Hughie / Shakespeare Theatre Company
In this short play by Eugene O’Neill, Richard Schiff plays
Erie Smith, a run-down, two-bit gambler whose luck has run out since the death
of Hughie, the night clerk at the cheap hotel where Erie stays.
The play is one long scene. Erie stumbles into the hotel in the middle of the night, on
the tail-end of a multi-day bender, and starts spinning stories at the new
Night Clerk, played by Randall Newsome.
This current Night Clerk smiles and nods, but couldn’t care less about
Erie or his exploits, and would prefer for Erie to go to bed and leave him
alone so that he can blankly wait out the night until his shift is over.
Through Erie’s meandering chatter over the rest of the
course of the play, we come to find out how much Hughie meant to him and how
telling his stories to Hughie made Erie feel more impressive and more
successful than he really is.
Erie’s joking, prodding, and generally talking at the Night Clerk slowly
wears the Clerk down, making him realize that he doesn’t have to just pass the
time, that maybe he can actually connect with Erie. The play ends on a hopeful note: perhaps with the new Night
Clerk, Erie can find friendship and meaning again and get over Hughie’s loss,
and perhaps the Clerk can become a bit more alive by rolling dice with Erie and
listening to his exaggerated tales of adventure.
Hughie works as
detailed character study of these three men: Erie, the Night Clerk, and the
never-seen Hughie. But it is also
a delicate exploration of the idea that we all need to be seen. We need to have someone to talk to at
the end of the day. Without
someone to hear our stories, without someone to perform for, without someone to
reflect ourselves back to us, who are we?
We are lost in the world.
Without witness. When Erie
loses Hughie, he loses himself.
I think this production, directed by Doug Hughes, could
well be the ideal performance of this play. Richard Schiff is excellent as Erie, making both his
grandiosity and vulnerability palpable, not to mention making O’Neill’s 1920s
slang-filled monologues actually seem natural and believable.
Hughes’s main addition to the play is to include a
voiceover reading part of O’Neill’s stage directions that explain what the
Night Clerk is actually thinking while he pretends to listen to Erie. The disjuncture adds some needed comic
relief and helps to flesh out the character of the Night Clerk.
Ticket prices for Hughie range from around $45 and go as high as $100 for a Saturday evening
show. With that, I do feel like it
has to be asked, is this incredibly well done but only 55 minute show worth
$100? Pricing and theatre
and evaluating ‘worth’ is a tricky game at best, but I do wonder why Hughie
couldn’t have been paired with another one
act (O’Neill or otherwise) to make a fuller evening? With my free press ticket,
the show got to be a delightful little morsel, a Sunday evening treat, of both
theatrical craft and a compelling idea.
But – if one had paid full price, I can see how they might walk away
frustrated at still being hungry.
 |
| Randall Newsome as Night Clerk and Richard Schiff as Erie Smith in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Hughie, directed by Doug Hughes. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
Runs Through March 17, 2013
STC, Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th
Street NW
http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/plays/details.aspx?id=347&source=l
Comments