The Hairy Ape at the Old Vic
Yank stares at the large round Moon. It is the face of a man that looks down at him – an interior labourer – who shovels coal to keep his grand ocean liner afloat. Yank, then, heads to the zoo to face his inner “filthy beast” which his employer’s well-bred daughter had branded him. He scares and taunts another beast – a wary caged gorilla.
What we have here is a working class man violently rebelling against society and reflecting angrily on his social place in the world. In 1922 , when script writer Eugene O’Neill completed his play The Hairy Ape, it was a turning point for capitalism and socialism.
Click here for my review of The Hairy Ape on the LondonTheatre1 website
MGN 