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Thirst
1913
O'Neill's small melodrama of the Dancer, the Gentleman, and the Sailor
cast away on a raft surrounded by sharks on a tropical sea was an early
attempt at a mood piece in the style later perfected in The Moon of
the Caribbees. The mood is reduced to absurdity as the three
characters in turn fall off the raft's edge to become shark bait. What
little interest the play has is in the use of a chant — a charm against
the sharks — hummed by the West Indian sailor. The role in the first
production of the play at Provincetown in 1916 was taken by O'Neill
himself. (Legend has it that he was cast because he had an adequate tan
for the role.) What song he sang is unknown. He also required himself to
sing "A happy Negro melody that mocks the great silence" of the
deserted sea. The Dancer is required to sing a fragment of a British
music hall song.
The chant
suggested for The Moon of the Caribbees will serve for the
Sailor's chant. "Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road," called for in The
Iceman Cometh, is a British music hall ballad. |
