| Strange Interlude | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Eugene O'Neill |
| Characters | Edmund Darrell Gordon Evans Nina Leeds Sam Evans Prof. Henry Leeds Charles Marsden Madeline Arnold Mrs. Amos Evans |
| Date premiered | January 30, 1928 |
| Place premiered | John Golden Theatre |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | Small university town in New England; various places in New York |
Strange Interlude is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. It won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[1] Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to make extensive use of a soliloquy technique, in which the characters speak their inner thoughts to the audience.
O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925;[2] he wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and completed its text for publication in January 1928, during the final rehearsals for its premiere performance.[3] Strange Interlude opened on Broadway on January 30, 1928, with Lynn Fontanne in the central role of Nina Leeds. It was also produced in London at the Lyric Theatre in 1931. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927-1928.
Because of its length, around five to six hours if uncut, the play has sometimes been produced with a dinner break or on consecutive evenings. The play's themes – a woman's sexual affairs, mental illness, abortion, and deception over paternity – were controversial in the 1920s. It was censored or banned in many cities outside New York.
- ^ Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich. The Pulitzer Prize Century: All Winners and Their Merits, 1917-2016. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2017, p. 236. ISBN 978-3-643-90882-7
- ^ Floyd, Virginia, ed. Eugene O'Neill at Work. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1981, p. 68-69. ISBN 0-8044-2205-2
- ^ O'Neill, Eugene. Complete Plays 1920-1931. Travis Bogard, ed. New York: Library of America, 1988, p. 1080. ISBN 0-940450-49-6.