Hairy Ape, The

Eugene O'Neill is America's greatest playwright, and there is a powerful representation of his work at The Irish Rep on 22nd Street, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly: The Hairy Ape. It's a marvelous production on Eugene Lee's inspired, complex, brilliantly active set, with vivid lighting by Brian Nason and fine costuming by Linda Fisher.

Although the opening scene is filled with overwrought, scenery-chewing acting by the title character played by Greg Derelian and Gerald Finnegan as an old salt, the play settles in, and the physical action of the stokers, the grace of the beautiful Kerry Bishe, the stylized movement created for the Fifth-Avenue scene, the Wobbly scene, all combine to ultimately make this production an unforgettable theatrical event - because of the play itself, the action and Lee's set.