around here somewhere...so if I decide to read plays for awhile, I have quite a few to get through.  Dutchman is 38 pages, The Slave is 50. Read to page 38 (👁☝). Dutchman was a very strange play indeed. It's mostly a confrontational conversation between a rather obnoxious white woman and a black man as they ride the subway. It's very unrealistic, and the main thing I got from it was that the white woman was very full of herself. No idea why it's entitled Dutchman as there doesn't seem to be anything in the play that relates to that title. Maybe a reference to The Flying Dutchman? The black guy riding his ghost subway, looking for love? (The white woman does come on to him very overtly, but this seems to be a feint designed to arouse, not satisfy him.) Dunno. It was kind of interesting, but not compelling. Well...had a little time while Joe did the treadmill at the Y, so I read The Slave, too. It's a puzzling play. In brief, a black guy who used to be married to (and has children by) a white gal comes by her house where she now lives with a white guy. The black guy brings a gun. While they talk...mostly to yell at each other...there are explosions rocking the streets, and we're told that there is a war between Blacks and Whites going on. The puzzling thing about the play is that the Black guy seems much more unreasonable than either of the White folks. In the end, he kills one of them, then apparently leaves his children (who are very young) to die in a bombed out house. What the fuck? At one point Bigger Thomas (of Native Son) is invoked, and I suppose that's more or less in the same ball park in that Bigger murders and then dismembers and burns an innocent White gal, thus Bigger is not the most sympathetic character you'll ever meet. I've no idea why this play is called The Slave, though, as that doesn't seem to have anything to do with it. At any rate...I think I'm ready for a more realistic play. All this pretense and bombast has been too much for me. |
Day 3 (DDRD 2,693) March 15, 2025
Today's reading:
Read to page 45 (end of Act I). Now THAT'S a fuckin' play, man. Interesting dialogue, distinct characterization (sorely missing in the previous three plays I've read) and an actual plot. And O'Neill is really good at creating friction...not to mention humor. I'm only halfway through this play, and I'm already wanting more O'Neill.
Might read some more of this one later, too, after some dad duties.
Read to page 71 (end of Act II). Which leaves 43 pages, and I kind of want to go for it...but I think I'll leave it for tomorrow. This O'Neill fellow really knows how to hook you in, though.
Speaking of O'Neill...according to Wikipedia, he wrote 30 full length plays. Hmmm.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,694) March 16, 2025
You know, I'm coming up on 8 years of Daily Devotional Reading (currently 7.2-ish). And I've only missed one day of reading in all that time (when I went into the ER with a heart attack). Not bad.
Read to page 115, aka The End. Took me awhile as I nodded off to sleep and couldn't rouse myself until 11 o'clock...the product of my kids unrelenting attacks on my slumber (awakened me at 3:30 am yesterday, 4:00 am today). But as for this play...I loved it. The character of Josie is very unique: a big, strong, plain-faced farmgirl whose soul is filled with longing for love. A girl who lets her drunken would-be paramour sleep on her breast through the night as she sits on the steps of the front porch of the house she and ger father live in. It didn't even it me until the end that there were no scene changes in this four act play.
It certainly never felt static. And now I'm really wanting to read more Eugene O'Neill. I know there's a book of three of his plays in this house somewhere, but I've searched and been unable to find it. I do have The Iceman Cometh, though, so that will be a good place to go next. P.S. Watched the latest episode of Severance. Started watching Moana 2 (because Joe's been bugging the shit out of me about it), but only made it 20 minutes or so before I ceased to care at all, and I picked this  up instead. Yep, going to read me some more Eugene O'Neill. And yes, I am going to lie to Joe and tell him I watched Moana 2 in its entirety. As for The Iceman Cometh, it's 260 pages long...long play! So let's go. I'm going to read until the end credits of Moana 2 roll. (It's playing without sound...that way the little line on the thumbnail will show that I finished watching it. God is in the details.)  So far as I can tell, my paperback copy of this book is a first edition from 1946. Not worth much, but sheesh...that's almost 80 years old. Read to page 51. I wanted to finish Act I, but that doesn't happen until page 90, do I'm going to leave it for tomorrow. This play is very different from A Moon for the Misbegotten. There are 19 characters instead of 5. The tension is much more muted. And it's much longer...and in winds at a much slower pace. There are some similaritues, too, though. The preoccupation with alcohol and getting drunk. The single setting through four acts. (Is it normal for a play to have four acts? I thought three and five were the norm.) And in both there's the sense of prolonged waiting. More tomorrow. Day 5 (DDRD 2,695) March 17, 2025 Read to page 90 (end of Act I). And will probably read more later, but the Dad duties are calling me. I'm also thinking that I'd like to see a performance of this play, and I know there are a couple of filmed versions Out There. Let's see...yep. And all of them at libraries far away from me. About my brains. Well, there's this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etEFM_B9YS0 |
Such a hurtful thing to say. BTW, the Truth hurtBTW:::
and Hoopla has more. I already checked out The Hairy Ape, which I'll be starting on as soon as The Iceman Leaveth.
