All aboard!
Beginning Feb. 15, St. Ann’s Warehouse will host the Wooster Group theater company and the New York City Players as they perform three of legendary playwright Eugene O’Neill’s earliest one-acts from “The Glencairn plays,” each taking place at a different point during a sea voyage.
The three pieces — “Bound East for Cardiff,” “The Long Voyage Home,” and “The Moon of the Caribbees” — are all semi-autobiographical, drawing on O’Neill’s own experiences as a World War I-era seaman, both on and off the high seas. For this production, the Wooster Group’s acclaimed director Elizabeth LeCompte has asked Richard Maxwell of the New York City players to direct these plays, to spotlight pieces rarely produced by professional theater companies, and de-mystify works widely considered too prestigious to touch.
“The Wooster Group has done some incredible things with Eugene O’Neill, and changed the way we are able to look at and experience these plays,” said Jim Fletcher, a member of the New York City Players who will portray Big Frank in “The Moon in the Caribbees,” and Fat Joe in “Bound East for Cardiff.” “Suddenly, a Eugene O’Neill play can seem like the most modern thing in the world, and rightly so. It should be that way but it hasn’t been, because there’s a lot of theatrical weight that comes with him. Liz re-claimed it for everybody; she gave the body of work a new life, opening it up to possibility.”
The Glencairn Plays at St. Ann’s Warehouse [38 Water St. between Main and Dock streets in DUMBO, (718) 834-8794]. Feb. 15-March 4. For info, visit www.stannswarehouse.org.
