Ah, Wilderness!

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For The Suite Life of Zack & Cody episode, see Ah! Wilderness!.
Poster for WPA production of Ah, Wilderness!
Poster for WPA production of Ah, Wilderness!

Ah, Wilderness! is a play by Eugene O'Neill, and has the distinction of being the only true comedy he would ever write. In contrast to O'Neill's other, often tragic works, the overall tone of Ah, Wilderness! is rather sentimental and nostalgic.

The play takes place around the Fourth of July, 1906, and focuses on the Miller family of Waterbury, Connecticut. The main plot deals with the middle son, 17-year-old Richard, and his coming of age.

The title derives from Quatrain XI of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which is one of Richard's favorite poems.

Contents

[edit] Characters

  • Nat Miller: The head of the Miller household and the owner of a local newspaper, Nat Miller, in his late fifties, is a warm, wise, and understanding man.
  • Essie: Nat's wife, Essie Miller, is around fifty years old and the mother of four. She runs a well kept but lived-in house, in a “bustling, mother-of-a-family way.”
  • Arthur: The oldest of the Miller children, Arthur is nineteen years old and a football linesman and student at Yale University. There has been a speculation about his sexuality that has yet to be revealed.
  • Richard: The second son of Nat and Essie, Richard is almost seventeen. He sees himself as a radical and a poet, although most of his words and actions are quite tame. He is in throes of first love, and is sure he loves Muriel McComber with a passion and depth that no one has experienced before.
  • Mildred: The other daughter of Nat and Essie, Mildred is fifteen years old and considered attractive and vivacious. She is just old enough to be a great tease to her older brothers.
  • Tommy: The youngest child in the Miller family, Tommy is eleven years old and bursting with energy.
  • Sid Davis: Essie's forty-five year old brother, Sid is a gambler and an alcoholic. He was once engaged to Lily, who broke off the engagement because of his drinking and carousing.
  • Lily Miller: Nat's forty-two year old sister, Lily is a schoolteacher who is unmarried and childless. “She conforms outwardly to the conventional type of old-maid school teacher.”
  • David McComber: Muriel's father, David McComber he is a local businessman who advertises in Nat’s newspaper. He at first disapproves of Richard and Muriel’s relationship, but later accepts it. He is a “thin, dried-up little man.”
  • Muriel McComber: The daughter of David McComber, Muriel is almost sixteen. She is a pretty girl who is in love with Richard.
  • Wint Selby: A classmate of Arthur's at Yale, Wint is nineteen years old and a bit of a “hell-raiser.”
  • Belle: Twenty years old, Belle is a pretty, peroxide-blonde prostitute.
  • Nora: Mrs. Miller's Irish maid
  • Bartender
  • Salesman

[edit] Theatre

The play was first produced on Broadway on October 2, 1933 at the Guild Theatre by The Theatre Guild, where it ran for 289 performances. The cast included George M. Cohan (Nat), Elisha Cook Jr. (Richard), Marjorie Marquis (Essie), and Eugene Lockhart (Sid).

The play was revived on Broadway four times, including a 1988 production starring the two actors most closely associated with O'Neill's plays, Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst. It proved to be the final appearance in an O'Neill play for either actor.

The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical Take Me Along starring Jackie Gleason as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film), Walter Pidgeon as Nat and Robert Morse as Richard. The production ran for 448 performances. Gleason won the 1960 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical.

[edit] Film

In 1935, the movie version of Ah, Wilderness! was filmed in Grafton, Massachusetts. It was directed by Clarence Brown, and starred Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, and a young Mickey Rooney.

The film holds the dubious distinction of being the first to advertise in trade papers for Academy Award nominations, depicting a cartoon of MGM's Leo the Lion holding an Oscar and proudly stating "You've given so much, Leo ... Get ready to receive!"[1]. Despite (or, perhaps, because of) the ad campaign, the film failed to receive a single nomination.

[edit] External links

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