“Every time you see an O’Neill play, [it’s] like climbing up to the top of a mountain,” said Director Michael Kahn in a recent blog post. “It can be hard work but [it’s] also incredibly rewarding.”
In referring to his latest Shakespeare Theatre Company production Strange Interlude, Kahn hit that nail on its head. At first, the story seems contrived and untimely, reflecting long-outdated attitudes about love and marriage, a melodrama centered on a desperate, delusional heroine Nina Leeds– a war widow who sacrifices her happiness to men in repentance for the death of her adored fiance.
But despite its dark, or at least controversial undertones– sordid affairs, family secrets, questioning love, chauvinism, and above all, religion– Kahn breathes a timeless humor into his script (masterfully edited down to a three-hour performance from an original running time of six).
Through the characters’ frequent oral asides, we learn that Nina and her quadrangle of lovers are really just a lot like the rest of us– irrational, selfish, strange… but from the top of that mountain, endearingly human.
*Strange Interlude is playing now through April 29 at STC’s Sidney Harmon Hall.
**All photos credit Scott Suchman
