Granville-Barker Speaks Truth to Power—but Who’s Listening? by Lynne Stevens “Waste” is like jumping into a snake pit. The male characters hiss and twist over their individual power and reputation. Harley Granville-Barker’s 1906 play reveals Henry Trebell (powerful Lance Gardner) and Amy O’Connell (sparkling Liz Sklar) on a summer evening after a house party….
I will never see Eugene O’Neill’s Tao House in quite the same light. The gorgeous setting with views of Mount Diablo will always bring a faint echo of “Shenandoah.” At the O’Neill Festival at Danville, his “Mourning Becomes Electra” (1931) presents the disturbed, vengeful Mannon family. In this late O’Neill play the family is consumed by vanity and destroyed by war, filling us with dread.
Inspired by Greek tragedies, O’Neill highlights the family’s post-Civil War revenge, as they pick at the fresh scars of War. O’Neill sprinkles a little Freud in the wound. The operatic results leave only the innocent Chorus of musical townsfolk unscathed.
The action unfolds as fathers and sons return from our Civil War to dangerous, conspiratorial homes. Like all wars, especially those that pit countrymen against each other, the Civil War left wives and husbands, sons and daughters dead, blasted, or unsteady. Love recoils under all that suffering.
Millennial Notes Samuel Beckett Explores Friendship vs. Domination by Hamilton Nguyen Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” offers a unique and haunting exploration of the human condition. The post-WWII classic departs from traditional plays, abandoning climax and resolution. Beckett focuses instead on friendship, domination, and the threatening passage of time. Nobel Prize winner, Irish poet,…
Millennial Notes Conor McPherson Brilliantly Illuminates Neglected Lives by Hamilton Nguyen “The Night Alive” offers hope for Dublin’s poor with a unexpected and satisfying climax. At the intimate Altarena Playhouse, Director Katina Psihos Letheule illuminates the struggles of deprived, impoverished Irish workers. The consequences of social class division in Dublin play out realistically. Like…