The Hairy Ape
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The Hairy Ape is an expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill (1922).
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[edit] Plot
The play tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer known as Yank, as he searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. At first Yank feels secure as he stokes the engines of an oceanliner, and is highly confident in his physical power over the ship's engines. However, when the weak but rich daughter of an industrialist in the steel business refers to him as a "filthy beast," Yank undergoes a crisis of identity. He leaves the ship and wanders into Manhattan, only to find he does not belong anywhere -- neither with the socialites on Fifth Avenue, nor with the labor organizers on the waterfront. Finally he is reduced to seeking a kindred being in the gorilla in the zoo and dies in the animal's embrace.
[edit] Scene by scene synopsis
The play is divided into 8 scenes. Scene 1 takes place in the stokehole, where Yank and the other firemen are talking and singing drunkenly. Yank is shown to be a leader among them. Other featured characters are Long, a socialist, and Patty, a particularly drunken Irishman.
Scene 2 takes place on the deck, where Mildred Douglas (the rich girl) and her aunt are talking. They are almost constantly arguing.
Scene 3 takes place in the stokehole. Yank and the other firemen take pride in their work. When Mildred comes to visit the stokehole, a fight breaks out and Mildred calls Yank a beast because she is afraid of him. She faints.
Scene 4 also takes place on the ship. Yank is very depressed and the other men try to understand why.
In scene 5, Yank and Long go to 5th Avenue in New York. Yank argues with Long about how best to attack the upper class. Long leaves, fearing arrest, and Yank is arrested after attacking a Gentleman.
Scene 6 takes place at the prison at Blackwell’s Island. Yank tells the prisoners his story and one of the prisoners gives him an article about the Industrial Workers of the World. Yank tries to escape.
Scene 7 takes place at the IWW office that Yank goes to after his month in jail. They are happy to have him at first because there are not many ship firemen in the union - but he is thrown out after he says that he wants to blow up things, and they think he is a spy.
Scene 8 takes place at the zoo, when Yank is crushed after trying to talk to an ape and releasing it from its cage.
[edit] Themes
The Hairy Ape displays O'Neill's social concern for the oppressed industrial working class. Despite demonstrating in The Hairy Ape his clear belief that the capitalist system persecuted the working man, O'Neill is critical of a socialist movement that can't fulfill individual needs or solve unique problems. The industrial environment is presented as toxic and dehumanizing; the world of the rich, superficial and dehumanized. Yank has also been interpreted as representative of the human condition, alienated from nature by his isolated consciousness, unable to find belonging in any social group or environment.
[edit] Production history
The Hairy Ape was first produced by the Provincetown Players in 1922. The production, directed and designed by Robert Edmond Jones, was praised for its use of expressionistic set design and staging techniques, and was transferred to a theatre on Broadway. Actor Louis Wolheim became famous for his interpretation of Yank.
A low-budget 1944 film version released by United Artists starred William Bendix, Susan Hayward, Dorothy Comingore, and John Loder. Later notable productions include Peter Stein's 1986 revival, and a postmodern multimedia interpretation by the Wooster Group in 1996, with Willem Dafoe playing the protagonist.
In fall 2006, The Hairy Ape was staged to positive reviews by the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York City. The Irish Voice declared, "O'Neill's spirit still resonates. The Irish Repertory Theatre's new production of The Hairy Ape reminds us why O'Neill is considered the first Irish American playwright."
