James Light: Notes on Staging Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape / Cover Letter to H. M. Harwood (1926)
2020; Penn State University Press; Volume: 41; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.5325/eugeoneirevi.41.1.0018
ISSN2161-4318
Autores Tópico(s)Theatre and Performance Studies
ResumoIn the autumn of 1917, Ohio State University graduate James “Jimmy” Light entered a master's program in English at Columbia University. His first residence in New York City was an apartment above the Provincetown Playhouse at 139 Macdougal Street in Greenwich Village—lodgings he shared with the Provincetown Players actor Charles Ellis. As Robert M. Dowling explains, Light's incorporation into the theatre company's activities was almost instantaneous upon his arrival in New York: As Light began to unpack, he heard hammering below and went downstairs. There he discovered three men shooting craps while a fourth hammered away at a shoddily built set of wood benches. One of the players was [Eugene] O'Neill, his dark eyes following the dice as they jounced across the floor. When Light criticized the workmanship of the benches, a saw was thrust into his hand. “I started sawing immediately,” he said.1 Soon, Light was not only helping to build props and sets; he was also enlisted as an actor, a director (frequently of O'Neill's plays), and—during George Cram “Jig” Cook's sabbaticals—theatre manager of the Playhouse. After the Provincetown Players disbanded in 1922, Light continued his close association with O'Neill: he was centrally involved with the Experimental Theatre, Inc. (ETI), formed in 1924 by O'Neill and others previously associated with the Players and based in the Provincetowners' old (but now revamped) Greenwich Village space.As various critics and biographers have pointed out, Light played a crucial role in O'Neill's early career and, indeed, in his personal life. Dowling notes that, when Light temporarily took over the Provincetown Playhouse from Cook in 1919, “the Players doubled down on their revolutionary methods by flouting the longstanding tradition of white companies using white actors in blackface and instead hired an all-black cast” for the first production of O'Neill's The Dreamy Kid.2 The Players and later ETI would famously use black actors for two subsequent O'Neill productions in which Light was heavily involved: the premieres of The Emperor Jones (1920), starring James Gilpin as the title character, and All God's Chillun Got Wings (1924), directed by Light and starring Paul Robeson as Jim Harris. Light stood shoulder to shoulder with O'Neill against the Ku Klux Klan and other racists who protested against the use of black actors in these productions.3 According to Light and O'Neill, the hate mail that they received focused on O'Neill's Irish Catholic background (he was, for example, called a “dirty Irish mick”), and both were accused of being Jews hiding under Christian names.4Light's role in helping O'Neill to push theatrical boundaries also relates to O'Neill's use of masks. Light designed the masks for the ETI's first production in 1924: August Strindberg's The Spook Sonata (1907). O'Neill chose this play, and Light later suggested that the playwright was inspired by the production's “demonstration of the possibilities of the mask.”5 O'Neill—who had used masks previously in The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape (1922)—would go on to use them in more risky and powerful ways in several of his epic middle-period works, from The Great God Brown (1925) through Days Without End (1933).On a more personal level, Stephen A. Black informs us that Light was one of the trusted people with whom O'Neill discussed private matters. O'Neill asked Light about his time in therapy. This—together with the testimonies of other friends such as Robert Edmond Jones and Kenneth Macgowan—encouraged O'Neill during the mid-1920s to seek out help from three psychoanalysts: Dr. Louis Bisch, a Dr. Wilkinson, and Dr. Gilbert Hamilton. O'Neill's mid-1920s engagement with psychotherapy helped him to get his drinking much more under control (though there would be occasional lapses in the future). It also had a significant effect on his playwriting: from 1925, O'Neill began reading the works of Freud and other psychologists avidly and began explicitly “using psychoanalytic ideas and themes for his plays.”6In the letter reproduced below, Light is writing to Captain Harold Marsh Harwood, the English author of numerous successful “trivial comedies”—some of which were co-written with his wife, the best-selling novelist F. Tennyson Jesse.7 Light's letter, however, relates to Harwood's other main occupation: he was, as Eric Salmon notes, a “distinguished [London] theatre manager and … lessee of the Ambassadors' Theatre” from 1919 to 1932.8 In the letter, Light is giving tips to Harwood regarding a prospective production of O'Neill's The Hairy Ape. Light participated significantly in the direction of the original 1922 production, which opened at the Provincetown Playhouse in March of that year before transferring to Broadway's Plymouth Theatre the following month. The apportioning of directorial responsibility has been variously assessed, but Light's deep knowledge of all aspects of the show, from esoteric