SALINAS
– An unusually warm and sentimental play by one of America’s
greatest playwrights,
”
Ah, Wilderness!
”
is a nostalgic look at a boy’s rite of passage from the idealism
of youth to the experience of young manhood.
SALINAS – An unusually warm and sentimental play by one of America’s greatest playwrights, “Ah, Wilderness!” is a nostalgic look at a boy’s rite of passage from the idealism of youth to the experience of young manhood.
Set in a Connecticut house on the 4th of July, 1906, the play centers on the story of Richard Miller, an optimistic young man who thinks that his lofty ideals, his favorite writers and his love for his high school sweetheart, Muriel McComber, will make his world a living paradise. However, Richard’s beliefs are tested when his mother condemns his taste in literature, the morally corrupting works of Henrik Ibsen, Oscar Wilde, and A.C. Swinburne.
His father questions his radical anti-capitalist rhetoric and Muriel breaks up with him under pressure from her father, who has discovered the scandalous poems Richard has been including in his love letters. Spurned, Richard joins his brother’s school friend from Yale in a night of debauchery at a local tavern but discovers in the process where his true values lie.
“Ah, Wilderness!” is a classic coming-of-age story.
Eugene O’Neill is widely regarded as America’s greatest playwright. His plays include the classics “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” “The Iceman Cometh,” “The Emperor Jones” and “Desire Under the Elms” to name only a handful of his 70 dramatic works.
His style stretches the gambit of 20th Century theatricality, from the internal drama of expressionism to the hyper-detailed world of naturalism. Â
“Ah, Wilderness!” was written late in his career, a period predominantly associated with his tragedies, and so stands out all the more as the only comedy in over 40 years as a playwright.
O’Neill said the inspiration for this play came to him in a dream. He wrote in his diary on Sept, 1, 1932 that he awoke with the idea for a “Nostalgic Comedy” and worked out a tentative outline “fully formed & ready to write.” As with many of his plays, the subject of “Ah, Wilderness!” was highly autobiographical. He called the play “a dream walking” and “a comedy of recollection”. However, unlike his other domestic tragedies, the family in Ah, Wilderness is not dysfunctional, but idyllic.
“Ah, Wilderness” is currently showing through Aug. 3 in the Studio Theater at the Hatnell College Performing Arts Center in Salinas. Showings are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets, visit www.westernstage.com or call (831) 375-2111.
