Photo Flash: Goodman Theatre Presents HUGHIE/KRAPP'S LAST TAPE
By: Gabrielle Sierra Jan. 21, 2010
Two-time Tony Award-winner Brian Dennehy has thrilled Chicago audiences in unforgettable productions over the past two decades-Desire Under the Elms, Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh and Death of a Salesman; now, his portrayal of contrasting roles in the double-bill of Hughie by Eugene O'Neill and Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett is "sheer theatrical dynamite" (Toronto Star). First, Goodman Artistic Director Robert Falls directs Hughie, featuring Dennehy as the wise-cracking, down-on-his-luck gambler Erie Smith, and Joe Grifasi as night clerk Charlie Hughes. Then, in "a transformation of extraordinary stature" (Associated Press), Dennehy becomes the title character in Beckett's classic one-man show, Krapp's Last Tape, helmed by award-winning Canadian director Jennifer Tarver. Hughie/Krapp's Last Tape runs January 16 - February 21, 2010 at the Goodman's Albert Theatre.
Tickets are $25 - $83 and can be purchased online at www.GoodmanTheatre.org, at the box office (170 North Dearborn) or by phone at 312.443.3800. Special thanks to the sponsors who made these productions possible: ComEd is the Official Lighting Sponsor; American Express is the Major Corporate Sponsor; and KPMG LLP and Motorola Foundation are the Corporate Sponsor Partners. Additional support was provided by the Goodman Directors Season Sponsors and Producers Circle Sponsors.
"The coupling of Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape creates a resonant, eloquent showcase of the finest work by three master artists of the theater: Eugene O'Neill, Samuel Beckett and Brian Dennehy, my longtime collaborator and friend," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "These plays are mini-masterpieces; both are leavened by the black Irish humor that was the heritage of each author, and both offer incomparable challenges to an actor-which Brian negotiates with thrilling artistry. I am happy to welcome Jennifer Tarver to the Goodman for the first time, to recreate her successful production of Krapp's Last Tape that she directed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival two seasons ago, and to welcome back Joe Grifasi, who so brilliantly plays our night clerk in Hughie."
This production marks Dennehy and Falls' fourth production of Hughie, an intense, intimate character study composed late in the playwright's career, and their sixth O'Neill collaboration in two decades.
"O'Neill's plays are about ideas, written for people who like to think. As an actor, you can never let go of his plays; you're never finished," said Dennehy, an accomplished artist of stage and screen. "This production is very important to me; when an actor's own life dovetails with the themes of a play, it becomes personal. But what's most important is that at the end of the experience, the audience realizes the play is not about me, the playwright, or the director; it's about them."
In Hughie, high-rolling gambler Erie (Brian Dennehy) and Hughie, the credulous night clerk at a single-occupancy hotel, were confidants. Hughie admired Erie for his bold lifestyle and Erie considered Hughie his good luck charm. When Hughie dies unexpectedly, Erie's luck changes for the worse and he finds himself in dire straits. Then Erie meets the new night clerk (Joe Grifasi), who reminds him enough of Hughie that he takes the gamble that his luck is about to change. Krapp's Last Tape is Samuel Beckett's classic one-act, one-man show. Every year on his birthday, Krapp (Brian Dennehy) records the important-and the banal-moments of the last year. As he prepares to record a new tape on his 69th birthday, he begins to listen to his archives. This immersion in his own history leads Krapp to question, with growing regret, whether his present lives up to his past.
Photo credit: Liz Lauren
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