technical matters to the unique ways in which the actors delivered specific lines, demonstrates his centrality to the production.9Harwood's interest in staging O'Neill was not new. The year before this letter was written, he had staged two O'Neill plays at the Ambassadors, both directed by Light: a double bill of The Long Voyage Home followed by a critically lauded The Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson. (As a result of this production, Harwood, Robeson, and their wives became close friends—a friendship lovingly recalled in Eslanda Goode Robeson's 1930 book-length profile of her husband.)10 Harwood would stage more well-regarded productions of O'Neill's work over the following years. One of the best received was a 1930 production of In the Zone (1917), directed by Raymond Massey. Unfortunately for Harwood, he used this play as a curtain-raiser before his own new comedy, The Man in Possession, and critics noted that the “eccentric tandem” made Harwood's play seem weak by comparison.11For our purposes, the most interesting of Harwood's later productions of O'Neill was his eventual staging of The Hairy Ape in 1931, five years after the letter from Light. Not only did Light direct this production—his only other directing job at the Ambassadors—but it also starred Paul Robeson as Yank.12 Much more research needs to be done regarding this frequently overlooked production, which ran for five nights, from May 11 to May 15, and which received rave notices in the British press and the New York Times.13 The Times review states that Robeson brought a new “pathos to [the] role created by … the late Louis Wolheim,” adding, “that the stoker was played by a Negro in no way altered O'Neill's conception. In fact, the dramatist has been eager for some time to have Robeson appear in the play.”14Also noteworthy is the reviewer's observation that “the audience warmly applauded the expert staging of the stokehold scene”—that is, scene 3.15 As shall be seen below, Light provides interesting recommendations and instructions regarding how to make this scene more powerful, and these tips give us a strong sense of just how expressionistic that original New York production was. Probably the production at the Ambassadors was similarly expressionistic, given that Light directed it. The reviews seem to corroborate this assumption.Of course, Light discusses how O'Neill and his dedicated collaborators at the Provincetown Playhouse had brought the entire play to life, not just scene 3. It is therefore no exaggeration to suggest that this remarkable document is perhaps the closest that we will ever get to “experiencing” those early productions of The Hairy Ape, O'Neill's expressionist masterpiece.The text reproduced below is based on the typescript held by the Harley Hammerman Collection on Eugene O'Neill, Washington University (MSS-160V-18). Light's authorship is established by a cover letter to the English theatre manager H. M. Harwood, also reproduced below. The fact that Light (“JL”) dictated to an amanuensis is indicated by the initial “R.” As is the case with Light's typescript of “The Parade of Masks” (see previous entry), sloppy typography and reckless orthography suggest an amateur typist. Alexander Pettit prepared the text for publication.Here, as in “The Parade of Masks,” minimal editorial intervention was required to reconcile readability and accuracy. Unambiguous errors of spacing (e.g., “ofthe”) have been silently corrected, as have stray points of punctuation (e.g., doubled periods). An interlineal interpolation in the typescript appears here intralineally, between arrows. A conjectural emendation and a conjectural interpolation are accompanied by question marks and tabulated in the apparatus.Abundant strikeovers have not been recorded. Eccentric capitalizations (e.g., “Cello”) have been retained on the presumption that their presence will not disrupt the experience of reading. Also remnant are grammatical infelicities, instances of irregular but not demonstrably unintended punctuation, and elliptical constructions of the sort familiar in stage directions (e.g., “banged the whole drum against steam pipes”).Orthographical errors have been emended and are tabulated at the end of each text. The tabulations take standard bibliographical form: lemmatic (left of the bracket) readings record passages from the edited text; stemmatic (right of the bracket) readings record the passage from the copy-text. Entries appear seriatim, with surrounding words where these stand to help readers locate the passages at issue.One repeated emendation demands particular notice. On several occasions, “R” typed the nonexistent form “focusal.” This is a phonetic spelling, clearly intended to represent Light's utterance of “fo'c'sle.” We have however settled on “forecastle”—incidentally O'Neill's spelling in The Hairy Ape—due to the presence in the typescript of the duly emended reading “against the firemens focusal forecastle.”August 20th, 1926Dear Captain Harwood -Here are a few notes based on our direction of “The Hairy Ape”, which might be of use to you. I don't know how far you wish to follow the method we used or whether you are doing it in an entirely new manner but these suggestions might be of use. Of course, I hope you have the greatest