Theater Review—

‘Hughie’ Is Classic O’Neill Territory,

For Actors And Audience

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — To most theatergoers, Eugene O’Neill, the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, is best remembered for his marathon four-hour-long dramas like Long Day’s Journey and The Iceman Cometh, or even the less often seen Strange Interlude, which began in the afternoon, sent the audience home for dinner, and then picked up again in the evening.

He did write short plays, though, many of which were set on lonely freighters or in seedy dives near the harbor, based on his early years as an itinerant seaman in the merchant marine. These include works like Ile, Where the Cross is Made, The Hairy Ape and the classic, Anna Christie.

And then there is Hughie. Never performed until five years after O’Neill’s death, Hughie was first produced in Sweden — in Swedish! It was the only surviving segment of an eight part cycle of monologues O’Neill had conceived of back in 1942, which he called “By Way of Obit.” They were meant to be portraits of people he had known, who had died and were being remembered by the speaker, who was sharing his recollections of the dead man, with a third, mostly silent, listener.

As he did with other works he was dissatisfied with, O’Neill destroyed all of these pieces… or at least he thought he did. In fact, of the eight, Hughie survived, containing the classic O’Neill themes, the intensity, the pain, and the fleeting alcoholic charm that audiences have always associated with the longer works.

Packed into 55 tightly directed minutes,  Hughie constitutes a riveting tour de force for two great actors, and in the case of the current production at Long Wharf Theatre, it’s Brian Dennehy and Joe Grifasi.

The play opens amid the gritty realism of Eugene Lee’s lovingly detailed set, capturing the shabby lobby and desk of a seedy New York hotel, with the sound and vibration of the subway rattling the silence of the night.

It is 3 am. Grinning wolfishly in his ice cream suit and painted tie, Erie Smith presents himself to the morose night clerk, announcing he has just come off a four-day drunk, and wants his regular room key.

But Erie never goes upstairs. Instead, he wheels around and confronts Charlie, the small man in a crumpled red uniform, launching into a protracted monologue that begins with a lament for the previous clerk, Hughie.

It was Hughie’s death, a week ago, that prompted Erie’s latest binge. They were friends, insofar as a timid hotel clerk could be friends with a highstakes Broadway gambler like Erie. He was “somebody to talk to” late at night, someone who listened to his lying tales of conquests and scores, without questioning or criticizing. They even shot craps together – Erie would lend Hughie the money and they would play for nickels, just to give the hapless little guy a thrill. Once Erie even took him out to Belmont, to see the “bangtails.”

As the monologue unfolds, we learn details about the mundane life of the departed Hughie — the wife and kids back in Brooklyn, but of course it is really Erie that the play is examining. It is his lonely, failed existence that becomes bearable only when he can find a gullible listener to believe his pipe dreams. Without Hughie, he is forced to confront the reality that he is a washed up loser,  who runs errands for mobsters and begs for handouts.

This is classic O’Neill territory, and it is beautifully interpreted by Dennehy and Grifasi. The pair have worked together for decades in movies and on stage, and their teamwork is impeccable.

Grifasi doesn’t need to say much; his mobile face radiates gloom, boredom, and confusion by turns, as he tries to deal politely with Dennehy’s manic rambling, until a spark of possibility fires his imagination and for the first time, he becomes engaged.

“Mr Smith: Do I understand that you are a gambler? Do you know Arnold Rothstein?”

And Erie smiles. Perhaps he has found a replacement for Hughie after all...

Performances continue until November 16. Call Long Wharf at 203-787-4282 or visit LongWharf.org for the performance schedule, reservations and additional information.