The Sea Plays - Teh Long Voyage Home/Bound East for Cardiff/In the Zone

Synopsis

Amongst the sweaty, industrial claustrophobia of the merchant ship SS Glencairn we experience the realities, complexities and camaraderie of a life lived at sea in the early 20th century.

Our Review:

6 February 2012

Edmund, Eugene O’Neill’s cipher in A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, tells his bitter, layabout brother, "You've just told me some high spots in your memories. Want to hear mine? They're all connected with the sea."

With that late masterpiece poised to return to London, The Old Vic has chosen the perfect moment to revisit O’Neill’s very earliest works, where the sea is no friend to man, but rather the cruel backdrop for dashed hopes and wasted lives.

The Old Vic Tunnels are an ideal location for the short pieces, the first three of O’Neill’s Glencairne plays, which make up this evening of nautical nihilism. Each play visits the same crew of characters, though each drama is self-contained, and their presentation together allows for a sense of continuity to develop, as well as one of hopelessness.

Bound East for Cardiff is simple but moving tale of one man facing t...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 22 February 2012:

These three short early Eugene O’Neil plays, when played together as they are here, provide an evocative picture of seafaring life in the early 20th century. The Old Vic tunnels provide the perfect atmosphere, aided by harbour ‘installations’ (barrels and nets!) and men shovelling coal in a side tunnel as you enter. They’re far from O’Neill’s best work, but for anyone interested in this titan of modern drama, they’re a must-see. The first two plays are set at sea (so seamlessly in this production, I thought it was one play!). In the first, Bound East for Cardiff, the ship enters stormy waters resulting in the death of one of the crew. In the second, In the Zone, set at a time of war, a seaman who is ‘different’ is suspected of being a spy and as his true story is revealed he is broken. In the third play, The Long Voyage Home, we’re in a port bar where a naïve Swedish seaman is drugged and fleeced by the bar owner in collusion with a prostitute and assorted lowlife. They are slight stories but they do add up to something much more than the parts. They’re well staged by Kenneth Hoyt (the opening of the first is particularly thrilling) and well performed. You can almost smell the sea & the sweat and the characterisations are surprisingly deep given their short length. I was particularly impressed by the performances in the third play, with Amanda Boxer as a prostitute, Raymond M Sage as the Swedish seaman and Eddie Webber as Joe. The best of the three shows I’ve seen in the Old Vic Tunnels and well worth catching....

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