Read more...to page 151 (end of Act II).
Hallelujah. But I think I'm still going for The Hairy Ape next.
Day 6 (DDRD 2,696) March 18, 2025
Read to page 260...The End.
"I know you become such a coward you'll grab at any lousy excuse to get out of killing your pipe dreams. And yet, as I've told you over and over, it's exactly those damned tomorrow dreams which keep you from making peace with yourself. So you've got to kill them like I did mine." (189)
This has been the theme of Hickey's sermon since he entered the play, so I've heard it a dozen times or so, but this time it clicked with me in a different way. I stopped writing (other than this) after the heart failure thing. It just seemed silly to keep at it. I've got thousands of pages of novels, stories, and poems, and the only things that that've been published have been in tiny, no pay periodicals. And not many of them. So why keep at it? Sometimes I still get The Urge, but it either fizzles out immediately or I write a blog entry. And at least there are some folks Out There who read it. Some vendors a fair number of folks. So I have some simpatico with Hickey's Give Up Hope, You'll Feel Much Better philosophy. Which is pretty fucking sad, I suppose, but then again...why build your life around a dream which has no chance of becoming a reality you wake up to? Kill the dream, live the reality you're entered in.
Hmm. Just writing down those words makes me want to hang a Fuck Hickey sign on my computer and get to work on ...then there is no mountain.... Either I'm a strange human being or human beings are strange.
Anyway...The Iceman Cometh really wowed me. The tension that bubbles beneath the surface for the whole play, occasionally rushing to the surface and threatening a devastating explosion, only to subside into sub-surface bubbles again. It creates the odd situation of violence constantly being threatened, but never actually manifesting itself on the stage. Powerful stuff.
Meanwhile...courtesy of the Louisville Free Public Library, this arrived today:
...and found these plays on my shelves:
One of which, whose title you can't see in that picture, so there's this one--
--is a relic of my misspent youth. This was a play I auditioned for whilst stationed at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. That would mean it was from somewhere between January 1977 and October 1979. The "Low Quarters" note on the cover was to remind me to wear my dress shoes for my part in the play...which was a delivery man with one line. (I also did the sound effects for the play, though, so it's slightly less pathetic than it sounds.)
So it looks like I have 20 plays in hand at the moment...and I'm sure there are more on my shelves. That ought to keep me busy for awhile.
Day 7 (DDRD 2,697) March 19, 2025
84 pages in this edition.
I've read this play before...twice, I think. Don't remember much about it, but I have the impression that it was very powerful. So let's see what 67 year old me thinks about it.
And btw, w will get you the 1944 movie version of the play.
This play seems pretty clunky as compared to the previous two O'Neills. The language is very artificial at times--though that may be intentional in that the speakers with this defect are of the upper class. I am also thinking that at times it leans in the direction of racism. For instance, "All the civilized white races are represented, but except for the slight differentiation in color of hair, skin, eyes, all these men are alike."
And here's a bit of the clunkiness: young Mildred, who is quite a piece of work, says "I'm a waste product in the Bessemer process...." (The Bessemer process has something to do with the making of steel.) It's an interesting piece of self-abnegation, but pretty artificial in terms of dialogue.
The scene (III) where Mildred meets Yank (the hairy ape) is pretty powerful. His fury strips the artificiality from her. The contrast between his sweaty, coal-stained, naked torso and her prim white dress...while fires rage in the background...is quite effective.
Scene V is really an Act change as we go from the ship to a swanky New York street. I can't imagine how they'd do this effectively on stage. Might have to go back to one of the shitty video versions of staged performances to see. (The ones I found were stunningly bad, though. They embodied everything I dislike about live theater--pretentious movements, artificial voices, unrealistic dialogue.
