The Hairy Ape: A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life in Eight Scenes

The Hairy Ape: A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life in Eight Scenes The Hairy Ape: A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life in Eight Scenes. By Eugene O'Neill. The Wooster Group, Selwyn Theater, New York City. 16 May 1997.

Eugene O'Neill's brief stylized "comedy," The Hairy Ape, was the product of what he called a blend of Expressionism and Naturalism. The playwright's experimental portrayal of alienation, like Büchner's Woyzeck and Brecht's Baal, sought to give expression to the lumpenproletariat. Yank, the play's protagonist, is intelligent but ignorant, a brute with a mind whose life in the bowels of a steamship shoveling coal becomes an allegorical hell.

The Wooster Group's production, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, tears through the script at breakneck speed. The play is arranged on a set of steel grids that criss-cross the stage like the bars of a cage. LeCompte's guiding metaphors are steel and speed, motifs that are repeated throughout the text. The opening tableau of the production is a remarkable picture of Yank sitting centerstage on the steps of a ladder below the grid, while his fellow workers are upstage and above the steel bars. Yank sits alone,...