Hughie

by Eugene O'Neill

In this previously unpublished work Eugene O'Neill returned to an earlier form with which he had experimented—the one-act play. Only two characters appear on stage; Hughie, the third and most important one, is dead. It is Hughie's innocence, gullibility, and need to believe in a far more exciting existence than he ever knew which gives some kind of purpose to the shabby lives of the two who remain. O'Neill here again writes of the defeated and the courage that comes by way of illusions reflecting still other illusions in a world that needs them all.

Hughie, the only surviving manuscript from a series of eight one-act monologue plays that O'Neill planned in 1940, was completed in 1941.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama, Fiction

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

American playwright Eugene Gladstone O'Neill authored Mourning Becomes Electra in 1931 among his works; he won the Nobel Prize of 1936 for literature, and people awarded him his fourth Pulitzer Prize for Long Day's Journey into Night , produced in 1956.

He won his Nobel Prize "for the power, honesty and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy." More than any other dramatist, O'Neill introduced the dramatic realism that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg pioneered to Americans and first used true American vernacular in his speeches.

His plays involve characters, who, engaging in depraved behavior, inhabit the fringes of society, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately slide into disillusionment and despair. O'Neill wrote Ah, Wilderness! , his only comedy: all his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyman tells fibs to hide the disappointment and emptiness of life ... but nobody cares.

[Hunter Storm · Rating 4 out of 5]

very short but good scene with only 2 characters , 1 star removed for the first dialogue in the book being “ ——-s the name, I’m an old timer in this fleabag “

[Ruth Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

What was most interesting to me about this play is that the majority of events happen within one characters head, sitting under the surface hiding unless one pays specific attention. I found the meaning of the play in much the same way—I had to contemplate for a little while to work out what O’Neill wanted to say and how I felt about it. Overall it was well written, with good prose, and interesting characters.

[John Dishwasher John Dishwasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

According to “Hughie,” one of the principal motivators for us modern human beings is to escape the ‘deadness’ of our existence. Mainly we do this, O’Neill shows, by seeking out drama. It seems that as some personalities provide that drama for others they make 'suckers' of them -- by toying with them, or exploiting them; as the main character of this single scene play tries to do as he talks to a hotel clerk in the middle of the night. However, such providers of drama are totally dependent for their own drama upon the people to whom they are providing drama, since they get their drama from providing it. So O’Neill seems to be showing that the biggest ‘suckers’ are those who think they are actually ‘suckering.’ And he frankly calls the whole dynamic a big futile ‘racket.’

As a writer, I suppose I would be among the sorts trying to provide the drama. And I can attest that doing so is mostly how I bring ‘drama’ into my own life. But probably all of us play both of these roles at different times for different people, making all of us both suckers and suckerers. Definitely some kind of racket.

[Fr. Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if this is a play worth the effort of producing or not, but to sit and read, it's definitely worth it. Very short, and the stage directions are ridiculous (in a good way) and laugh-out-loud hilarious. It's ennui, but it only happens in the actor's head, so it would take a person with real emotive talent to project it in mere facial expressions. Fun.

[Nick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eugene O’Neill’s late work tended to be big baggy shapeless things that often confused their first audiences. The Iceman Cometh and A Moon for the Misbegotten, for instance, flopped on their first production and it was not until a more sympathetic staging years later that they clicked into an understandable shape. Hughie is a small baggy shapeless thing. A one act play with two actors. One largely listens (or doesn’t listen) while the other talks. Erie Smith is a wise guy, a petty gambler, who returns to his hotel after a drunk – he talks, the night clerk listens (or doesn’t). Erie is mourning the previous night clerk Hughie who has recently died. That’s all the action there is. Erie talks of Hughie in a superior way: he’s the wise guy, Hughie was the sucker, but it becomes obvious that Hughie validated Erie: it was with Hughie that Erie could impress, feel a success. It’s not a long play, just an exploration of a character, a marginal figure trying to bolster his self importance. (And it has some ridiculous stage directions, informing the reader what the night clerk is dreaming about.) I imagine the success of a production will depend greatly on the actor playing Erie: to keep the audience’s attention it would need a virtuoso performance. Either a minor work or a vivid miniature.

