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REVIEWS OF O'NEILL PLAYS IN PERFORMANCE

5. THE LONG VOYAGE HOME, directed by Robert N. Scanlan. M.I.T. Drama Shop, Kresge Little Theatre, Cambridge, MA, October 4-6, 1984. [The third part of an "Evening of Province-town Plays," preceded by Glaspell & Cook's Suppressed Desires and W. D. Steele's Not Smart, both directed by Kevin Cunningham.]

The "Evening" was a rewarding one for the audience, who were not only treated to three works from the seed-time of modern American drama, but were also offered a slide show comprising vintage shots of the original Provincetown Players to the recorded accompaniment of comparably vintage piano music performed by "Knuckles" O'Toole. (I have this on the authority of an adjacent musicologist who could not contain his enthusiasm for O'Toole.)

The plays were well done--especially Not Smart, a euphemism for pregnancy among native Provincetowners circa 1916. Like Suppressed Desires, the play was a lively send up of the
aesthetic and intellectual pretensions of the time, but it stood up well as more than just a period piece.

The Long Voyage Home conveyed effectively the foreboding implicit in O'Neill's text and provided a strong finale for the evening. The group did the utmost with its limited resources. Particularly fine was the set, designed by Lisa Ezrol and Michael Sid, which included the masterful detail of charring above the glass chimneys of the wall-mounted oil lamps (seen at the right in photos (c) 1984 by Mark Morelli). The lighting by Matt Giamporcaro was moody, adding to the aura of "a low dive on the London waterfront." And Prof. Scanlan, Director of the M.I.T. Drama Program, drew competent and satisfying performances from his undergraduate cast.

--Thomas F. Connolly

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