Images: 
Total Rating: 
***
Opened: 
May 14, 2016
Ended: 
July 17, 2016
Country: 
USA
State: 
California
City: 
Los Angeles
Company/Producers: 
Odyssey Theater Ensemble
Theater Type: 
Regional
Theater: 
Odyssey Theater
Theater Address: 
2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard
Phone: 
310-477-2055
Website: 
odysseythetare.com
Running Time: 
1 hr, 45 min
Genre: 
Drama
Author: 
Eugene O'Neill
Director: 
Steven Berkoff
Review: 

First produced in 1922, Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape has been given an Expressionistic take by director Steven Berkoff. Shouted dialogue and choreographed movement are the order of the day, powered and punctuated by the drumbeats of percussionist Will Mahood. More surreal than real, this production goes all out for high energy and extreme emotion, sacrificing subtlety and complexity for excitement and drama with a capital D.

At the heart of all this frenzy is Yank, the head man in the stokehold of an ocean liner steaming toward England. The hulking, brutish Yank (played by the charismatic African-American actor, Haile D’Alan), has one of the toughest, filthiest jobs imaginable: shoveling coal night and day into the liner’s furnace. The work dehumanizes him and his fellow-firemen (Benjamin Davies, Joseph Gilbert, Jeremiah O’Brian, Andres Paul Ramacho, Anthony Rutowicz, and Paul Stanko); so much so that they spend their time raging against the system — when they’re not drinking, roistering and brawling. Because Yank is the strongest and boldest, he rules over this band of misfits with an iron fist, bellowing his defiance of all authority and power.

When he is snubbed and patronized by a society lady (Katy Davis) — she’s the one who calls him a hairy ape — Yank is driven by class resentment to the point of madness. One of his mates tries to get him to channel his rage by joining a union, specifically the Wobblies (International Workers of the World). But Yank is too much of a loner, a demi-God really, to fit in with an organization, an ideology. All instinct and emotion, he is what the Marxists would call a lumpen-proletariat.

Yank pays the price for his lack of class consciousness and his rugged individualism, and ends up being bested by a true king of the jungle (to specify would be to spoil things for you). Berkoff, whose work with the Odyssey Ensemble dates back thirty years, has put his stamp on this production of The Hairy Ape. It’s loud, broad and violent but never boring or humdrum.

Cast: 
Haile D’Alan, Benjamin Davies, Katy Davis, Dennis Gersten, Joseph Gilbert, Jeremiah O’Brian, Andres Paul Ramacho, Anthony Rutowicz, Paul Stanko, Jennifer Taub
Technical: 
Set: Christopher Scott Murillo; Costumes: Halei Parker; Lighting: Katelan Braymer; Sound: Christopher Moscatiello; Video: Ben Hethcoat; Percussion: Will Mahood
Critic: 
Willard Manus
Date Reviewed: 
May 2016