Goodman Theatre

A GLOBAL EXPLORATION: Eugene O'Neill in the 21st Century
Curated by Robert Falls
January – March 2009

Artistic Director Robert Falls' history with Eugene O'Neill has spanned four landmark productions: The Iceman Cometh (1990), A Touch of the Poet (1996), Long Day's Journey Into Night (2002) and Hughie (2004). For Goodman Theatre's 2009 exploration of Eugene O'Neill, Falls views the 20th century "Father of the American drama" through a 21st century international lens: a handful of the world's leading theater companies bring to Chicago their highly contemporary, inventive interpretations of O'Neill's dramas to plumb the depths of this important playwright.

The Emperor Jones Homens ao Mar (Sea Plays) Desire Under the Elms

The Hairy Ape Rouw siert Electra      (Mourning Becomes Electra) Strange Interlude

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Learn more about FREE Exploration events

Read an interview with Artistic Director and Exploration Curator Robert Falls

For more than 30 years, the New York-based Wooster Group has thrilled audiences throughout the world with their radical multimedia productions. Don't miss this unique opportunity to see this legendary company in a rarely produced masterpiece that has received critical acclaim throughout the United States and Europe since its premiere in 1993. Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, this electrifying interpretation of O'Neill's story of a delusional self-appointed emperor of a West Indian island features Kate Valk in a bold performance of the title role which captures, according to the New York Times "an actress fashioning, with superb precision, a simulacrum of a stereotype...with a poignant sense of entrapped humanity...We see Brutus Jones himself as an actor helplessly playing a role written by the savage errors of American history...Ms. Valk performs with a fearlessness that commands something akin to awe."

Running time for The Emperor Jones is approximately 60 minutes.

To read reviews and articles about this provocative production, click here.

Attend the events:
Performing Other: Constructing Race and Gender Onstage and Off
The Wooster Group's Impact on Contemporary Performance
Post-Play Discussions

Robert Falls on Companhia Triptal

In Homens ao Mar Companhia Triptal converts the Owen Theatre into an abstracted stage for O'Neill's one-act "Sea Plays" about the sailors of the S.S. Glencaim in the years preceding World War I. Based on O'Neill's experiences in the merchant marines and his lifelong obsession with the sea, the "Sea Plays" are booming, exultant explorations of the sailors' harrowing life at sea.

Attend the event:
Director Talks: André Garolli on the Sea Plays

Zona de Guerra (In the Zone)

Presented in Portuguese with English supertitles
JANUARY 14 – 18 | Owen Theatre

As the S.S. Glencaim glides into a war zone, the crew begins to suspect that Smitty, one of their fellow sailors, is a spy. Adrift at sea and susceptible to attack, the sailors relentlessly accuse the suspected traitor—but is Smitty really a spy, or are the sailors succumbing to nightmarish paranoia? In this gripping one-act play, O'Neill explores the anatomy of fear and the hysteria that materializes in times of war. In the Zone was awarded the prestigious APCA Award for "Best Spectacle" and was nominated for the Premio Shell de Teatro for its strikingly gritty production.

Running time for Zona de Guerra is approximately 60 minutes.

Longa Viagem de Volta pra Casa (The Long Voyage Home)

Presented in Portuguese with English supertitles
JANUARY 21 – 25 | Owen Theatre

For two long years, Olson has worked aboard ships like the S.S. Glencaim, enduring low wages, poor living conditions and stormy seas, and has finally saved enough money to return to Sweden and buy a farm for his family. Olson and his crewmates are discharged in London and make their way to a local bar to celebrate their freedom. Having squandered his money on drinking in the past, he vows to stay sober and guard his hard-earned savings. But Olson's blissful dreams for the future are destroyed by civilians who conspire against him for their own benefit.

Running time for Longa Viagem de Volta pra Casa is approximately 55 minutes.

Cardiff (Bound East for Cardiff)

Presented in Portuguese with English synopsis
JANUARY 28 – 31 | Owen Theatre

Cardiff is a universal and deeply personal story about friendship and loss. A sailor named Yank lies dying aboard the S.S. Glencaim while his friend Driscoll desperately seeks to comfort him. On a ship where one man's life is of little consequence, Driscoll must come to terms with his personal loss while war rages around them. Companhia Triptal invites audiences onto the stage and into the world of the play—and then beyond the theater doors—mirroring the sailors' mesmerizing journey aboard the perilous and unpredictable ship.

Running time for Cardiff is approximately 80 minutes.

Robert Falls on Desire Under the Elms

Behind-the-scenes with the director and cast of Desire

The collaboration between Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls and Tony Award-winning star Brian Dennehy has resulted in nationally and internationally acclaimed productions. This winter, they will team up again to bring O'Neill's celebrated masterpiece Desire Under the Elms to the Albert stage. When Ephraim Cabot returns to his remote New England farm with his third wife—the alluring young Abbie—his three grown sons launch into a bitter fight for their inheritance. The centerpiece of the Goodman's O'Neill exploration, Desire Under the Elms has been praised for its "poetry and terrible beauty" (The New York Times).

Attend the events:
Robert Falls on Desire Under the Elms for Contemporary Audiences
Post-Play Discussions

Robert Falls on The Hypocrites and The Neo-Futurists

In a premiere commissioned by the Goodman, the Chicago-based company The Hypocrites will transform the Owen into an ocean liner for their mesmerizing production of The Hairy Ape. The actors will perform from the floor and balconies, while the audience will be seated onstage to watch this astonishing story of Yank—a laborer on an ocean liner—who is rejected as a "filthy beast" by both the bourgeois of New York's Fifth Avenue and his fellow working men. In his dejection, Yank determines that he would rather find solace in the crushing embrace of a gorilla than live a lonely, desperate life.

Running time for The Hairy Ape is approximately 90 minutes.

Attend the events:
Sean Graney and Greg Allen on a Modern O'Neill
Post-Play Discussions

Robert Falls on Toneelgroep

Called "refreshingly daring" by the New York Times, and renowned throughout the theater world for their groundbreaking productions, Toneelgroep makes their Chicago debut with this sexy, contemporary play based on Aeschylus' Oresteian trilogy. Desperate to escape her unhappy marriage, Christine Mannon takes a lover and murders her husband, only to become the target of her children's quest to avenge their father's death. Using a unique fusion of video, television and live performance, Toneelgroep puts a new spin on one of O'Neill's most famous plays. Radiating an electrifying intensity, this production is an "intelligent and seizing experience" (Provincial Dagbladen) that should not be missed.

Production contains nudity.

Running time for Rouw siert Electra is approximately 3 hours and 10 minutes with one intermission.

To read reviews about this innovative production, click here.

Attend the events:
A Conversation with Ivo van Hove and Robert Falls
Post-Play Discussions

Robert Falls on The Hypocrites and The Neo-Futurists

Don't miss this unique opportunity to see this rarely produced Pulitzer Prize-winning work. Experience the Chicago-based Neo-Futurists premiere of Strange Interlude, which follows the complex story of Nina Leeds and her three lovers over the course of 25 strange and extraordinary years.

Running time for Strange Interlude is approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes with intermissions. Saturday and Sunday performances include a dinner break.

Attend the events:
Sean Graney and Greg Allen on a Modern O'Neill
Post-Play Discussions

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The O’Neill Explorer Pass: Get tickets to all 7 Owen shows and save!
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Luxury Ticket Package for Desire Under the Elms
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