The time is 1828. Cornelius Melody owns a rundown tavern that his wife and daughter operate just outside of Boston. To maintain the illusion of grandeur, he keeps a fine horse that he cannot afford to feed, recites Bryon, and annually regales patrons with tales of his former glories on the battlefield. Realizing it is all a sham, he drowns his self-loathing in drink. His daughter Sara condemns her father’s bluster and her mother’s self sacrifice yet seems fated to follow in their footsteps.
Photos & Videos
Credits
Creative team
By
Eugene O’ Neill
Directed by
Joe Dowling
Set design by
Derek McLane
Set design by
Derek McLane
Derek McLane has designed over a dozen sets for the A.R.T., including Waiting for Godot, What the Butler Saw, The Caretaker, Heartbreak House, Hedda Gabler, Misalliance, The Homecoming, Twelfth Night, and The Father. He has collaborated with directors including Edward Albee, Gregory Boyd, Robert Brustein, Michael Engler, Michael Kahn, Mark Lamos, Nicholas Muni, Charlie Newell, Lisa Peterson, Jackson Phippin, Peter Sellars, Andrei Serban, Stephen Wadsworth, David Wheeler, and Stan Wojewodski. In New York he has designed for The Acting Company, Playwrights Horizons, LaMama/ETC, and the Juilliard School. Outside New York he has designed for Scottish Opera in Glasgow, The Taganka in Moscow, Canadian Opera, Alley Theatre, Arena Stage, Center Stage, the Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Yale Repertory Theatre.
Costume design by
Catherine Zuber
Costume design by
Catherine Zuber
Catherine Zuber has created the costumes for Richard II, The Doctor's Dilemma, and over forty other A.R.T. productions including Three Farces and a Funeral, Antigone, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, Phaedra, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Imaginary Invalid, The Taming of the Shrew, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Bacchae, Man and Superman, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, Woyzeck, The Wild Duck, The Naked Eye, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tartuffe, Ubu Rock, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Shlemiel the First, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, A Touch of the Poet, What the Butler Saw, The Cherry Orchard, and Orphée. Ms. Zuber's credits include work at Lincoln Center, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. Her Broadway credits include The Triumph of Love (Connecticut Critics Circle Award and Drama Desk nomination), Ivanov (Drama Desk nomination), The Sound of Music, Twelfth Night, The Red Shoes, London Assurance, The Rose Tattoo, and Philadelphia Here I Come. Ms. Zuber was the recipient of the 1997 Obie Award for sustained achievement in design. She is the costume designer for La Fête des Vignerons de 1999, the massive Festival of the Winegrowers in Vevey, Switzerland.
Lighting design by
Frances Aronson
Lighting design by
Frances Aronson
Frances Aronson's work at the American Repertory Theater includes Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Cherry Orchard (for which she received a Boston Theatre Award for 1994), Henry V, Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2, Hamlet, Dream of the Red Spider, The Homecoming, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. Recent work in New York includes Entertaining Mr. Sloane for CSC and Arts and Leisure for Playwrights Horizons. She designed Falsettos on Broadway and counts among her numerous off-Broadway credits Das Barbecu, Through the Leaves, Painting Churches, The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives, and The Dining Room. Her work is seen in resident theaters across the country. She received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Lighting Design.
Sound design by
Christopher Walker
Sound design by
Christopher Walker
Christopher Walker has composed music and designed sound for We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!, Phaedra, Beckett Trio: Eh Joe, Ghost Trio, and Nacht und Traüme, and An Evening of Beckett, and designed sound for The King Stag, Loot, The Idiots Karamazov, Ivanov, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, Valparaiso, The Taming of the Shrew, The Bacchae, The Wild Duck, Woyzeck, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Wild Duck, Alice in Bed, Slaughter City, Buried Child, Ubu Rock, The Threepenny Opera, The Accident, Demons, Waiting for Godot, The Oresteia, Hot 'n' Throbbing, The America Play, A Touch of the Poet, The Cherry Orchard, What the Butler Saw, and Those the River Keeps at the A.R.T. Previously he composed music and designed sound for productions at the Intiman Theatre, the Bathhouse Theatre, and the Alice B. Theatre. He also scores for dance and has composed for the Allegro Dance Festival, the Bumbershoot Festival, and On The Boards.
Cast
Mickey Maloy
Royal Miller
Mickey Maloy
Royal Miller
Jamie Cregan
Jack Willis
Jamie Cregan
Jack Willis
Jack Willis appeared as Hector Malone Sr. in Man and Superman, Carl in The Old Neighborhood, The Drum Major in Woyzeck, Bruto in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Relling in The Wild Duck in the American Repertory Theater's 1996-97 season. Previously, he appeared as Tilden in Buried Child, Caliban in The Tempest, the husband in The Accident, Man in Hot 'n' Throbbing, Jamie Cregan in A Touch of the Poet, Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard, Sir Walter Blunt in Henry IV, Part 1 and Lord Hastings in Part 2, Boss Mangan in Heartbreak House, Panin in Black Snow, Uyttersprot in Dream of the Red Spider, Aston in The Caretaker, Sal in Those the River Keeps, and Banquo in Macbeth. As a member of the resident company at the Dallas Theatre Center, his roles included Willie Stark in All the King's Men, Caliban in The Tempest, and Jack Henry Abbott in In the Belly of the Beast. He has also appeared at the Alliance Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Yale Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Teatro de Dallas, the San Antonio and Dallas Shakespeare Festivals, and Cincinnati Playhouse. Mr. Willis is also a founding member of Aruba Repertory. Television and film credits include Dallas, All My Children, Love Hurts, Problem Child, and I Come in Peace.