My Kindle was running low on battery, so I went into my bedroom to plug it in, and lay down on the bed to read. Within a few minutes:
And...finished. Spent the morning reading and snoozing. With cats. Just like a little old man. Except that I'm not little. As for the play, it's undeniably powerful, but it does seem much less mature than the previous two O'Neill plays I've read. It has some of the same elements (booze, threatened violence, references to communism, hatred of women), but It doesn't have the depth. It's like looking at a landscape that has no shadows. Still, I enjoyed reading it and would like to see a performance of it just to see how they handle some of the staged aspects. For instance the ast scene includes an ape. Seems that'd be hard to do without it being corny.
Day 8 (DDRD 2,698) March 20, 2025
Pages 713 to 828 (=115 pages) in this Collected Edition.
I decided to read Long Day's Journey Into Night next. It's actually the "prequel" to A Moon for the Misbegotten, so I should have read it first, but I didn't know that until now, so I decided to bum rush LD'sJIN while the memory of MftM was still fresh in my mind. Also, this is the play O'Neill wrote after The Iceman Cometh, so there's some nice sense of order there.
In the stage directions, O'Neill refers to the contents of a bookshelf which include work by one Ernest Dowson. Since I'd never heard of this fellow, I looked him up. I found the opening line a bit confusing at first: "Ernest Dowson was born in Lee, then in Kent, in 1867." I read it twice thinking that it was saying ED had been born twice.
ANYway, Sender's greatest fame comes from three lines he wrote:
Dowson is best remembered for three phrases from his poems:
"Days of wine and roses", from the poem "Vitae Summa Brevis"
"Gone with the wind", from the poem ''Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae"
"I have been faithful ... in my fashion", from "Non sum qualis eram bonae sub regno Cynarae"
So there it is.
Read to page 751. The pages is this edition definitely contain more words than typical plays, so it took some time to knock back those 38 pages today. But it's good stuff. I definitely should have read this before I read A Moon for the Misbegotten, though. So...word to the wise.
Might read more tonight. Might watch basketball.
Day 9 (DDRD 2,699) March 21, 2025
Big surprise: I watched basketball.
Read to page 785, so tomorrow ought to do it. This play is hard to read--though not because of any textual difficulty, but because of the emotional gravity. You feel like you're watching four people drown in deep water, and you want to help them in some way, but that's impossible. They're so far out to see that all you can do is watch.
I just saw that the close to me version of IU is putting on The Glass Menagerie. Hmmm.
Day 10 (DDRD 2,700) March 22, 2025
Read to page 828, The End. A very sad play, but pretty fascinating. The way that people use their own insecurities as fuel to go at others, to claw at them and rip them.
I don't think I'm done with Eugene O'Neill yet, but I'm not sure what I'll read next.
"Who wants to see life as it is, if they can help it? It's the three Gorgons in one. You look in their faces and turn to stone. Or its Pan. You see him and you die--that is inside you--and have to go on living as a ghost."
Day 11 (DDRD 2,701) March 23, 2025
Pages 1 - 58 in this edition.
Read to page 58. Definitely a compelling story of step-lust, but warning (and a SPOILER, which I am usually averse to): a woman smothers her own baby. That crosses a big line for me, and I probably would've skipped this play of I'd known that that was part of the story.
Also read the short story "Tomorrow" which was included in an Appendix. Turns out it was O'Neill's only published short story, and it was in many ways a precursor to The Iceman Cometh. Other interesting details are available at https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2011/10/tomorrow.html?m=1...including the story itself. (Which, by the way, was a really great story.)
Day 12 (DDRD 2,702) March 24, 2025
Strange Interlude
59 - 222...163 pages' worth of play. That's pretty substantial.
Read to page 97.
This is a strange play...very different from the previous O'Neills I've read. No accents, for one thing. And the characters voice their thoughts in mini-soliloquies on a regular basis. Which made me want to see a production of the play to see how they handled that. So I Googled and found that there was an old movie version with Clark Gable, but knew that that wouldn't give me what I wanted to see. So I Googled again and found a filmed version of the play. This seemed to be more along the lines with what Eugene O'Neill wrote. And wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles...the whole thing is viewable HERE.
In other news, here's an interesting exchange:
PROFESSOR LEEDS ... In the present state of her mind, the real and the unreal became confused--
MARSDEN (thinking cynically) As always in all minds...or how could men live?...