success, as I feel you will. I regret very much I will not be over to see the opening but I will be with you just the same. I have just looked at the pictures which Mr. Madden secured for you and they are pretty bad. They are of the Provincetown production and of course taken at close range. The uptown production on a larger scale had none of the faults of these pictures. They, however, can help you some.With kindest regards to yourself and your wife,I amYours very sincerely,JL/RAll suggestions contained in this letter are based on the Provincetown production of “The Hairy Ape”, in which the primary consideration was ease and quickness in changing the scenes. The principle used was to present only the essentials of a scene, isolated in light against neutral background.All elements were made as simple as possible and expressionistic in method. All scenes except the second were played before a black cyclorama of flannelette. The elements of scenery were placed in the middle stage and the light focused on them. The background was allowed to remain neutral.The first scene was achieved by mounting a small forecastle room on a truck with a ceiling and walls built. This was placed in the middle of the stage and masked off with a deep border and returns. Since this scene works twice it can be kept shoved to one side of the stage and kept intact. The bunks and steel work were suggested by profile, non-realistic; the lines swirling and throwing the composition to stage right where Yank sat; the floor and sides of benches following the line of bunks were covered with sheet iron. The room was roughly 10 x 15 and six feet high. Fourteen characters were used in this scene and the over-crowding had a very good effect. The forecastle was lit just behind the front teaser in the ceiling by one fairly strong bulb. This was backed up by diagonal spots from the front border focused on stage right down and stage left down where Paddy and Yank sit. The noises in this scene are very important. We tried to get the effect by the rattle of plates; by the construction of the throb of the condenser pumps and the rhythmic lift of the propeller out of the water. For this racing of the propeller we used a large thunder drum, on which we hung various lengths of heavy chain. The man playing the drum started the crescendo of propeller throbs and on its loudest, banged the whole drum against steam pipes of the theatre. For the eight bells was used a ten foot by ten inch iron pipe hung up and struck with a stonemason hammer.Page 2 - Before the rise of the curtain the shouting and noise start in the crescendo and at the crescendo the curtain rises. As indicated in the book, lines were in three sections; in the first section - lines almost simultaneously; second section in order working up to a first. Third section - getting louder and louder and topped by the song.Page 5 - The song “Whiskey Is The Life of Men” sung very badly but with great gusto and the chorus at the word “think” was taken as described in the directions.Page 7 - It was necessary to put in roars of the chorus to cover the long drunken climb to the bench so this is to top the crew.Pages 9 - 10 - 11 - at the beginning of Paddy's speech the crew is silenced by Paddy with a long Irish moan so he can begin his speech in silence. During Paddy's speech, which is of no interest to the crew, the men recline back against the bunks and efface themselves from the picture, leaving Yank and Paddy focused in the light. At the end of the speech they gradually come back so on Yank's first speech they are listening intently.Pages 12 - 13 - the crew during Yank's speech keep up the rhythm of approbation and assent until at the end of the speech they are just excited as he is. I have marked during the speech the places where they come in. At the end of the speech Yank and the chorus are all working absolutely together like men driving a spike and at the end of the speech they are up on their feet stamping and bellowing, completely out of control.Page 14 - Before 8 bells sound at the end of Yank's speech “I can care for myself, get me” the crew begins to break out in the same manner as before but at the first two beats of the bell stop rigid; the bell completes its eight in silence. At what would have been the 9-10 of the bell if it had gone on they rise. At the 10-11-12 turn to the door; at the 13-14 begin their lock-step march. The scene is the hardest for the work of the chorus; the chorus has to be synchronized with Yank's speeches so as to let his words through and yet keep the thing moving with terrific rapidity also the propeller noises must be plotted so that nothing is drowned and yet the full effect is gained.Scene 2 - This scene was not scenically very successful with us. I feel the idea was right but the designing of the scenery was without any real motive. It might be useful to outline what we had. The scene was in full daylight; blue cyclorama and the whole width of the stage. Across the back was a ship railing and on each side were one-half of two immense funnels, joining up to the border and return. The two characters were in steamer chairs, slightly left at centre, heads together and chairs at an angle of 45 degrees. A wind machine was kept going throughout the scene. The aunt was a caricature in