Eugene O’Neill’S Abortion and Standard Family Roles

Abstract

A bortion made its stage debut in New York in 1959, six years after Eugene O’Neill’s death. It was not a critical success. Arthur Gelb, who would go on to coauthor O’Neill’s biography with his wife Barbara Gelb, reported in The New York Times, “There are several good reasons why the so-called ‘Lost Works’ of Eugene O’Neill have never been done before in New York. The production of three of them at the Key Theatre last night does not invalidate any of these reasons.”1 The Key Theatre production eliminated the suicide of the hero Jack Townsend, prompting Gelb to complain, “What was needed was more shooting, not less.”2 This response matched those of critics nearly a decade earlier. When New Fathoms Press revived a collection of O‘Neill’s one-act plays, including Abortion, in 1950, reviewers regretted that O‘Neill’s wishes to let the plays fall into obscurity were not respected.3 One reviewer thought it would be an understatement to call its publication “reprehensible and shameful”4 while another commented, “I feel sorry for anyone who thinks he has a treat in store for him.”5 KeywordsIndividual TalentAmerican DramaLost WorkSaturday ReviewMaternal InstinctThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.