Everything should be as in real life.
— Anton Chekhov to his actors before the first production of "The Seagull," 1896
When realism finally hit the American stage in the 1920s, the idea was to tell stories that were both theatrically enthralling and relatable to all audiences. The former would continue to be a draw of those seated before the proscenium arch for years to come. However, the latter was new.
Shakespeare told tales rooted in the real events of English history, but he took dramatic license to make them leap from the page. It was the Europeans and Russians who first embraced realism on the stage. These "slices of life" did not provide an escape from the grim existence around viewers originally. However, over time they influenced writing and especially acting.
The facet of oration or taking the entire stage for a soliloquy was disappearing in favor of the small painterly strokes of human drama. Eugene O'Neill grew up in a family rooted in theatre and realistic drama. (see his posthumously released "A Long Day's Journey Into Night.") As the son of an actor, O'Neill was shuttled around and learned the craft as if it were real life. In addition, with home life as high-pitched as one of his plays, the stage (and perhaps his control of those bearing down upon him) provided his escape.
Influenced by August Strindberg and the Realists, O'Neill wrote furiously but never allowed anyone to read his works. While living in the oceanside town of Provincetown, Rhode Island, some friends dug a play out of his trunk for their entertainment. By the time they completed this cursory reading, they formed The Provincetown Players troupe and were willing to perform it anywhere.
With Chekhov, Strindberg, and especially Henrik Isben, characters were perhaps the greatest enticement for actors. In O'Neill's case, not only were his plays lengthy (on average they typically span three hours,) but they were full of as many stage directions as lines. However, once an actor "got" O'Neill, none of this mattered.
These are transformative roles. Multidimensional even after establishing that this setting is as much like any place you know as an audience member. 1921's "Anna Christie" earned O'Neill the second of his four Pulitzers for Drama. Its outer shell is a mixture of a pair of common tropes. As the near-abandoned daughter of a Swedish seaman, she is the fabled "woman with a past." A day-and-a-half-long train ride from St. Paul, MN to New York City makes her entrance into the play more curt and guarded than most. However, as she tells the tales of her sudden deposit and painful upbringing in St. Paul, they arouse more righteous anger than sympathy. Second, O'Neill makes her the archetype of a "hooker with a heart of gold." However, this is not her destiny, this is her escape from a life of familial servitude.
When she walks into the bar where her father has been a patron long enough to have his mail sent there, the brassy Marthy Owen (who is drinking all the male patrons under the table) immediately cracks the level of protection that Anna's world-weary carapace allows. This aspect is most important to the progress of the play. Without her father being there to explain, Marthy must assure Anna that he is a good man. Even as we have only met him briefly before Anna's arrival, O'Neill paints him as genuine and repentant - but gives us no idea of their similar "lies of protection."
Though the play starts with strains of normal bar conversation, O'Neill has secretly cranked the engine on Anna's story - without drawing attention to it. While the 1930 Frances Marion film will star Greta Garbo (wielding the famous line "Give me a whiskey with a ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy baby" - the first time Garbo was ever heard on screen,) Anna Christie in words is the common dance of trust and mistrust. Given her time as the family's servant, a nurse-maid and finally, as O'Neill puts it "practitioner of the world's oldest profession," (perhaps one of the first modern uses of this appositive after Rudyard Kipling in 1896) it is easily palatable that Anna would be most afraid of being "caged" and see compliments immediately as the indication of a hidden motive.
Fortunately, her father Chris is a warm, caring man who pilots a coal barge. It does not take long for Anna to become absorbed into life with her father. O'Neill eloquently has Anna explain not that her life is comfortable, but that as their bond grows she is better at "forgetting" about the past. This is an interesting choice of statement, because while it assuages her father and us to a certain degree - it has the smallest effect of foreshadowing. One night in the fog, five sailors suddenly shout "Ahoy!" and emerge from the thick mist. The most strapping is Mat Burke, an Irishman who immediately invests his time in Anna. She brands him a "ladykiller," but still cannot help but find him attractive. As they defy the odds and fall in love, Anna's father is unhappy with her choice. The one thing Chris does not want his daughter to do is marry a sailor. O'Neill makes certain that this conflict centers on Anna and her identity in a relationship, as a daughter, and as a woman seeking redemption must not stay at odds with her past. Inside of her, O'Neill pits rage against love - and the definition of the latter must then be expanded to encompass that all of these past decisions, present interactions, and future plans must result in Anna finally feeling like a human being.