costume and makeup, very fat and immovable and while the atmosphere of the scene was good I always felt that some better characteristics of the ship could have been used. No changes were made in direction and the scene was played as written.Scene 3 - this scene was very successful with us though of a very simple character; the line of flats across the whole stage were set on half stage. They were painted a murky black, mixed with other colors. There was no indication of steam gauges or boiler forms, they could not have been seen if there had been, but about waist high were lined wooden doors, such as there are in furnaces of eight in number. Downstage at the footlights was a low ground road, resembling pits of coal. Behind this a piece of sheet iron, quite rough, one for each man. The shovels the men used were scoop type but fastened with one end loose to the handle were three or four pieces of chain. The men scraped the shovels along the iron plates and in simulating the shoveling into the furnaces the chains gave the noise of coal. Behind each door in the flats was a cradle on rollers, which moved up to the opening. This cradle of chicken wire bed covered with amber and straw gelatine. Behind this was set two hundred and fifty watt spot, which shone through the gelatine and out of the door into the eyes of the audience. When the men opened the door, the property man back of the set rattled plates of iron against each other. I have put in the book a list of the devices used to get the noises of the engine room. For the steel door against which Yank throws his shovel we used a steel plate 6 x 4 stood up on stage right first entrance. At the exit of the girl she stepped behind this and Yank can throw his shovel with full force against the barrier. I wish to note that it is very important to get the right kind of whistle for the engineer; a good effect can be gotten if a very strident and irritating whistle is secured. We have sometimes used the end of this scene for intermission but have found after general practice that the best place is the end of scene 4.Scene 4 is again the firemen's forecastle, which is rolled back in place in front of the engine room scene. The only note with this scene outside of what is in the book is that the laughs of the chorus on “law Government God” should be rhythmetically all-together like the series of barks in unison.Scene 5 - In this scene we dispensed with the side street. The effect we wanted to get was light and cleanliness and artificiality. We used two windows, side by side for the Jewelers and Furriers and in the Jeweler's window only three immense over-sized pieces of jewelry. In the Furrier's window, one tremendous Ermine cloak, manufactured of cotton batting and gauze and one complete monkey skin set in front of it on a black stand in the shape of a cross, making the monkey look as if a monkey had been crucified. This scene ran across stage with a black cyclorama in the same position as the engine room scene. We simplified it by using no backing for windows but let the neutrality of the side count. When the scene opens, Church music is heard from the stage right and Yank's first speeches are delivered with the background of this music. The music with cues I have indicated in the book. The curbstone was eliminated and only lamp post used on stage left. The crowd of 5th Avenue people were done as conventional puppets; &#ξ2191;They were masked.&#ξ2191; the men bald, pit-like faces and the women in masks, egg-shaped, small features and inane. The men wore conventional morning dress and the women all in the same style, then prevalent in New York of black glazed turbans, black short simple frocks, white gloves and white stockings, black shoes and black bags and boa of white fur. They used small steps, arms rigid, knees rigid and entered in couples, directly behind each other. They marched on the stage in the manner of wooden soldiers, stopped and delivered the speeches on page 54. At the end of the speeches they marched straight on towards Yank and as he interrupted them, avoided him by turning down stage. He caught up to them downstage and they turned upstage and pursued this march in this manner until the women's speech - quote “Monkey fur”. They then all ran up to the fur window, bent over in an attitude of ecstasy of delight and hold these poses to the fall of the curtain. The curtain was somewhat different from that in the book. At the clap of the hands by the gentlemen a perfect din of whistles and gongs broke out - policemen rushed in, grab Yank, still confused, under the armpits and lift him off his feet and whisk him off the stage. The gongs disappear in the distance and the organ music begins as the curtain slowly falls - everyone holding their position.Scene 6 - This scene was played in almost complete darkness, except for the corner of the cell block in which Yank was confined - black cyclorama behind which other prisoners except the one reading the Senator Queen speech. He is in the cell next to Yank. We did this cell block by building two flats at an angle of 45 degrees stage left, one six feet deep and the other one about fifteen. The top edge is in a false perspective going down within three feet of the floor and in the flats are 3 or 4 barred doors following the perspective