March, April and the first week of May will bring a special treat for theater lovers in the Washington area: a celebration of Eugene O’Neill, generally considered America’s first great playwright.
In addition to productions of three of O’Neill’s major plays (“Ah, Wilderness!” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night” at Arena Stage, and “Strange Interlude” at the Shakespeare Theatre Company), there will be many smaller productions, workshops and readings.
The festival begins with “Ah, Wilderness!” Set in 1906, it’s O’Neill’s most upbeat play, a lighthearted comedy that considers and sympathizes with young love.
| Onstage |
| ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ |
| Where: Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW |
| When: Through April 8 |
| Info: $40 to $85; 202-488-3300; arenastage.org |
Rick Foucheux, who celebrates 29 years of acting in D.C. this spring, plays the head of the Connecticut-based Miller family, which is planning its traditional Fourth of July festivities. “I love this play,” said Foucheux. “In reading it you might perhaps think that it’s just interesting and sweet and see why O’Neill is better known for his tragedies.
“But as soon as you start speaking it aloud, it really comes alive. I’m thrilled to being doing it at Arena, especially with ‘Long Day’s Journey’ in the next house. This is going to be a great opportunity to see these plays side by side. One is sort of a photographic negative of the other.”
In Foucheux’s view, O’Neill reflected a lot of himself in “Ah, Wilderness!” in the character of Richard, the 17-year-old son who is punished for reading the “subversive” Oscar Wilde. “I think we’re seeing a little of who O’Neill was as a teenager,” said Foucheux. “He was very into socialistic writing, he spent a lot of time in Greenwich Village in what served at the time as a counterculture.”
“Ah Wilderness!” will be directed by Kyle Donnelly and will also star Nancy Robinette, June Schreiner and William Patrick Riley.
In addition to his appearance in “Ah, Wilderness!” Foucheux will perform in “Begotten,” by Derek Goldman. “The centerpiece of it is a short O’Neill play, ‘Fog,’ ” said Foucheux. “It takes place in a lifeboat where two men survive after their ocean liner has crashed into an iceberg. The men look back over their lives and try to decide how they are going to survive. From there Derek has cobbled together some other notions from O’Neill’s biography and other plays to paint a picture of a very complicated man.”
Foucheux’s third project is the direction of readings of four early plays from the Glencairn Quartet.
“O’Neill speaks to me,” said Foucheux. “His words feel comfortable coming out of my mouth. I’m hoping that if I go on for the rest of my career doing O’Neill, that I’ll always have that feeling. Maybe I’m channeling him in some way.”