As if we accept the unreal as a buffer between ourselves and the insanity of the world (which was, after all, created to drive us mad*).
Andnow, this:
I ran the Latin that ends First Part Act One--
"Stetit unus in arcemErectus capitis victorque as sidera mittit
Sidereos oculos propiusque adspectat olympum
Inquiritque iovem;" ...
--through an online translator and got this:
"One stood on the citadel,His head erect, and victorious, as the stars cast
His starry eyes, and looked closer at Olympus,
And sought out Jupiter."
* Candide (approximately).
ADDENDUM: Not that I needed them, but I picked up two play collections by one Caryl Churchill. Firstly because they were Methuen books, and I like them. Secondly because the first had such a cool cover...drawn by the author, so far as I can tell.
Since a friend had extolled the virtues of Cloud Nine (at least a decade ago; I'm slow, but I do listen), I thought id start with that. It runs from pages 243 - 320 (= 77 pages).
Day 13 (DDRD 2,703) March 25, 2025
Read to page 131.
Here's a little 4:48 am food for thought: Evans' mom, thinking about him, says to herself, "...he's happy...that's all that counts!..." (105)
Not exactly profound, but still, it gives me paustage.ow many times do we judge our lives by whether or not, we are happy. How many times have I asked my children? Are you happy?
And yet I always think of The Big Chill moment when one character asks the girlfriend of the guy who committed suicide, Was he happy? She answers, "I don't know that many happy people. What are they like?"
Oddly enough, though, I am happy most of the time...despite the absolute emptiness of my "love life." In fact, I think I might be happier now than I ever was while entangled in the lime of a romantic relationship. So...happiness. Over-rated, and perhaps not the point at all...and yet perhaps not so hard to attain if you just stop hoping that other people will give it to you. At any rate one thing, I am sure of: it's not "all that counts."?
In other Play News, I finished Cloud Nine. It was fuckin' wretched. Here's hoping that the other plays are better.
Day 14 (DDRD 2,704) March 26, 2025
Read to page 174. Actually pretty anxious to continue reading this, so no playing hooky with Churchill today.
I'd only read a few pages today before it hit me: whereas reading Cloud Nine was like being in a small room with a dozen highly sugared, screechy teenaged girls, all bursting into monologue at the sane time, Strange Interlude, even though it's not in camp with the best of O'Neill, was a PLAY. Adult conversation. Interaction. Real emotion, not histrionic showtunes. Real, disquieting situations and turmoil, not manufactured insolence for the sake of shock value. I'll read more Churchill, I'm sure, but my guess is that she'll never come close to touching the essence of life the way that O'Neill does.
For instance...
MARSDEN has aged greatly. His hair is gray, his expression one of a deep grief that is dying out into a resignation, resentful of itself. (Stage direction for Second Part - Act Six, page 149)
Grief dies out into resignation. Yes, it does. Grief eventually becomes despair, and life become a hard, barefoot climb over sharp rocks. (I fall upon the rocks of life! I bleed!)
That beats the hell out of a woman offering her brother's ghost a blow job (as in Cloud Nine).
And as for the title of this play...
"...the only living life is in the past and future...the present is an interlude...strange interlude in which we call on past and future to bear witness we are living!..." (193)
Still an awkward title, I think...which is strange, in that O'Neill has so many superb titles.
I'm wondering how this play was ever performed on stage. The characters age, grow fatter then thinner, and the act I'm reading now is set onboard a boat. These seem like insurmountable challenges to staging in any kind of realistic manner.
Did read more...a lot more. In fact almost finished (to 219).
Day 15 (DDRD 2,705) March 27, 2025
Read to page 222, The End.
Note to Self: Plays = 1,055 pages after Strange Interlude.
And now...
Which is three, three, three plays in one: Homecoming, The Hunted & The Haunted. A total of 223 to 377 = 154 pages. So not really as long as 3 plays, I suppose. And, in fact, shorter than The Iceman Cometh.
Day 16 (DDRD 2,706) March 28, 2025
Read to page 322.
Finished the first play (Homecoming) and went straight into the second, The Hunted. This one's only 51 pages, so I'm thinking I'll can finish it off today.
ADDENDUM: Almost did. Pooped out a few pages short. Mañana.