Sara Melody
Elizabeth Marvel
Sara Melody
Elizabeth Marvel
Nora Melody
Dearbhla Molloy
Nora Melody
Dearbhla Molloy
Cornelius Melody
Daniel J. Travanti
Cornelius Melody
Daniel J. Travanti
Dan Roche
Jeremy Geidt
Dan Roche
Jeremy Geidt
A.R.T. Senior Actor, founding member of the Yale Repertory Theatre and the A.R.T. Yale: more than 40 productions (including The Seagull). A.R.T.: 100 productions including The Seagull (three turns as Sorin), Julius Caesar, Three Sisters, The Onion Cellar, Major Barbara (Undershaft), Heartbreak House (Shotover), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Quince four times, Snug once), Henry IV (Falstaff), Twelfth Night (Toby Belch), The Caretaker (Davies), The Homecoming (Max), Loot (Truscott), Man and Superman (Mendoza/Devil), Waiting for Godot (Vladimir), The Threepenny Opera (Peacham/Petey), Ivanov (Lebedev), Three Sisters (Chebutkin), Buried Child (Dodge), The Cherry Orchard (Gaev) and The King Stag (Pantelone). Teaches at Harvard College, Harvard’s Summer and Extension Schools and at the A.R.T/MXAT Institute. Trained at the Old Vic Theatre School and subsequently taught there. Acted at the Old Vic, Young Vic, The Royal Court, in the West End, in films and television and has been hosting his own show “The Caravan” for the BBC for five years. Came to the U.S. with the satirical revue The Establishment and acted on and off Broadway, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and at the Lincoln Center Festival. Lectured on Shakespeare in India and the Netherlands Theatre School. Received the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Boston Actor and the Jason Robards Award for Dedication to the Theatre.
Paddy O'Dowd
Alvin Epstein
Paddy O'Dowd
Alvin Epstein
Alvin Epstein is a former artistic director of the Guthrie Theater and associate director of Robert Brustein's Yale Repertory Theatre. He has directed over twenty productions (five at the American Repertory Theater, including the inaugural A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1980) and performed in over one hundred (over fifty at the A.R.T.). His A.R.T. roles include Old Man in Lysistrata, the Herald in Marat/Sade, Dionisio Genoni in Enrico IV, John of Gaunt/First Gardener in Richard II, Erich Honecker in Full Circle, McLeavy in Loot, Shabelsky in Ivanov, and Lee Strasberg in Nobody Dies on Friday; Mr. Epstein has also appeared in The Doctor's Dilemma, Antigone, Three Farces and a Funeral, The Winter's Tale, Charlie in the House of Rue, The Merchant of Venice, In the Jungle of Cities, The Bacchae, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable), Slaughter City, Tartuffe, The Tempest, Beckett Trio, The Threepenny Opera, and Waiting for Godot, among many others. His twenty Broadway and off-Broadway productions include his debut with Marcel Marceau, the Fool in Orson Welles's King Lear, Lucky in the American premiere of Waiting for Godot, Clov in the American premiere of Endgame, Peachum in The Threepenny Opera (co-starring with Sting), and the world premiere of Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin's When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable). For twenty years he and Martha Schlamme performed A Kurt Weill Cabaret on tour in the U.S. and South America and a year's run on Broadway. He has performed at many resident theaters throughout the U.S., in films and on television. Awards include Most Promising Actor ('56 Variety Poll), Brandeis Creative Arts Award ('66), Obie for Dynamite Tonight! ('68), Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence ('96), and the IRNE Award for Best Supporting Actor as Shabelsky in Ivanov ('99). Mr. Epstein teaches acting at the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.
Patch Riley
Kevin Waldron
Patch Riley
Kevin Waldron
Deborah Harford
Margaret Gibson
Deborah Harford
Margaret Gibson
Nicholas Gadsby
Thomas Derrah
Nicholas Gadsby
Thomas Derrah
A.R.T.: 119 productions, including R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Myster) OF THE UNIVERSE (R. Buckminster Fuller), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider), Endgame (Clov), The Seagull (Dorn), Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for a New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), The Birthday Party (Stanley), Highway Ulysses (Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya), Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (23 roles). Off-Broadway: Johan Padan (Johan), Big Time (Ted). Tours with the Company across the U.S., with residencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and throughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan and Moscow, and has recently been performing Julius Caesar in France. Other: I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj, New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; five productions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs, directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S. Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and 2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award (for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’s Fire (PBS American Playhouse), "Unsolved Mysteries," "Del and Alex" (Alex, A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood), The Pink Panther II. He is on the faculty of the A.R.T. Institute, teaches acting at Harvard University and Emerson College, and is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.