A Feel for O’Neill

“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” Those are the words of the great American playwright Eugene O’Neill, from his play The Great God Brown. And in Lazarus Laughed, quoth he: “Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.”...

By Susan Froyd

February 18, 2010

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“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” Those are the words of the great American playwright Eugene O’Neill, from his play The Great God Brown. And in Lazarus Laughed, quoth he: “Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.”

Maybe all you really need to do in order to understand O’Neill is listen to his own words, but if you think you might need assistance, company members from the Buntport and Paragon troupes have some answers. In an unusual collaboration, the two local theater ensembles are producing coinciding plays – Paragon’s straight production of O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey Into Night and Buntport’s The World Is Mine, a quasi-fictional take on how that play came to be written. Now, both groups, along with a panel of theater experts, will gather to discuss the dark side of genius at Born Broken: The Life and Works of Eugene O'Neill, a program hosted by the Denver Public Library’s Fresh City Life cultural series.

Get your O’Neill on: The discussion takes place tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Level B2 Conference Center at the Denver Central Library, 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway, and admission is free; get details at www.denverlibrary.org/fresh or call 720-865-1206.
Mon., Feb. 22, 6:30-8 p.m., 2010

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Susan Froyd started writing for Westword as the "Thrills" editor in 1992 and never quite left the fold. These days she still freelances for the paper in addition to walking her dogs, enjoying cheap ethnic food and reading voraciously. Sometimes she writes poetry.

Contact: Susan Froyd

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