Day 17 (DDRD 2,707) March 29, 2025
Read to page 377 The End. Hmm. In some ways, this didn't seem like a Eugene O'Neill play. It felt a but stiff, almost formal compared to the previous 6 O'Neill plays I've just read. Not bad...though at times a bit tedious. And it didn't seem to have anything to do with the Electra legend. I'd say you could skip this one.
Day 18 (DDRD 2,708) March 30, 2025
Thought I might be finished with Eugene O'Neill, but thought I should give
a try as I'd read it was his only comedy. Hard to imagine EO being funny, but we'll see how it goes.
Bring on 107 pages of ha ha.
Read to page 35. Interesting, in a soap opera-ish way, but hardly a chuckle fest.
Day 19 (DDRD 2,709) March 31, 2025
Read to page 68. A few lighthearted moments courtesy of drunken Uncle Sid, but there really doesn't seem to be much to recommend this play. Well...39 pages to go.
Day 20 (DDRD 2,710) April 1, 2025
Read to page 107.
In the SETTING description for act, 4 scene 2 O'Neill talks about a beach scene with a strip of Earth upon which is sitting a rowboat. If that's not complex enough for me. A stage setting Check out this final paragraph. Before dialogue begins: Richard is discovered, sitting sideways on the gun wheel of the rowboat near the Stern. He is facing left watching the path. He is in a great state of anxious expectancy. Squirming about uncomfortably. On the narrow gunwhale, kicking at the sand restlessly. Twirling his straw hat with a bright colored band and stripes around on his finger, 86description for act, 4 scene 2 O'Neill talks about a beach scene with a strip of Earth upon which is sitting a rowboat. If that's not complex enough for me. A stage setting Check out this final paragraph. Before dialogue begins: "Richard is discovered sitting sideways on the gunwhale of the rowboat near the stern. He is facing left, watching the path. He is in a great state of anxious expectancy, squirming about uncomfortably on the narrow gunwale, kicking at the sand restlessly, twirling his straw hat, with a bright-colored band in stripes around, on his finger." (86)
Now, you can do that in a movie, where the viewer is restricted to the camera's eye, but how the hell could this be done on stage? Sometimes I get the feeling that O'Neill wasn't really writing for the theater.
Well, I suppose this was a comedy in the sense of the old theater definition, but it certainly was not a humorous play. Sentimental, yes, and not bad, but not what I was expecting.
And now...more O'Neill? I'm not at all tired of him yet, and I have 7 more of his plays in my hands, so it sounds like a no-brainer...but I'm also anxious to put my peepers on some other stuff, including this
...which a friend of mine (and a professional writer, actor, producer, and directir) said was "Genuinely some of my favorite writing ever." Yeah...I think I'll do that. And then maybe get back to O'Neill.
Day 21 (DDRD 2,711) April 2, 2025
Yep. Advance Man it is.
Read to page 40. Have to admit that I'm not sure what's going on. Best as I can figure, astronaut Bill Cooke and his family are babysitting astronaut Conor, who seems to be suffering temporary ill-effects as a result of his sojourn in space. But none of that is explicitly stated. Sorry to say that this play hasn't really caught me yet. And I'm having a little trouble with it. For one thing, I'm having a hard time keeping the characters straight. For another, they talk like characters in a Brian Bendis comic book--always interrupting each. I dont actively DISlike it...yet...but it's far from the Best Thing I've Ever Read. Still, I persist.
ADDENDUM: Read to page 65--end of Act I. I'm only slightly wiser about what's going on. Astronaut Conor is a stroke victim. The other folks are planning some kind of eco-terrorist attack...on the whole damn world. Pretty confusing play...but I'm interested to see where it goes.
ADDENDUM: Well...this and that, that and this...I finished reading the play. Page 107, The End. And? I have no idea why my friend thought this was such a great play, and I certainly won't be spending any more money to read Parts 2 and 3. Why does this happen to me ALL THE TIME? Things that I love aren't valued by others, things others value aren't valued by me. Sigh. Maybe I'll read it again. Someday. Just in case I missed something.
Day 22 (DDRD 2,712) April 3, 2025
Back to O'Neill it is. Might finish off this Eugene O'Neill: Complete Plays 1932 - 1943. Starting with
which occupies pages 109 to 180. (71 pages) Never even heard of this one before, so 🤞.
This one is 103 pages. And only two more plays in this omnibus: More Stately Mansions and Hughie. 278 + 24 pages. That's one very long and one very short one!
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