S.S. Glencairn

S.S. Glencairn (1924), four short plays by Eugene O'Neill. [Provincetown Playhouse, 105 perf.] The four one‐acts, each of which had been seen earlier in various venues, were combined and given the title of the tramp steamer where the characters worked. In BOUND EAST FOR CARDIFF (1916), seaman Yank ( Sidney Machet) is critically injured in a fall. Although his shipmates attempt to offer him solace, they all recognize that he is dying. Yank can only respond that “this sailor life ain't much to cry about leaving” and in the end death comes to him as a vision of “a pretty lady dressed in black.” IN THE ZONE (1917) concerns Smitty ( E. J. Ballantine), whose mates on the S.S. Glencairn see him furtively remove a little black box from his suitcase, and they conclude he may be a spy. They bind and gag him, then rummage through his belongings until they find the box. Its contents prove to be letters from an old sweetheart who left him because of his drinking. In the atmospheric piece THE MOON OF THE CARIBBEES (1918), the ship is anchored off a West Indies island and the crew await the arrival of the Negress Bella ( Mary Johns), with her girls and her smuggled rum. When the girls arrive, one of them, Pearl ( Ruth Collins Allen), flits teasingly between Yank and the more reticent Smitty. Eventually a fight ensues, and one sailor is stabbed to death. The women are finally made to leave the ship, and the sailors, alone on the deck, have nothing to do but listen to the lonely singing coming from the island. Generally considered the finest play of the group, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (1917) is set in Fat Joe's sleazy bar on the London waterfront, where the crew of the S.S. Glencairn is drinking. Olson ( Walter Abel) tells the others of his joy to be finished with the sea and of his plans to go home to Sweden. But his joy is short‐lived, for he is given a mickey and shanghaied aboard the Amindra, bound for Cape Horn. The Amindra, he notes before he passes out, is the “worst ship dat sail to sea.” The quartet of plays represents O'Neill's finest writing before he successfully essayed longer dramas.