A GLOBAL EXPLORATION: Eugene O'Neill in the 21st Century
Curated by Robert Falls
January – March 2009
Goodman Theatre begins 2009 with an eight-play landmark theatrical event, A Global Exploration: Eugene O'Neill in the 21st Century curated by Artistic Director Robert Falls, January 7 through March 8, 2009. More than 100 artists from six theater companies around the world bring their highly contemporary, inventive interpretations of O'Neill's dramas to the Goodman's Exploration—viewing the 20th century "father of the American drama" through a 21st century international lens. Now Robert Falls tells us about the exploration:
Q. Why an exploration of Eugene O'Neill?
A. This is a project that no other theater in the country would ever do or has thought of doing or would be crazy enough to even contemplate. The Goodman is able to do this exploration because we have more than 20 years of experience producing the work of Eugene O'Neill, who I think of as the American Shakespeare. He is America's most influential and greatest playwright and we have had tremendous success with our productions of O'Neill's difficult and complex plays.
Q. You will be directing O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms as the centerpiece of the exploration. What is your approach to this famous masterpiece?
A. O'Neill, who I truly love, is a challenge. In a way, he is like an old pair of shoes with rocks and pebbles in them. I know him so well, but his work is hard, it's tough—those shoes are hard to walk in. You really have to struggle with his plays and work with them. I wanted to force myself to think in new ways, so this production of Desire Under the Elms is a bit more extreme than some of my other work with O'Neill. I think this production is a little more related to King Lear than to my other productions of O'Neill's work. It has the exact same design team as King Lear.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about King Lear as a precursor to your production of Desire Under the Elms and the O'Neill exploration?
A. King Lear was a major production for me because it forced me to think in a different way. I was trying to use that play to challenge myself and our audiences and to look at what artistic interpretation is and how much you can push a playwright's work. I don't consider my production of King Lear to be radical or avant-garde, but I think it had an element of extremity to it. It pushed the envelope for American Shakespeare, and that excited me and challenged me. With King Lear, I was trying to get at the terrible heart of the play—the awe and terror of that play—in a highly contemporary fashion. And it forced me to raise my game.
Q. What inspired the idea for this exploration?
A. I'm interested in what O'Neill means in the 21st century. How do we produce him? How far can you push him? How can he be interpreted for a 21st century audience? He was born in the 19th century and influenced by the 19th century, but then lived and wrote, had failures and successes in the 20th century. I believe he's the great writer of the 20th century. Not every play he wrote is a great play—some of them are really quite terrible—but they're all really interesting, and I'd personally always take an unsuccessful play by Eugene O'Neill rather than 99.9 percent of the shows that get produced in the world. I think that we have produced very few geniuses in our time, but there is a certain group of artists who, even when their work is less than hugely successful, have created an extraordinary body of work that should be respected. In order for audiences to respect the work, the plays have to be interpreted by a generation of interpretive artists led by directors, actors, designers and dramaturges who are willing to do the work of interpretation.
Q. Could you talk about what you mean by "interpreting" the work?
A. Well, Shakespeare can stand up to directors' interpretations because he has become our contemporary. Now we just think, "Oh yeah, Shakespeare." His plays can be interpreted like my production of King Lear or like Barbara Gaines' production of Comedy of Errors set in Hollywood in the '20s. For the most part, we've gotten over the idea that Shakespeare has to be performed in tights. I think it's fascinating that we haven't really hit that level of acceptance with the plays of Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. We're far more conservative about them.
Q. You have done a lot of traveling throughout Europe in preparation for this exploration. Could you talk about what you discovered there?
A. In my travels throughout Western Europe, I found theater that is a little more adventurous and less conservative and continues to push the envelope in directing, in design and in playwriting. European companies do far more interesting productions of Chekhov, Ibsen, Shaw and Shakespeare than we do. I'm not saying they're better, just different. What I wanted to do was to work with some of the artists who I think are the most interesting artists around and invite them to make the exploration with me about what Eugene O'Neill means in the 21st century. I just called up these theater artists and said, "You're somebody whose work I really love. Let's get together and talk about Eugene O'Neill," and they were shocked that I wanted to have coffee with them and talk about art. These conversations about O'Neill led to a great many extraordinary friendships.
Q. Who are the international artists you have invited to participate?
A. I'm tremendously excited about the artists who will be visiting. Toneelgroep Amsterdam presents their production of Mourning Becomes Electra, directed by Ivo van Hove. This is going to be very exciting show for our audiences—it's a unique chance to see the original Dutch actors working on a great play under a celebrated director. I also think that Companhia Triptal from Brazil is an extraordinary group of people who have never performed outside of their native country. This is a poor theater and a poor group of artists who have been committed to making the work of Eugene O'Neill for a number of years. They have presented their work in a variety of found spaces: garages, warehouses, lofts and alleys, and they have a profound, moving relationship with Eugene O'Neill that I think is extraordinary.
Q. The Wooster Group will present their production of The Emperor Jones, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte. Could you tell us about this company?
A. None of this would be possible without Elizabeth LeCompte and The Wooster Group, who is one of the premier American theater companies and a world-class theater devoted to avant-garde work. I think O'Neill would love Elizabeth LeCompte's production of The Emperor Jones—and her work with Eugene O'Neill in general. She has been completely faithful to what he was trying to do, while bringing his plays into the 21st century using the experimental spirit of his work. In the letter we wrote to Elizabeth, we essentially said, "We can not do this festival without your participation."
Q. The exploration also features two Chicago theaters, The Hypocrites and The Neo-Futurists. How did these relationships begin?
A. I thought it was very important to commission our own theater companies in Chicago to respond to the work of Eugene O'Neill. I am thrilled that Sean Graney of The Hypocrites and Greg Allen of The Neo-Futurists will be producing plays as part of the exploration. Their participation came out of a conversation with each director where I asked, "Which Eugene O'Neill plays do you love?" Sean said, "I really, really love The Hairy Ape," and I said, "Fantastic, let's work on The Hairy Ape together."
I have greatly admired The Neo-Futurists for 20 years, particularly when Greg Allen is working with them as a director; so I thought, "Let's talk to them." Much to my shock and horror, Greg Allen wanted to work on Eugene O'Neill's longest and most difficult play, Strange Interlude, which is either the worst, most genius play ever written by an American or it is the greatest horrible play. I really don't know! It is a true work of genius and obsession and madness, but whether or not it is a good play, I have no clue. It's hysterical on every level, and the double use of the word hysterical applies. It's really funny and it's really over the top.