"THE HAIRY APE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 261, 4 November 1935, Page 16

"THE HAIRY APE."

W.E.A. PRODUCTION. EUGENIS O'NEILL'S PLAY. Man's efforts to "belong" form the tliemo of Eugene O'Neill's play, "The Hairy Ape," presented by the drama section of the Workers' Educational Association on Saturday night. With true sympathy for the world's "underdogs," the playwright—amazing author of "Emperor Jones," "Strange interlude," "All God's Chillun Got • Wings," and many other famous plays—depicts graphically the feelings of a stoker on a gigantic Atlantic liner in regard to the relative positions of man and master.

The theme opens on the liner's fo-c'slc, where a dozen men or so discuss the world and each other. Every line of dialogue has its meaning, even to those who will not see it. That is perhaps the great author's secret. The scenes of "The Hairy Ape" change rapidly from the liner's fo'c'sle U> the A deck promenade, where a millionairess, whose steel-magnate father owns the ship and the soul of every workinan aboard, airs her views on social service as "the four hundred" know it, of her aunt's uncompromising cliaperonage, of the hard work that spending a million invariably calls for. The next scene is the stokehold. Here, where worker and mistress are brought together in a remarkable climax, is the centre of the play. It explains everything: the remaining five scenes all lead from it. It is followed immediately by a return to the fo'c'sle, with the man's realisation of his position as a hairy ape in the eyes of the wealthy woinan. He wants revenge on the woman for not "belonging," and tries to seek it in Fifth Avenue, too well guarded by police whistles. He serves 30 days "to think it over," and then decides to join a workers' educational movement, but even they fail to see how he "belongs." His feet carry him to the zoo, where the giant gorilla teaches him finally the meaning—and end —of it all.

The W.E.A. has given its usual thorough production to the play. The lesson is the same as that taught in "The Cherry Orchard," "Six Characters in Search of an Author," and "Masses and Man," its last annual presentations. The cast is again anonymous. "The Hairy Ape" will be presented at the old Grammar School, Symonds Street, this evening and again on Tuesday and Wednesday.