An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.
— Sanford Meisner, acting instructor at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
RECORD STORE DAY PLUS
It is the most exciting record release week of the year. Not only does Record Store Day have 388 exclusives lined up for everyone to consumer, we also have several major releases. All the fun starts at 10AM, Saturday April 20th at TBONES. TBONES is also collaborating this year with our friends at Southern Prohibition to help Hub City Humane Society. The Humane Society is currently overwhelmed by the amount of dogs taken in this year, so this sunny Saturday is your chance to adopt a loving dog at TBONES. In addition, there is a major giveaway in tandem with adoption, a special unveiling of a SoPro beer just for the day, and live entertainment both in store and culminating with an afterparty at SoPro's taproom downtown. For more information on the mammoth event, visit us at tbonescafe.com.
NEW MUSIC This Week
That's right. Someone dares to release their brand new album on the weekend when the shelves are packed and record aficionados are raring to hunt for exclusives, rarities, and reissues.
TAYLOR SWIFT - The Tortured Poets Department [GHOSTED WHITE LP/CD/CS](Republic) • After the largest-selling RSD23 item, and with her entire catalog still on the charts, Taylor Swift is back with her eleventh album. Constructed to follow the five stages of grief, "Tortured" is sixteen new songs written on The Eras Tour that deal in heartache and the aftershocks. Swift describes this process as "imperative writing," and feels that "never needed songwriting more than while making this album." Post Malone, and Florence + The Machine make guest appearances. Each of the four released versions ("Manuscript," "Bolted," "Black Dog," and "The Albatross") will feature a different bonus track. Our retail version will be "The Manuscript."
PEARL JAM - Dark Matter [GHOST YELLOW/BLACK 2LP/CD](Monkeywrench/Republic) • Four years ago, in the middle of a silent spring, Pearl Jam dropped the massive "Gigaton" with its waves of meditative Rock. Over three weeks in 2023, the band worked with Grammy-winner Andrew Watt (the same way he got the Stones to punch out "Hackney Diamonds") on their most immediate and spontaneous-sounding Rock in years. 35 years and twelve albums later, Pearl Jam sound as ferocious as they did on "Vs." even if they choose to be a little looser in their twilight years.
Various - BROWN ACID: THE EIGHTEENTH TRIP [LP](Riding Easy) • So Biker Rock is not Swiftian sincere or as vaunted as Pearl Jam, but the Riding Easy series of lost, privately pressed Sixties and Seventies singles and album cuts is one of the most consistent modern compilation series. "Seventeen" showed its age by blending in some Glam late-Seventies Rock, but 170 choice cuts is a lot to excavate. "Eighteen" is a definite return to form. The cowbell grind of riffage from Chicago Triangle sounds like primordial AC/DC. The advanced Cactus-ian tandem melodies of Parchment Farm and Texas' bass-driven biker blues Dalquist are surprises that - like the series - keep on giving.
AND NOW TO RSD
What to expect? The list is so voluminous, it honestly has something for everyone.
ATEEZ - "The World EP.Fin: Will" is the rare vinyl K-Pop release. Their strutting boy-band style harmonies-meets-Hip-Hop are a welcome break from the squeaky-clean past of KPop. NOAH KAHAN's 2021 digital-only release "I Was/I Am" sees its first physical release. However, Kahan's true RSD prize is the split 7" single with OLIVIA RODRIGO where they cover each other's songs. RSD Ambassadors PARAMORE are well represented with two versions of their remix of "This Is Why" which features mixes from Panda Bear, Linda Lindas, and DOMi and J.D.Beck. In addition to that being available on its own or paired with "This Is Why," their track "Hard Times" is covered by DAVID BYRNE. They return the favor on the split 7" by covering Talking Heads' legendary "Burning Down The House." TALKING HEADS are represented by a scrappy early radio set from December 14, 1977, shortly after the release of their second album "More Songs About Buildings and Food." For the new generation of collectors out there, RSD24 promises some big rarities from streaming favorites like CHAPPELL ROAN, SABRINA CARPENTER, MAISIE PETERS, and LAINEY WILSON.
There is a wealth of live albums this year including NAT KING COLE (circa 1953,) SUN RA (in Chicago wigging out in 1976), SHELLY MANNE, CHET BAKER, SONNY ROLLINS, and two(!) early-Seventies sets from CANNONBALL ADDERLEY. THE 1975 are captured live in 2023 playing their debut album in its entirety for the first time in years. Critical darling and Billie Eilish's fave LAUFEY has a live album with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. One entire concert makes its way on to wax from THE WEEKEND (from 2022) as well as a rare live set from 1996 by Hip-Hop legends DE LA SOUL. Remember all that footage of the ROLLING STONES kicking off the promotion for "Hackney Diamonds" at a tiny club in NYC that filled up YouTube? You can now prepare for their JazzFest appearance with "Live at Racket 2023." NEIL YOUNG AND CRAZY HORSE were so inspired by the anniversary of "Ragged Glory" they decided to record it live again in 2023. RSD favorites THE DOORS discovered a 1968 Swedish radio set in their vault that harnesses the chaos of a Fall 1968 European tour with the Jefferson Airplane. Of course, there is a GRATEFUL DEAD piece. However, "Nightfall of Diamonds" looks to be different. This 1989 show at the Meadowlands is proclaimed by Deadheads to be one of their best in the Eighties. Finally, a new trend for RSD24 seems to be repackaging lost live sets as bootlegs. The 1971 YES "Yale Bowl" and 2022's "Live at Boston Harbor" from FLEET FOXES are made to resemble classic TQM bootlegs that would appear in record stores briefly in limited pressings before vanishing into thin air.
Stalwarts THE CURE are celebrated again with their most misunderstood album "The Top" back in print (on picture disc!) for the first time in years. If that was not enough, You can also hear Robert Smith moonlighting with SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES on their double live album "Nocturne." File under: Don't call them Goth - SISTERS OF MERCY's first two EP's from 1984 together on one album as "Body and Soul/Walk Away." File under: Do call them Goth - FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM's 1985 demos and 1986 recordings finally see the light of day on the double vinyl collection "Burning The Fields."
Everyone enjoys the opportunity to hear your favorites in their formative state. For the first time, you can hear the RAMONES just as Hilly Kristal famously did when they auditioned to play the legendary CBGB's in 1974. Also, the early pre-grunge of Seattle's mighty SCREAMING TREES captures the band in their native Ellensburg, WA. In the beginning, DAVID BOWIE was quite prolific with his writing and recording. "Waiting In The Sky" unveils the 1971 recordings of several pre-"Ziggy Stardust" versions of those favorites plus four more that did not make the album.
Oh! the Picture Disc is represented. FLEETWOOD MAC's must-own "Rumours." DIO live, 10000 GECS shredding. GEORGE HARRISON experimenting. EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER playing Mussorgsky and BLUR's immortal "Parklife" appears on a Zoetropic one which produces a moving image as it spins. Some beautiful boxes of long, lost albums from DWIGHT YOAKAM and LINDA RONSTADT. Hip-Hop bangers that have never been on wax from LIL WAYNE (solo and with 2 CHAINZ,) NAS (remixed,) plus throwbacks to BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS, FOXY BROWN, and QUEEN LATIFAH. Blues from MEMPHIS SLIM, HOWLIN' WOLF, and SISTER ROSETTA THARPE.
Punk, Reggae, Ska, Metal, Electronic, Spoken Word (ahem...DALAI LAMA,) lost Folk and Country from the past, and so much more including rare FRANK ZAPPA. That takes us briefly from A-Z, the rest is on the list for RECORD STORE DAY 2024.
