The Iceman Cometh
by Eugene O'Neill
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Read in December, 2006
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Read in January, 1997
This is one of the richest plays, symbolically, of modern American theater. But like most if not all O'Neill plays, it is as interesting to read as it is to see on the stage. Lots of other plays of this era that are heavy on symbolism rely on the visual cues of the production to bring the meaning through, and therefore can seem remote and boring when reading them. (Unless you're a director perhaps, and particularly trained to read plays with an inner eye for staging them.) O'Neill really uses t...more
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Read in September, 2004
recommends it for:
Anyone who wants to act
I love this play. In 1992, I had an internship at the Huntington Theatre's literary department. That year my project was to look up everything about Long Day's Journey into Night (like the more recent 2003 production, our production also starred Robert Sean Leonard) After reading Long Day's Journey which reminded me of living in the Paquin household... I had to read more. I read all of his plays Beyond the Horizon, Mourning Becomes Electra, Ah wilderness! the Sea Plays, the Great God Brown... bu...more
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The iceman cometh - depressing. good and depressing. wait, really? i thought most plays written in 1939 were pretty upbeat!
It's no surprise that o'neill waited to put this play on broadway until 1946, although it's not up to me, nor is it my right to say whether or not the American audience could handle it at the time. It's also no surprise that Kevin Spacey played Hickey in a recent production of the play either. In fact, it's perfect.
Hickey is the only character who confronts himself by ...more
It's no surprise that o'neill waited to put this play on broadway until 1946, although it's not up to me, nor is it my right to say whether or not the American audience could handle it at the time. It's also no surprise that Kevin Spacey played Hickey in a recent production of the play either. In fact, it's perfect.
Hickey is the only character who confronts himself by ...more
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Read in May, 2002
Honestly, this play moves me in so many ways that I really want to give it a 5 star rating, except for the fact that in many cases it is dreadfully, irredeemably overwritten.
I tried to watch the movie which could boast of having Jason Robards and Robert Redford in it, but I got bored to death after the first 45 mins or so. I hate to say it but this one seems to be much much better when read privately rather than performed.
No slight to O'Neill, at least in terms of his writing (it co...more
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Read in November, 2007
I wouldn't say it's intoxicating, but reading this play feels kind of like drinking Scotch. It's warm, funny at first, and a kind of hard that's soft and sobering (if you can image that). As The Iceman Cometh you goeth on a metaphysical journey with some outcasts in the back of a bar at the beginning of the twentieth century. It made me love unlovable men, and I think it made my dreams a little bigger. The thing about reading plays though is you have to have a good imagination; you have to real...more
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Read in June, 2008
This was a quick-read, depressing tale of shattered dreams. Each character is multi-dimensional and while at first I despised them, I came to pity them. All the characters are hopelessly stuck, having given up on life completely and existing only by grace of their pipe dreams--the various ways they've conjured up past or future glory, finding meaning anywhere but here, anytime but now. Good naturedly, they tease each other but each knows that his existence continues only by virtue of his fel...more
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"What's it matter if the truth is that their favorite breeze has the stink of nickel whiskey on its breath, and their sea is a growler of lager and ale, and their ships are long since looted and scuttled and sunk to the bottom? To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It's irrelevant and immaterial as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober. And that's enough p...more
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The most psemistic play of O'Neill(1939), ... in 1946, at opening eve of the play in NY, O'Neill said: If human being has yet not understood the bible where it says; seizing the whole world means loosing your soul (something like that!) then let's leave the humanity in the first sink, at least ants can enjoy it!(does it make sense? Well, sorry, it's been ages since I've read this sentences and I don't have them in front of me!)
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Read in March, 2007
I guess his use of American dialect must have been revolutionary for the time, but it just wears thin here... it's basically Chekhov with a whole lot less subtlety. Way too much repetition of key ideas and phrases - "pipe dreams", the whole iceman motif, etc. Some payoff, but just not that great in the end.
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Read in December, 2003
Definitely one of those that is better the second time around. I did some research after I read it the first time. The prevailing theme of the play is that people's dreams however farfetched they may be sustain them. Crushing those dreams is literally and figuratively fatal. That theme struck a chord.
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Read in January, 2004
Overly theatrical and stilted, and more than a bit repetitive, but at the same time poetic and warm. O'Neill might have noted that having one's illusions shattered can actually be a good thing, however difficult the process.
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Read in December, 2006
perhaps the most exceptional american playwright ever (though lorraine hansberry & august wilson come damn close). harry hope, hickey, you'll recognize a little bit of everytown in this dramatic masterpiece.
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Read in January, 1996
I hate Eugene O'Neill's writing style. His dialogue is so stilted, it's impossible to believe it. However, his plotlines are smart, and I like the charcters he creates, particularly here.
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Give up that old pipedream. Its the only way to find peace and happiness.
Though, that old pipedream might just be what stands between you and the peace of the grave.
Or a jail cell.
Though, that old pipedream might just be what stands between you and the peace of the grave.
Or a jail cell.
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One of O'Neill's finest works. It's at once funny and tragic. A LOT of stage directions, make it a bit of a bore at times, unless like me you really enjoy reading plays.
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Read in January, 2006
Another heartbreaking one (O'Neill was a depressing guy), but one of my favorite plays. What I wouldn't give to have seen the version with Kevin Spacey.
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recommends it for:
Literature buffs.
This was incredibly hard to read as an undergraduate! It seems funny, yet it's also grim becaise it's about the impossibilities of "progress."
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I didn't read the entire play. I read excerpts. I was also lucky enough to see Kevin Spacey star in the London production of it in 1997.
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This play is amazing, it describes so many dysfunctional family members! Ohhhh, the pipedream, when will humanity learn to abandon it?
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