Great God Brown, The

Great God Brown, The (1926), a play by Eugene O'Neill. [Greenwich Village Theatre, 271 perf.] William A. Brown ( William Harrigan) and Dion Anthony ( Robert Keith) are the sons of business partners and will soon take over the business. Both men love Margaret ( Eleanor Wesselhoeft), but she chooses Dion, although it is not the real Dion she elects, not the tortured, sensitive, and artistic Dion but rather the Dion of the mocking, cynical mask. Indeed, when Dion briefly removes his mask in a moment of ecstatic passion, Margaret is revolted. Dion retires from the business partnership, fails in his attempt to become a painter, returns as Brown's employee, but soon withers and dies. Taking Dion's mask, Brown also takes his place as Margaret's husband, until the deception is revealed. By that time the real, inner Brown has languished. When Brown is accused of murdering his true self, only the prostitute, Cybel ( Anne Shoemaker), who wears no mask, comforts him. Years after both men's deaths, Margaret looks back and swears eternal love to Dion, or at least to Dion's mask. “From passages of winged poetry he shifts quickly to mordant irony,” Brooks Atkinson noted of O'Neill's writing, continuing, “from the abstract he passes to the concrete without missing a beat.” Although many playgoers were baffled by the expressionistic work, in which the actors often spoke from behind masks, enough were intrigued to give the production a surprising commercial success. The play is reputed to have been O'Neill's own favorite among his works. A 1959 revival was unsuccessful, but a New Phoenix Repertory Company production in 1972 was generally commended.