The Hairy Ape

Matteo Scammell and Ensemble

EgoPo Classic Theater is wowing audiences with its final production of the season, Eugene O’Neill’s here-to-fore little known The Hairy Ape. It can be experienced at The Latvian Society, 531 North 7^th Street through April 26. O’Neill was considered to be one of the first playwrights to create characters that are trapped on the fringe of society and Matteo Scammell, as Yank, offers us a profoundly moving picture of such a character. “You don’t belong but I do,” he fumes to anyone who will listen; the upper-class daughter of a steel magnate, an older member of the firemen crew, a union rep for the working class, animals in the zoo. "You don't belong but I do," and yet, as he begrudgingly discovers, he doesn’t.  This production is a very physical and challenging one not only for Yank, but for the entire ensemble as well.   From climbing up poles to acrobatics on stage, everyone displays clear talent. Members of the audience are also fiercely tested, as they become engrossed in the hushed whispers and quiet singing of the ensemble, only to be forced to shift gears when presented with drunken comradery and raucous squabbling below the bowels of the ship. Through it all, the one remaining constant is Yank’s abysmal solitude and his inability to change society’s views of him. Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape has rarely been seen. Don’t miss your opportunity to see the gem that EgoPo has produced.  For more information or tickets, call 267-273-1414 or visit online at www.egopo.org. 

EgoPo's American Giants Festival

Following its tradition of year-long themed theater productions, EgoPo has announced its 2014-15 season as the American Giants Festival in which the company will present theatrical giants and their examination of the American dream. The season begins with celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Arthur Miller by producing his iconic Death of a Salesman, and continues with Tennessee Williams’ Stairs to the Roof and Eugene O’Neil’s The Hairy Ape.  EgoPo will examine what the American dream is today and whether class barriers deny the dream for some or for all.  The first production, Death of a Salesman, is set in 1940 in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn where audience members will find themselves attending Willy Loman’s Shiva. Willy Loman, portrayed by Ed Swidley, can readily be recognized by last year’s audiences of Gint and Lady from the Sea.  Stairs to the Roof is a rarely seen early play written by Tennessee Williams.  It examines the inner life of an office clerk who dreams of a higher purpose in life. Eugene O’Neil was one of the first writers to focus on characters who live on the fringe of society.  The Hairy Ape takes the audience into the lower regions of a luxury ship where a coal stoker has a chance encounter with a rich heiress and sees himself through her eyes, subsequently destroying his sense of self. All three shows can be seen at The Latvian Society, 531 North 7^th Street.  Death of a Salesman will run from October 24-November 9. Stairs to the Roof will run from February 13-March 1 and The Hairy Ape will run from April 10-26.