The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-01-26

the history of music and the drama
here has there been such a wide all
state demand for seats as for the
Passion Play"
SOME FACTS
On O'NEILL PLAY
Bernard Simo~ press represent
alive for the Theatre Guild, has
prepared the following data on the
STRANGE Interlude:"
Early in 1924. Eugene oNeiil hrst began
20 think about his nine-aet pIaY. Strange
Enterlude." that has since arouied so rauch
discussion and created such memorable
history In the American theater. 1t viii
be presented in Indianapolis at English's
on the anniversary OF its FIRST public per-
formance-next Thursday when it opens
here will mark full years run for the
company that began giving the play in
New York en- Jan. 81. 1923.
In 1924. O'Feil had .his head and his
notebooks full Of ideas for plays. Just as
he has now. At present he is said TO have
forty-three plays outlined with notes. From
the first conception of Strange Inter
lude" he has been steadily thinking about
1t. though he composed several other plays
before he completed this. his greatest
work.
It was a productive year for O'Neill this
1921 His friend, Kenneth Mcgowan. has
letter from him dated Jan. l of that
year in which oNeill. then living in a
country house in Connecticut. wrote that
The New Year begins auspiciously. I
woke up this morning with an idea for a
nj hat F,sfT
tentialities." This was the play that was
produced in the fall of that year under
the title Of Desire Under the Elms" Also
during the early part Of that year. o'Neill
made his dramatic adaptation of Cole
ridges Rhine of the Ancient Mariner" In
the spring he began THE Fountain" but
his researches into the lore of those
wanderers who had searched for the
Fountain Of Youth had led him into a
study OF the medieval travellers who had
found their way to the Orient-such tones
as Hakluyts Voyages and The Travels of
Marco Polo. The character of Marco Polo
appealed to O'Neill so much that he tenn
p0Iarily put ''The Fountain" aside and
wrote Marco Millions" After the com
pietion OF that play. he then finished "The
FOUNTAIN" And before the year was out
nc hao begun work on THE Great God
Brown" though the greater part of this
was written the following year.
All this time, O'Neill was revolving the
1aea OF complete epic history of a wonn-
ans life. He wanted the play of not
one woman. but Of all women. and en-
BODY IN this tale every variation of
FEMININE experience. His purpose was to
snow a young girls passionate devotion
'or her youthful sweetheart, pure and
worthy Of all approval: a woman's de-
gTadauon; woman's regeneration;
woman's marriage with affection but with
out love, woman staggering under a
colossal disaster; woman involved in
a ra9turous and Illicit love affair; a wonl-
an as mother. struggling to keep her
child forever her own. 1t was O'NelPs
problem to invent a story about a single
particular woman who should herself ex-
perience all these phases of experience
OF the Eternal Woman. Few lives actually
encompass this entire gamut of expert
eaee, and thus it was no simple matter
TO fabrieate the story of one woman whose
life It contained it all. But ONeiH did
succeed in this task and Strange In
terlude" Is the result
At the beginning. ONeill foresaw that
1t would have to be long play, extend
ing over many years of time. When he
first began writing the play in 1926. he
intended to embody the idea of the Greek
chorus to inform the audience of what
had occurred in the interim Of years be-
tween each act. In the tntermissions, a
man would come before the curtain and
reeite that thus and so had happened to
the characters between the acts Then
O'Neill began to consider that this was
clumsy device. and in the mouth of a
stage-manager would be dull recitation,
and he decided TO add a character to the
play who, in addition to moving through
the scenes should appear before the cur
tain in the intermissions. Then the
before the-curtain idea was abandoned en-
tirely and O'Nein determined to let the
added character tell the audience Of the
intervening action in the scenes Of the
play itself by means of 'aside" COM
ments and Soliloquies while left alone on
the stage.
After writing several scenes in this
manner. ONeiI made a sudden discovery:
This added-charscter. this Greek chorus
was running away. had got beyond the
authors control and was meddling with
the very action Of the play itself The
Greek chorus was assuming a personality
OF hts own. The fellow lived and breathed
and he had been meant to be only a con-
vention, an automston who should be the
plsyvright's commentator on the living
characters. o'Neill read back the pages
Of his manuscript over and over to find
out what particular lines made this char
aeter so vital And then he made another
startling discovery: This character had
depth and vigor precisely because he was
making "aside" comments. speaking aloud
words that ne would never say to any one
directly. but which we're the expression
II his innsrmost thoughts O'Neill per-
celved that II a character. to which he
vas purposelv refraining from giving
personality. assumed rich and illumi-
mating personality In spite OF the author.
then a character purposely developed
along such q technique Of voiced thoughts
would be more sesrchingly exposed than
any other he had ever created.
Thus the playwright set to WORK to write
a play in which all the characters would
express flor the audience onlyl their in
nernlost thoughts. that they would not
dare to express to the other characters of
the play. With the zeal Of chemist. who
has discovered a new formula. o'Neill
worried out the new technique. based upon
the old and outworn technique of
''asldeS." The character Of the Greek
chorus man. who had so hardly main
tanned his life in spite Of the playwright's
Efforts. was retained in the play and be-
came the men called Charles Marsden in
Strange Interihde." the sensitive man
afraid OF life. the man who The words of
the central woman Characters be-
side the fierce river. Immediately timid.
cool and clothed. watching the burning.
frozen. naked swimmers down at last