Several years ago, I wondered
if Eugene O’Neill had written plays directly related to World War One during
the period in which it was being fought.
He had created three war plays during that period. Each one is concerned with a different
reality of war. The first play relates
to the tragedy and cruelty for civilians living in the path of war, the second
deals with how wartime affects the fears and uncertainties developed during
potential life threatening situations, while the third play illuminates the
impact on the mental health of many surviving soldiers.
Eugene O’Neill
(1883-1953) at age twenty-six was completing his first year in Harvard
University’s playwriting course taught by George Pierce Baker when he wrote The Sniper (1915), a one-act play. He entered
it into the Harvard Dramatic Club’s competition where it received honorable
mention. The recognition of honorable
mention did not carry the prize of being produced by the Harvard Dramatic Club. The topic of the play may have been too
timely for presentation on a major university campus that did not want to
advocate for the United States to enter the war.
The
Sniper is set in the Belgium countryside during August 1914
when the German army marched through that country without permission in order
to attack France. This march became
known as the “Rape of Belgium” and raised awareness in the United States about
the war. The play takes place in a
Belgium village that has been destroyed in one day and has left many villagers dead. The play focuses on one peasant family whose
home and farm building are destroyed and the son is killed. Towards the
conclusion of the play, it is revealed that the son’s mother and fiancée were
killed while trying to reach safety in Brussels. The surviving member of the
family is the Father, named Rougon, who realizes he has lost everything in one
day. While the Priest tries to reconcile
Rougon to his situation, the distraught man retaliates by shooting two German
soldiers approaching his ruined cottage.
He is immediately condemned to death by a German captain and is executed
at once.
O’Neill’s actor father
showed the script to various producers who expressed interest, but each one believed
the censors would either suppress it or require O’Neill to omit all the
references to actual places and countries currently involved. The
Sniper was staged by the Provincetown Players on February 16, 1917. This was after the United States broke
diplomatic ties with Germany on February 1, 1917; therefore, the topic was suddenly
considered to be timely.
The second war play
titled In the Zone was written in
1917. The action takes place on a
British tramp steamer in the fall of 1915. This play is one of four sea dramas concerning the crew of this
particular ship named the S. S. Glencairn. The ship entered the waters of the war zone during
the night. German submarines are in the same waters. The sailors discover one of their mates is
acting in a suspicious manner so they decide he must be a German spy. They proceed to act on their instincts only
to find their suspicions were incorrect.
This play was staged by the Washington Square Players in New York City
on October 31, 1917 and opened to glowing reviews. The New York Times praised the play: “It was all simple and heartfelt
as it was vivid with picturesque character, tense with excitement.” Later
in the review after discussing the other three plays on the same bill, the
reviewer returned to praising O’Neill’s play.
“‘In the Zone’ was of a very high order, both as a thriller and as a
document in human character and emotion.”
This production of In the Zone
launched O’Neill’s career and he received his first royalty payments from a
vaudeville tour of the play.
During the 1920s, In the Zone toured as part of the S.S.
Glencairn series of plays. This group of plays all take place on the same tramp
steamer and many of the characters appear throughout. In
the Zone is the second play in the group to be written and is usually
discussed under the sea plays grouping.
Shell
Shock was written in early 1918 and it is set in the United
States prior to the end of the war. The play takes place in the grill of the
New York club of a large Eastern University.
The dialogue reveals that university to be Harvard. The three male characters
knew each other during their college days at Harvard. Robert Wayne is an
officer in the Medical Corps. He has
been transferred back to the United States to assist shell shocked patients who
are returning home. Herbert Roylston, a returning first lieutenant, was severely
wounded in action during one of the campaigns in France. His life was saved by a mutual friend, Jack
Arnold, who was Wayne’s roommate at Harvard.
Arnold had crawled into No Mans Land three nights after Roylston had
been shot and brought him back to the trench.
Arnold thought Roylston was dead and he believes that his act of bravery
was nothing more than his need to rescue Roylston’s pack of cigarettes. Arnold had become a compulsive smoker while
living in the trenches. He is suffering
a serious form of shell shock. He feels
guilt for his act of bravery. Wayne is
able to quickly help restore Arnold’s mental balance and the play ends with
Arnold reuniting with Roylston, who returned to the club to see him.
Critics have commented
that the plot of this play is overly manipulated just so it ends with a
positive outcome. This negative comment has been repeated over the past
century. While the comment does identify
a real short coming for the drama, O’Neill was warning that numerous soldiers
would be returning to the United States with various levels of shell
shock. O’Neill’s theme was timely, but
one that no theatre was willing to produce, despite the positive results for
the characters in the play. I admire him
for broaching the topic and desiring to expose audiences to what they may have
to encounter.
After considering these
three war plays together, O’Neill’s thematic concerns are clearly discernible. I
believe the plays also revealed, in advance, the manner and timeliness in which
the events of the war unfolded for many Americans.
There are many books
devoted to Eugene O’Neill and his plays. I have appreciated several of those
resources which helped me to organize my thoughts for this post. If you are
interested in reading more about O’Neill and his plays, I particularly enjoyed
a new resource:
Dowling, Robert M. Eugene O’Neill A Life in Four Acts. New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2014.
NOTE: The Provincetown
Theater will present The Sniper as
one of four plays to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Provincetown
Players. This event is scheduled for July 11 and 12, 2015.
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