Eugene O'Neill's Hairy Ape and Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty Stage Opposite Working-Class Endings
New York theaters present two rarely performed dramas that contrast the fate of a coal stoker crushed by a gorilla with taxi drivers who vote to strike.
By John Wisniewski ·
Eugene O'Neill’s The Hairy Ape and Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty offer starkly different visions of labor struggle in two New York productions running this season. Both plays address economic inequality, yet they arrive at opposite conclusions regarding the fate of the working class. One ends with a collective decision to stop work, while the other concludes with an individual’s physical destruction.
Irish Repertory Theatre presents a revival of O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape, directed by Ciaran O’Reilly. This marks O’Reilly’s first return to the play in two decades. Jon Beavers stars as Yank, a coal stoker who finds purpose in the ship’s engine room. His sense of power collapses after Mildred, the wealthy daughter of the ship’s owner, recoils in disgust during a visit to the furnace room. Humiliated, Yank travels to Manhattan seeking belonging but is rejected by society at every turn.
The production utilizes the compact stage to create an environment of smoke and fire-lit machinery. The crew’s synchronized shoveling suggests workers trapped within a mechanical system, while the wealthy characters wear sparkling full-face masks. Beavers portrays Yank’s volatile rage as he navigates a city that offers him no place. His conflict with the Industrial Workers of the World culminates at a zoo, where a gorilla crushes him to death. The play runs through December 6 at 132 W. 22nd St.
Classic Stage Company stages a new interpretation of Odets’ Waiting for Lefty, directed by Steven Pasquale. It is Pasquale’s directorial debut. The play follows New York taxi drivers debating a strike while awaiting their union leader, Lefty Costello. Their meeting is interrupted by vignettes depicting the hardships of workers’ lives, including a family losing its furniture and a young couple abandoning wedding plans due to poverty.
Pasquale integrates original music, folk songs, and protest anthems such as Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? into the performance. The ensemble combines acting with expressive dance, transforming the thrust space into a union hall with house lights on. The added musical elements create an abstract quality, though the narrative vignettes remain sharp. The production runs through November 29 at 136 E. 13th St.
The two productions highlight a divergence in how labor conflicts resolve. In Odets’ work, the drivers vote to strike, a decision that aims to foster shared solidarity. In O’Neill’s drama, Yank dies alone after being crushed by a gorilla, reflecting a more bleak outcome. The scenes of financial strain in Waiting for Lefty remain immediately recognizable to modern audiences, even as the prospect of successful union action may feel more distant.
These works are distinct in their execution. The Hairy Ape relies on physical staging and character intensity to convey its message of exclusion. Waiting for Lefty employs music and dance to structure the narrative, though some added elements feel less integral to the plot. Both plays place working people against powerful forces, but they end in different places: one with a collective vote, the other with a solitary death.
Source: amNY
