Beyond the Horizon (play)

Last updated
Beyond the Horizon
BeyondTheNight.JPG
First edition cover
Written by Eugene O'Neill
Characters
  • Robert Mayo
  • Andrew Mayo
  • Ruth Atkins
  • James Mayo
  • Kate Mayo
  • Captain Dick Scott
  • Mrs. Atkins
  • Mary
  • Ben
  • Doctor Fawcett
Date premiered1920
Place premiered Broadway
Original languageEnglish
GenreTragedy
SettingThe Mayo farm and the surrounding countryside

Beyond the Horizon is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. Although he first copyrighted the text in June 1918, O'Neill continued to revise the play throughout the rehearsals for its 1920 premiere. [1] His first full-length work to be staged, Beyond the Horizon won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Contents

Productions

Beyond the Horizon premiered on Broadway at the Morosco Theatre, from February 3, 1920 to February 20, 1920, transferred to the Criterion Theatre from February 24, 1920 to March 5, 1920, and finally transferred to the Little Theatre, from March 9, 1920 to June 26, 1920. Directed by Homer Saint-Gaudens, the cast featured Erville Alderson (James Mayo), Richard Bennett (Robert Mayo), Robert Kelly (Andrew Mayo), Mary Jeffery (Kate Mayo), and Sidney Macy (Captain Dick Scott). [2]

This production won the 1920 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. [2]

Beyond the Horizon was revived on Broadway at the Mansfield Theatre on November 30, 1926 and closed on February 5, 1927 after 79 performances. Directed by James Light, the cast featured Malcolm Williams (James Mayo), Judith Lowry (Kate Mayo), Albert Tavernier (Captain Dick Scott), Thomas Chalmers (Andrew Mayo), Robert Keith (Robert Mayo), Aline MacMahon (Ruth Atkins), Eleanor Wesselhoeft (Mrs. Atkins), and Elaine Koch (Mary). [3]

Poster for the Federal Theatre Project presentation of Beyond the Horizon at the Alcazar Theatre, San Francisco (1937) Poster-Beyond-the-Horizon-Alcazar.jpg
Poster for the Federal Theatre Project presentation of Beyond the Horizon at the Alcazar Theatre, San Francisco (1937)

The play was presented by Royal & Derngate in Northampton in November 2009. This production subsequently transferred to London's National Theatre in March 2010. [4]

Overview

The play takes place on a farm in the Spring, and then moves forward three years later, in the Summer, and finally five years later, in late Fall. The play focuses on the portrait of a family, and particularly only two brothers Andrew and Robert. In the first act of the play, Robert is about to go off to sea with their uncle Dick, a sea captain, while Andrew looks forward to marrying his sweetheart Ruth and working on the family farm as he starts a family.

Adaptations

The play was adapted for television and broadcast on PBS Great Performances series in July 1975, directed by Rick Hauser and Michael Kahn. The cast featured Richard Backus (Robert Mayo), Kate Wilkinson (Kate Mayo), John Randolph (James Mayo), Edward J. Moore (Andrew Mayo), Maria Tucci (Ruth Atkins), Geraldine Fitzgerald (Mrs. Atkins), John Houseman (Dr. Fawcett), and James Broderick (Captain Scott). [5] The play was adapted into an opera by composer Nicolas Flagello in 1983.

Critical response

According to the PBS American Experience program, "Theater historians point to O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon, which debuted in 1920, as the first native American tragedy. That play emerged from O'Neill's association with the Provincetown Players, one of many so-called 'little theaters' that developed in the 1910s to provide alternative fare to commercial drama of the time." [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Great White Hope</i> Play written by Howard Sackler

The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Margulies</span> American playwright

Donald Margulies is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends.

The Kentucky Cycle is a series of nine one-act plays by Robert Schenkkan that explores American mythology, particularly the mythology of the West, through the intertwined histories of three fictional families struggling over a portion of land in the Cumberland Plateau. The play won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<i>The Young Man from Atlanta</i>

The Young Man from Atlanta is a drama written by American dramatist Horton Foote first produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre in January 1995. Foote received the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This was one of four Foote plays the group produced during its 1994/1995 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guare</span> American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

<i>Conversations with My Father</i> Play by Herb Gardner

Conversations with My Father is a play by Herb Gardner. The play, which ran on Broadway in 1992 to 1993, was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie White</span> American actress (born 1961)

Julie K. White is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Little Dog Laughed in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performances in Airline Highway in 2013, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in 2019 and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. She played Sam Witwicky's mother in Transformers film series (2007-2011).

<i>State of the Union</i> (play) Play written by Howard Lindsay

State of the Union is a play by American playwrights Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay about a fictional Republican presidential candidate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynn Nottage</span> American playwright (born 1964)

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright whose work often focuses on the experience of working-class people, particularly working-class people who are Black. She has received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice: in 2009 for her play Ruined, and in 2017 for her play Sweat. She was the first woman to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama two times.

<i>A Moon for the Misbegotten</i> A play in four acts by Eugene ONeill

A Moon for the Misbegotten is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. The play is a sequel to O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, with the Jim Tyrone character as an older version of Jamie Tyrone. He began drafting the play late in 1941, set it aside after a few months and returned to it a year later, completing the text in 1943 – his final work, as his failing health made it physically impossible for him to write. The play premiered on Broadway in 1957 and has had four Broadway revivals, plus a West End engagement.

The Gin Game is a two-person, two-act play by Donald L. Coburn that premiered at American Theater Arts in Hollywood in September 1976, directed by Kip Niven. It was Coburn's first play, and the theater's first production. The play won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<i>James Joyces The Dead</i> Broadway musical based on short story by James Joyce

James Joyce's The Dead is a Broadway musical by Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey based upon James Joyce's short story "The Dead".

The Dining Room is a play by the American playwright A. R. Gurney. It was first produced Off-Broadway at the Studio Theatre of Playwrights Horizons, in 1981.

Bob Stillman is an American actor, singer, and songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Norris (playwright)</span> American dramatist

Bruce Norris is an American character actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

They Knew What They Wanted is a 1924 play written by Sidney Howard. The play premiered on Broadway in 1924 and had three Broadway revivals as well as a London production.

<i>Hell-Bent Fer Heaven</i> 1924 melodrama play by Hatcher Hughes

Hell-Bent fer Heaven is a melodrama play by Hatcher Hughes.

Idiot's Delight is a 1936 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play written by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood and presented by the Theatre Guild. The play takes place in the Hotel Monte Gabriel in the Italian Alps during 24 hours at the beginning of a world war. The guests trapped in the hotel by the sudden onset of hostilities are from Germany, France, the United States and Britain. Directed by Bretaigne Windust, the cast starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne (Irene), with Sydney Greenstreet as Dr. Waldersee and Francis Compton as Achille Weber. The play was nominated for the 1936 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Best American Play.

Miss Lulu Bett is a 1920 play adapted by American author Zona Gale from her novel of the same title.

Jordan Harrison is an American playwright. He grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. His play Marjorie Prime was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

References

  1. O'Neill, Eugene. Complete Plays 1913-1920. Travis Bogard, ed. New York: Library of America, 1988, p. 1090 ISBN   0-940450-48-8
  2. 1 2 "'Beyond the Horizon' 1920" playbillvault.com, accessed November 29, 2015
  3. "'Beyond the Horizon' 1926" playbillvault.com, accessed November 29, 2015
  4. Beyond the Horizon officiallondontheatre.co.uk, accessed November 2, 2015
  5. "'Beyond the Horizon' PBS, 1975" imdb.com, accessed November 29, 2015
  6. "Playwrights in America" cpbs.oeg< accessed November 29, 2015