O’Neill’s First Act and Last Act

January at the Museum of the San Ramon Valley offers an opportunity to compare Eugene O’Neill’s very first one-act play with his very last. Further heightening the contrast will be the fact that his last one-act (Hughie) will be presented traditionally as written while his very first attempt to write a play, the one-act A Wife for a Life has been radically reimagined to include the relationship between Eugene and his father, the famous actor James O’Neill.

A Wife for a Life: A Backstage Story

By Eugene O’Neill

Adapted and directed by Eric Fraisher Hayes

In 1913 an aspiring young playwright (Eugene O’Neill) brings his first play script to the dressing room of his famous father (James O’Neill) in the hope of getting his father to play the lead role. A Wife for a Life: A Backstage Story imagines a dressing room argument over the nature of life and art between the famous actor father and the soon-to-be famous playwright son. The young man’s script becomes the battleground for this clash over the value of theatre and the human need for truth and illusion.

This love letter to theatre premiered in New Ross, Ireland in October 2024. January will be the U.S. premiere.

Hughie

By Eugene O’Neill

Directed by Cynthia Lagodzinski

Late one night, a Broadway sport, gambler, and man-about-town named Erie Smith wanders back to the shabby hotel where he has a room. He has been on a drunk ever since the death of his only “friend” in the world, the former night clerk of the hotel, Hughie. Terrified of the isolation of his room and the visions that keep coming to him, he decides to strike up a conversation with the new night clerk. What ensues is a quest to find some comfort in the company of others. To find a way to make it through the night.

Eugene O’Neill First and Last Act

A Wife for a Life: A Backstage Story and Hughie

Museum of the San Ramon Valley

Fri., Jan. 10, 7:30pm

Sat., Jan. 11, 7:30pm plus post-performance discussion

Sun.. Jan. 12, 2pm