The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hairy Ape, by Eugene O'Neill

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Title: The Hairy Ape

Author: Eugene O'Neill

Posting Date: June 4, 2009 [EBook #4015]
Release Date: May, 2003
First Posted: October 10, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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"THE HAIRY APE"

A Comedy of Ancient and Modern Life

In Eight Scenes

By

EUGENE O'NEILL

CHARACTERS

ROBERT SMITH, "YANK"
PADDY
LONG
MILDRED DOUGLAS
HER AUNT
SECOND ENGINEER
A GUARD
A SECRETARY OF AN ORGANIZATION
STOKERS, LADIES, GENTLEMEN, ETC.

SCENE I

SCENE--_The firemen's forecastle of a transatlantic liner an hour after
sailing from New York for the voyage across. Tiers of narrow, steel
bunks, three deep, on all sides. An entrance in rear. Benches on the
floor before the bunks. The room is crowded with men, shouting,
cursing, laughing, singing--a confused, inchoate uproar swelling into a
sort of unity, a meaning--the bewildered, furious, baffled defiance of
a beast in a cage. Nearly all the men are drunk. Many bottles are
passed from hand to hand. All are dressed in dungaree pants, heavy ugly
shoes. Some wear singlets, but the majority are stripped to the waist._

_The treatment of this scene, or of any other scene in the play, should
by no means be naturalistic. The effect sought after is a cramped space
in the bowels of a ship, imprisoned by white steel. The lines of bunks,
the uprights supporting them, cross each other like the steel framework
of a cage. The ceiling crushes down upon the men's heads. They cannot
stand upright. This accentuates the natural stooping posture which
shovelling coal and the resultant over-development of back and shoulder
muscles have given them. The men themselves should resemble those
pictures in which the appearance of Neanderthal Man is guessed at. All
are hairy-chested, with long arms of tremendous power, and low,
receding brows above their small, fierce, resentful eyes. All the
civilized white races are represe