[William West]

Oh boy, is this an O’Neill play! Does a character deliver a monologue while sobering from an epic bender in which they gradually come face to face with the full, tawdry emptiness of human existence? You bet they do!

“Hughie” was one of the last pieces O’Neill lived to write. I previously was familiar only with his earlier, more famous pieces. They are all filled with pathos and darkness but one senses that O’Neill’s take on the world only hardened with age. In the earlier work, there are glimmers of light when the characters reveal some real affection and/or sense of connection with each other. In this short work, the only use humans seem to have for one another is to momentarily deny their own wretched condition, which usually, perhaps necessarily, takes the form of a predatory relation.

[Theodore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much an influence on the zoo story and the dumb waiter. It’s a good read but it needs to be staged I feel to get the right experience.

[SK Zaheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good 2 character play... its on Youtube also - https://youtu.be/u_xgPzqp1lI?si=fShmx...

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short play but one that certainly demonstrates at least some of the tragedy of the American everyman almost as well as Death of a Salesman.

[Teemu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two lonely bastards, one of them trying to impress the other, the other just trying to get by. Both are desperately needing each other but are two men able to admit needing someone? That's tricky. Somehow Hughie is spot on description of male friendships where there's much more show and pretence than there's actual friendship.

The play is also quite beautifully constracted in how it is basically one long monologue, but it still isn't: there's the other characters whose response - or refusal to response - is key to the play. Shame O'Neill wasn't able to finish the other intended one-act plays of his planned On the Way to Orbit cycle.

I'm going to act on this this Spring, perhaps. In the smaller role.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

O'Neil created many memorably horrible characters. Most were sympathetic in that you understood their misery, but they still did horrible things to others and to themselves. HUGHIE is a little version of this, a one act whose behavior messes up others who we do not meet on stage, and so we have more sympathy for Hughie. I am much better off without people like him or O’Neil’s other horrible characters in my life; we all are. This is not O'Neil best essay on such characters. LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN, and THE ICEMAN COMETH have more range and depth, but it is useful for contrasting O'Neil's approach in small.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, not surprising that the current run on Broadway with Forest Whitaker in the lead for box office draw has announced it is closing 10 weeks earlier due to poor advance ticket sales... charging full Broadway ticket prices for a 65 minute one act show is gouging, in my opinion...despite having a star ... at least if the play was amazing, then ok, but this script is, ultimately, boring... and not a draw, no matter who the star is... I am assuming that the O'Neill's Long Day's Journey coming this spring with Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne and Michael Shannon will be more of a success ...

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wanna-be high roller regales his tales (some partly true, most entirely bullshit) and reminisces of the recently deceased night clerk, Hughie, to the new, tired, and uninterested night-clerk at the down and out Manhattan hotel where he resides in the late 20's. An entertaining and short one act play chock full of 1920's slang and colloquialisms. Although it was published after 'The Iceman Cometh,' it seems to continue on a similar train of thought.

[Rod · Rating 3 out of 5]

We create a world of pipe dreams to stave off the darkness, yes? Hughie, though he never makes an appearance onstage, is quite the interesting character, however. What did he really think of Erie? Did he hold real compassion for him? Wish I could see the current production with Forrest Whittaker.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a really bad one-act. It's a waste of time. Nothing happens.

[Anna Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felt this needed a deeper understanding so found some Al Pacino clips on YouTube,1996 Broadway, and click!

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never read a Eugene O'Neill play before this one. I enjoyed the grit and badinage, and the interior monologue of the hotel clerk was a great detail that would not be experienced if one saw the play performed live. I give it a B+.