The Iceman Cometh"We live and die, in the spirit, in solitude, and the true strength of Iceman is its intense dramatic exemplification of that somber reality. . . . Life, in Iceman, is what it is in Schopenhauer: illusion."--from the foreword by Harold Bloom The Iceman Cometh focuses on a group of alcoholics and misfits who endlessly discuss but never act on their dreams, and Hickey, the traveling salesman determined to strip them of their pipe dreams. Eugene O'Neill--the first American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in literature--completed Iceman in 1939, but he delayed production until after the war, when it enjoyed a long run of performances in 1946 after receiving mixed reviews. Three years after O'Neill's death, Jason Robards starred in a Broadway revival that brought new critical attention to O'Neill's darkest and most nihilistic play. Since then, The Iceman Cometh has gained enormously in stature; many critics now recognize it as one of the greatest plays in American drama. |
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ain't anyway Aw right back room bastard Bejees booze bottle boys bughouse bums CECIL LEWIS chair CHUCK comes CORA crazy d'yuh Dat's dead dey'd door dough drink drunk dump EUGENE O'NEILL Evelyn eyes facing front feel fool forget giggles give a damn glad glance glass goes goin grabs hand harold bloom Harry Hope Harry's head hell Hello HICKEY Grins Hickey's HOPE's HUGO Iceman Cometh JAMES CAMERON Jees JIMMY TOMORROW JOE MOTT joke keep LARRY laugh leedle LEWIS Limey listen look lousy MARGIE MCGLOIN MORAN MOSHER never nuttin O'Neill O'Neill's OBAN outa Paradise Alley PARRITT pauses-then peace PEARL pimp pipe dream pity Poil rear ROCKY Aw sardonic scared shakes sits sleep stares stinko Sure T. S. Eliot teetotal tell there's tink tone trink turns voice WETJOEN What's whiskey WILLIE Yuh'd yuh're