Culture Event

Cultural Event

HUM 111

18 Mar 2013

The theater is an integral part of human life not only because it is one of the traditional forms of art, but also because the theater shows what is hidden within the human soul. Last week I attended a short play “Hughie” by the famous playwright Eugene O'Neill staged by the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The main role was played by an American actor Richard Schiff, known above all for playing Toby Ziegler in the film “The West Wing.” I must admit I did not expect much of the two-character play. It was written by O'Neill in 1942, so I thought that the realism of the era will be irretrievably lost. Besides, due to its small scale I did not expect anything profound to be found in it. However, O'Neill's play turned out to be much deeper than it may have seemed at first glance. It is built almost in the form of a monologue, and the first phrases fully involve the audience in a stream of thoughts of the main character. This play has given me an understanding of how the human personalities are different in many ways and that they can be fully disclosed probably just through a prism of a personal tragedy of immense proportions.

In “Hughie”, O'Neill's philosophy of the tragedy appears which is close to the existentialism as it is related to the problem of individuality and freedom of the individual. The tragedy is within the destiny of individuals who do not wish to adhere to the standard rules and question the ideals and values of the machine civilization. The leading character, small hustler Erie Smith is exactly such a loner player that looks out for someone who will be able to replace the gone Hughie, a man to support Erie's fantasies and prevent his collision with a miserable self. In the play, a rejection of Puritanism is clearly seen, which, according to O'Neill, transforms its adherents from people to mannequins, providing their faces with the similarity of lifeless masks. Erie...