Eugene O’Neill’s 100th birthday provides a rare opportunity for theater-goers, especially fans of his work: a chance to see some of the master’s earliest and least-performed plays. These plays have an appeal which goes beyond a mere glimpse of the artist at an early state of his development. The Celtic Arts Center in Hollywood is currently running two of O’Neill’s sea plays Bound East for Cardiff and The Long Voyage Home. Both plays are concise in nature resulting in clear, vivid characterization which do not become weighed down in dialogue or extensive plot twists. The characters are consequently allowed to shine. The production offers some truly fine acting, which is enhanced by director Joe Praml’s unaffected, understated approach to O’Neill’s work. Bound East for Cardiff which revolves around a dying sailor coming to terms with his own mortality, is enriched by strong performances of Tom Noga, Robert O’Carroll, Leon Head, Peter Finlayson, Bill A. Jones, Lawrence P. Goodman, Bryce Walmsley, Michael Conn Bryant Seifreid, and Beau Ramsey. The Long Voyage Home features many of the same sailors as they go on shore leave. Set in an Eastend pub, there are the usual prostitutes, roughs, and crimps, played to sleazy perfection by Sonja Green-Fortag, Ivan Selwood, Kevin Hurley, Ruth Alperth, Joan Mullin, Michael Conn, and Bryce Walmsey. The action is lively, an effective contrast to the darker Bound East. The play takes on its own tragedy, however, as a sailor, on his way home from the sea for good, is “Mickey Finned” and sent around Cape Horn. Both plays benefit from a strong ensemble feeling, and complement each other nicely.
DRAMA-LOGUE
March 3-9, 1988
Eugene O’Neill: Two From The Sea
By F. Kathleen Foley
In honor of the centenary of Eugene O’Neill’s birth, the Celtic Arts Center is producing two of O’Neill’s earliest plays, Bound East for Cardiff andThe Long Voyage Home. Director Joe Praml’s productions of these two plays, despite severely limited resources, have an integrity that compensates for their other shortcoming. These plays may have been penned by the great O’Neill but they are weak dramas with limited appeal. Bound East for Cardiff was O’Neil’s first play, and the amateurism shows. Praml does not try to update or revolutionize his material. He is straightforward and simple in his staging. He doesn’t fuss. His direction is refreshingly ungimmicky and unaffected. Dart Conrad’s set design is as simple and straightforward as the direction. The actors in both plays are fine, managing to successfully sustain a polyglot of dialects. The cast for Bound East for Cardiff includes Robert O’Carroll, Tom Noga, Leon Head, Bryce Walmsley, Beau Ramsey, Bill A. Jones, Bryant Seifreid, Peter Finlayson, Lawrence P. Goodman and Michael Conn. As Yank, the dying sailor who knows he will never see land again, Robert O’Carroll has a nice presence. The cast for The Long Voyage Home includes Ivan Selwood, Kevin Hurley, Ruth Alperth, Joan Mullin, Sonja Green-Fortag, Bryce Walmsley and Michael Conn. Noga, Head, Jones and Finlayson play the same seafaring characters they played in Cardiff. O’Neill buffs: This is a rare chance to see two seldom produced early works by the master. They are fascinating as part of the history of one of our greatest American playwrights.