Finished: Ah, Wilderness (O'Neill). I thought I'd try out what is supposed to be Eugene O'Neill's "funny" play, and it was pretty good. I really wanted to read another play of his after seeing his summer house. And, the house is apparently where he wrote Ah, Wilderness. The play wasn't as funny as I thought it would be, with many undertones that could take it to darker places, but I guess for the usually dark O'Neill, it was considered light, lol. Anyway...I'm glad to have read it! I was hoping that there was more of the town involved, since it was set on the 4th of July in the little coastal town of New London, Connecticut...but it was set mostly in the house and built around numerous family scenes. Nat Miller, who owns the local paper, his wife Essie, their children Arthur, 19, and a Yale student, Richard, 17, and a dramatic, poetry reader, Mildred, 15, and a flirty, typical teenage girl, and Tommy, 11, the youngest, along with Essie's brother, Sid, and Nat's sister, Lily, all live together in the big Victorian house. The underlying dark tones concern Sid and his drinking, and how it has apparently kept Sid and Lily from getting married all these years, even though they're in love. With the upcoming 4th of July picnic that the men are going to (I think it was a men's only thing at the club), Lily is nervous with anticipation that Sid will get drunk. He has promised to take her to the fireworks, but no...that doesn't happen. He does in fact get drunk and come home sloshed. The main thrust of the story is the lovesick Richard. He is in love with Muriel, the daughter of a business associate of Mr. Miller. Muriel's father has stormed over to the house to show Nat all the love letters that Richard has written Muriel, most of them using the poetry and language of "forbidden" authors. Even the thought that Richard's favorite authors seem to be Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw is disgraceful. Anyway, things come to a head between the fathers and before storming off, Muriel's father leaves a letter for Richard from Muriel (which unbeknownst to Richard, her father dictated), saying that she doesn't want to see him ever again. Richard becomes despondent over the news and ends up going off with one of his brother's college friends to a house of ill repute where one of the "ladies" tries to get him to go upstairs. He refuses to betray Muriel, even as mad as he is...but he does proceed to get very drunk...having the first drinks he's ever had. His parents wait up for him til he stumbles home at midnight, and his good old Uncle Sid takes care of him. All the next day he sleeps while his father and mother discuss punishing him. In the meantime, Muriel has sneaked a letter to Richard's sister, Mildred. In it she tells Richard that her father made her write the other letter and will he please meet her that night. She's sneaking out! Richard and Muriel meet and after a couple of quarrels, finally decide they are still in love, and what's more, she finally lets him kiss her! He declares that he'll stay home from Yale next year and get a job with his father so they can get married right away. She says, no, you need to go to college. Back at home, Nat and Essie are still discussing Richard's punishment, especially since he is out again without permission. However, this time he told Mildred to let them know where he was going and he'd accept his punishment later. When Richard gets home, his father finally tells him that he knows he learned his lesson about not drinking. (Earlier Richard had told his mother that is was awful and made him sick and he didn't want to do it again.) However, he still had to punish him to learn some responsibility, so maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't let him go to Yale the next year. Richard brightens up and says that's exactly what he would want, actually. Nat huffs around and says well then, you are definitely going to Yale and staying there until you graduate! And, that's about it. I mean...there were really too many depressing facets in it for me to consider it a comedy. I would look to Wilde and Shaw for their comedies wayyyyyy before I'd look to O'Neill. I suppose in that day and age, though, given all the depressing stuff he'd written, it was amazing that he wrote something that would draw some laughs. I must say that I thought his Beyond the Horizon, though very sad, was so much better. Glad I read it...now moving on. :-)