Eugene O’Neill is one of the most famous American dramatists, and while his 1928 play Strange Interlude is not as well known today, it is still one of the most important, albeit quite controversial, works in his oeuvre.
The play opened January 30, 1928 and though it was almost 4.5 hours long (theatergoers were allowed a dinner break between acts 5 and 6, so the time commitment was actually more than 5 hours), it was an instant success. It ran for 17 months at the John Golden Theater on Broadway and then toured with two companies for three seasons. It was printed and sold 20,000 copies immediately. Critics at the time generally raved about it, considering it a major dramatic accomplishment, but modern critics often soured on its overwrought dialogue and themes of hereditary illness and eugenics.
O’Neill won his third Pulitzer Prize for Strange Interlude and it factored into his reception of the Nobel Prize in 1936. In 1932 the play was made into a movie starring Norma Shearer as Nina and Clark Gable as Ned Darrell. In 1963 an Actor’s Studio production was completed, and in 1988 a television version was released.