of the top. The first cell had a backing. The door of heavy bars was made quite solid and the framework in which it sets was secured to the floor. The two middle bars were of heavy lead for Yank to bend. The only lighting was a large spot from the front border on Yank's cell and inside the cell above the door a concealed light to kill the shadows inside the cell. It is very important in the reading of the first speeches of this scene to get the sense of distance between the speakers. They should pitch their voices high as if striving to speak at different places. The noise of the hose at the end of the play is secured by the use of a sheet iron cylinder or piece of stove pipe held on its edge against rapidly revolving grindstone. The audience did not actually see water strike bars. The guard ran up with hose in hand, aimed for the cell and offstage as the noise started the curtain came down and hid the scene. An effect is gained by the noise of the water hitting the bars and the screams and yells of the other prisoners.Scene 7 - This scene is the most difficult to get changed quickly, but there is a help in that the first part of the scene need not be very complicated nor the room full of furniture, using the set as per drawing in the book with only a desk and a stool and three tables, eight chairs. The room is lit by a single hanging bulb with a shade, stage right or centre. The scene between the secretary and Yank was played under this light. It was reinforced, however, by two diagonal spots from the front border. Behind the whole scene was black cyclorama and after the pivoting of the scene we used no other indication of a street. The black drop can hardly be seen and at the place where Yank sits an overhead blue spot directly on him was the moon. A policeman appears from the darkness around the corner of the set. The lamp post was on the stage left with a very dim bulb.NOTE: The people used as industrial workers should not be unusual in any way. There should be no hint of the popular idea of this organization as a lot of bearded bomb-throwers. They are quite ordinary and respectable workers and law abiding. The secretary should suggest a bookkeeper or a Y.M.C.A. secretary and the room a workman's club. We always found it very difficult to present[?] the policeman on his last speech in this scene by letting the audience know that he felt the wrong of it. If it isn't done right, it makes the author look very clumsy.Scene 8 - In this scene we used black cyclorama. Mid stage was a very large cage and the remaining cages in diminishing sizes. Noise of the monkey greeting, beginning of the scene was done partly with voices and partly by tin cans with rosined strings. There should be in the noises some deeper notes than these and I recommend the use of the Cello as a possibility. One great danger in the playing of the scene, which is almost fatal is to get a note of sentimentality into it. It must be played without any self-pity. With this letter I enclose a drawing of the costume we used for The Hairy Ape. Of course with this costume it is impossible for the Ape to pick up Yank but it can be easily faked. If when the Gorilla crushes him so that Yank's back is to the open door of the cage and as he let him go Yank falls half way into the cage and the Gorilla picks up his legs with the hooks on his arm and swings him in. Tobias managed this scene very well and I think there is no difficulty with the scene if he is playing it.With this method of production we got great speed of changes. The longest hold-up was the change from the Promenade deck to the stoke hole. Scene 2 can be set up behind Scene 1. Scene 4, the truck scene, can be waiting and shoved on immediately in front of scene 3. Intermission allows you plenty of time to get the 5th Avenue scene on and since we put our forecastle scene together with pin hinges we used to dismantle that for the sake of room on the stage. The prison scene can be waiting behind the cyclorama and if you fly the Fifth Avenue scene the change should not take much time. The I.W.W. scene necessarily takes a little more time as it cannot be very [quickly(?)] flyed. Scene 8 - last scene - if done as we did, folds up half to one side of the stage and half to the other and really consists of a parallel platform. Great care should be given to the noises closing each scene with the exception of one very striking effect.principle] principal; achieved] schieved; small forecastle room] small focusal room; forecastle was lit] focusal was lit; rhythmic lift] rythmic lift; rhythm of approbation] rythm of attrobation; blue cyclorama] blue cycloramic; piece of sheet iron] piece of sheetiron; shone through] shown through;] firemen's forecastle] firemens focusal forecastle; rhythmetically] rythmatically; Furrier's window] Furriers window; soldiers] woldiers; women's speech] womens speech; ecstasy] ecstacy; armpits] arm pits; gongs disappear] gons disappear; framework] frame work; a desk] a a desk; two diagonal spots] two diagnal spots; Y.M.C.A.] Y?M.C.A.; present[?] the policeman] prevent the policeman; done right] dont right; tin cans] tincans; crushes] cnushes; forecastle scene] focusal scene; cannot be very [quickly(?)] flyed] cannot be very be flyed
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