Moon For The Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neil: February 7 – March 25, 2018

A Play

Writers Theater, Glencoe, IL, USA, March 12, 2018

By Maja Rios

This bittersweet elegy from four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill offers a moving and powerful exploration of humanity at its basest and most beautiful. Directed by WT Resident Director William Brown, this soaring powerhouse of a play touches on themes of desire, family and the things we sacrifice for those we love.

 

Writer’s Theater is a beautiful venue. Moon For The Misbegotten, was acted in the larger theater inside of Writer’s Theater with ample seats and beautiful stage area.

The play is set in rural American farmland of approx. 1920’s, was a wonderful display of “color-.blind” casting. Most of the characters were Africa- American farmers instead of the original Irish American farmers of the era. This was done on purpose to show the similarity of poor tenant farmers of that era having similar struggles, according to the liner notes.

O’Neil’s style is realism and that was achieved with a bare bones setting of a run- down farm house and an

unfortunate background of synthesized “chirping birds” that lasted an entire act and drowned our much of the dialogue of the first act.

The character of “James”, the landlord, was based on O’Neil’s real brother, James. The main character of Josie, was wonderfully acted by Bethany Thomas, whose characters tough exterior was but a mask for a very loving and sentimental nature. The “James” character was also played by great actor, Jim De Vita and who is “Josie’s” love interest in the play. A white male character, he represents a person who is incapable of forming any meaningful lasting relationships and is a chronic alcoholic. The theme of alcoholism is present throughout the entire play and was true to Eugene O’Neil’s own life and family it is also present in the character of “Josie’s” father, brilliantly played by veteran actor, A. C. Smith, as “Phil Hogan” whose character battles with his daughter over relationships and farm maintenance. A.C. Smith also acted in Writers Theater,” East Texas Hot Links”, which I previously reviewed.

The main drawbacks of the play were that act one and two both dragged a bit, as the play was a total of three hours long. However Act three more than made up for act one and two in action, dialogue and character development. This made the play worth seeing as the play dealt well with universal themes of loneliness, despair, unrequited love, alcoholism, family estrangement, and human character flaws. We can see people we know in these characters and it worth a see!

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