Typical of Sean Graney's work, the new production of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape" is impressive in the way that his art design always reflects the themes of the work so precisely. Having seen a number of shows in the Owen (the black box) at the Goodman, I was delighted to see a different use of the space. Graney recognized the potential of the space and put it to good use. Most other productions just use a lot of resources to make an impressive set. Graney, with more resources than is typically available to the Hypocrites, does not forgo meaning for spectacle. While the set looks wonderful, it's the spectacular use of the structural space that impresses.
The theater is rearranged so that the seats are where the stage typically is and the inside entrance of the theater is used for the set. Graney puts the physical structure of the entrance to good use. The ground floor becomes the bowels of the ship, the balcony the men's sleeping quarters, and the very top tier the ship's deck, where the passengers are both physically and metaphorically above the men who make the ship go, the subject of the play. Not only are the structural elements of the space made to serve the needs of the play but it also supports the themes, as reflected in the woman on deck being high up. At the end of the play Graney accuses the audience of being hairy apes. That reversal of roles is, of course, also reflected in the staging.
The play's plot involves a man who shovels coal into the boat's furnaces, allowing the boat movement. At the opening of the play he's happy with his position, believing that he allows everything that happens on the boat to happen through his work. His comrades present various ways of viewing their situation -- from Marxist social theory to personal comparisons made through memory. Yank, the protagonist of the play, laugh at their views of the world. He seems to suggest that he's the one in control and there's no need for complaining. When a young woman who imagines that she cares about the poor comes down to the broiler room and encounters Yank, she's repulsed and asks to be taken away. having been seen as an ape, Yank now sees himself similarly and he wants revenge.
The farther down the path to vengeance Yank gets the less articulate he becomes, more like an ape. Although he had seen himself as being above the rest of the world before, we see that he knows little about the world of Manhattan. His naivete leads to his inability to insult the denizens of 5th Ave. and to gain admittance into the radical group that would allow him his revenge. He ends up in a prison, a cage created by the merchants of industry, and eventually a zoo. At this point, Graney reworks the original script in a way implicates the audience, among other things that I won't mention.
Graney's production seems very matter-of-fact to me. It's a nicely unified production with information that is out out there rather than interpreted. I'm left with a number of questions, which are clearly raised in the play but a point of view, at least in thinking about it 18 hours later, are yet unanswered. For example, does Yank become an ape because he doesn't have tools to help him deal with the conditions of his life? He has neither a social theory than can help contain him not cherished memories to accomplish the same. Has he always been an ape and only now recognizing it, something that the production suggests is true of the audience? Or does the act of being seen generative? Perhaps Graney's point is to leave these questions unanswered, perhaps he answered them and I missed it, or perhaps he's not concerned with them at all. Whatever the answer, there is a lot to keep you occupied and an exciting and surprising production.
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