A Moon for the Misbegotten by Mark Robbins (review)

A Moon for the Misbegottenopened in Columbus, Ohio, in 1947, under the auspices of the Theatre Guild as part of an abortive national tour meant to culminate on Broadway. The play soon came under assault from critics and spectators who lambasted it as a crude valorization of a libidinous drunkard wallowing in a sexually charged relationship with an unmarried woman even as he mourned the passing of his mother. The Detroit venue canceled its engagement following the police department's denunciation of the play as "obscene" and "a slander of American motherhood" (qtd. in Gelb and Gelb, By Women Possessed: A Life of Eugene O'Neill[2016], 644).

Controversy was of course not new for O'Neill, whose work had long been under attack from reviewers, peers, and audiences but whose nuanced investigations of the psychological and emotional complexity of his characters remain the signature attribute of his dramaturgy. The Kansas City Actors Theatre's production generated a bit of controversy from a local reviewer who branded the production "troubled" in the context of misogyny and the ethics of high-canonical scheduling (Liz Cook, The Pitch, Sept. 20, 2018); but the company honored and illuminated O'Neill's complexity, thanks to a strong cast, an excellent design team, and the poignant direction of Mark Robbins. Ashley Pankow and Brian Paulette brought an electric connection to the play's central characters. Their Josie Hogan and Jamie Tyrone were deeply human and commanded the stage with all the subtlety that the play warrants. Pankow struck an uncanny balance between Josie's "brazen and brass" exterior and the vulnerability and sensuality lurking beneath: she weaponizes drink and sexuality while casting a spell over her counterpart. Indeed, Pankow anchored the production with a mix of power and grace that proved to be a fitting complement to Paulette's wonderfully understated Tyrone, whose distraught amalgam of self-loathing, drunken shame, and emotional emptiness was palpably apparent. Nowhere was this complexity more beautifully presented than the self-punishing aria in which Tyrone searches for psychological and emotional resolution after his "Mama's" death: "I know I ought to be heartbroken but I [can't] feel anything …. She's dead. What does she care now if I cry or not, or what do I do?" Paulette weaved his way through Tyrone's pained remembrance with ease and dignity while Pankow cradled him in her arms under an appropriately rendered moonlit set, the work of designers Shane Rowse (lighting) and Gary Mosby (scenic), whose contributions supported the performances through a poetic realism that echoed the dramatic imagination of O'Neill's erstwhile collaborator Robert Edmond Jones. Jon Robertson's haunting soundscape and Emily Stovall's detailed costumes completed KCAT's fully realized production.

Robbins's staging was telling in its simplicity, as allowing the actors to command the space through organically expressed action. Victor Raider-Wexler's charming Hogan led a strong supporting cast. The troupe's mastery of Irish dialects and O'Neill's poetic prose was especially impressive. From Pankow's opening moments with Charlie Spillers (Mike Hogan) to Raider-Wexler's lighthearted exchanges with Chris Roady's T. Stedman Harder, the evening was steadily paced to Josie's final—if problematic—offering to her beloved Tyrone: "May you have your wish and die in your sleep soon, Jim, darling. May you rest forever in forgiveness and peace."

A Moon for the Misbegotten's ending suggests redemption for O'Neill's emotionally torn protagonist. Yes, as the aforementioned reviewer charged, Tyrone is a "philanderer" and perhaps "a sad-sack aspiring rapist with Mommy issues." And I concur in the critic's observation that theatre professionals bear responsibility for selecting and presenting material that reflects the values and identities of our increasingly diverse population. But the winner of four Pulitzers and a Nobel is not so easily dismissed, and balancing contemporary and familiar offerings is surely part of a repertory theatre's charge. Locals can take pride in the fine...