Hughie by Eugene O'Neill, Directed by Robert Falls
Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, Directed by Jennifer Tarver, Through Feb. 28, GoodmanTheatre.org
( 312 ) 443-3800
The burned-out lightbulb in the hotel lobby is the perfect touch in establishing the mood of Hughie. This lobby, not his room upstairs, is where Erie Smith ( Brian Dennehy ) is alive with true and mostly false stories of his existence. The desk clerk Hughie has died, and the new clerk ( played perfectly by Joe Grifaci ) is transformed by Erie's words and bluster into a new Hughie. Erie's "pipe dreams" as Eugene O'Neil calls them.
At 69 years old, Krapp ( Brian Dennehy ) listens to his tape recording made 30 years earlier. He says he wouldn't want those years back, but now knows they were the best. The repetitive mannerisms of age consume him. As Krapp puts it, "drowning in dreams and glad to be gone." He has slipped literally and metaphorically on the banana peal of life.
Brian Dennehy lets you know these two men. O'Neill and Beckett would be satisfied with the interpretation and applaud the performance.
-- reviewed by Hal Baim