The Hairy Ape
By Eugene O’Neill
October 2025
The Latvian Society Theater
A dynamic staging of O’Neill’s expressionist masterpiece.
The Hairy Ape submerges audiences into the underbelly of a luxury ship, into the world of a coal stoker, Yank. His sense of identity is completely shattered when a chance-encounter with a rich heiress allows him to see himself through her eyes. The severe clash between progress and humanity was brought to life under the direction of Brenna Geffers. This production was also presented at the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival.
Creative Team
Brenna Geffers … Director
Thom Weaver … Scenic Designer
Robin Shane … Costume Designer
Matt Sharp … Lighting Designer
Matt Lorenz … Sound Designer
Sara Outing … Props Designer
James Jackson … Technical Director
Stephanie Sintef … Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager … Sarah Zerod
Sara Viniar … Production Manager
Dave Garrett Saraffian … Production Photos
Cast
Matteo Scammell … Yank
Steve Wright … Paddy
Lee Minora … Mildred
Colleen Corcoran … Long
Langston Darby … Engineer
Maria Konstantinidis … Secretary
Carlo Campbell … Jonsey
Chris Anthony … Steinmiller
Amanda Schoonover … Aunt
About Eugene O’Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill Sr. (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg. The tragedy Long Day's Journey into Night is often included on lists of the finest American plays in the 20th century, alongside Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. He was awarded the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature. O'Neill is also the only playwright to win four Pulitzer Prizes for Drama.
O'Neill's plays were among the first to include speeches in American English vernacular and involve characters on the fringes of society. They struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations, ultimately sliding into disillusion and despair. Of his very few comedies, only one is well known (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism.