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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 3, 2005 The Cast of “Ah, Wilderness” poses in costume in the wilds of Lithia Park. Submitted photo ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ Ashland High School takes on Eugene O’Neill’s only comedy By Robert H. Miller Tidings Reviewer Eugene O’Neill literally dreamed up his one and only comedy, the atypical “Ah, Wilderness!” that Ashland High School Theater Arts is presenting at its Mountain Theater under the direction of Doug Hamm. It was the first time that an exclamation point had been used in the title of a play. Moreover, the title is a slight misquotation from “The Rubaiyat”: A Book of Verses underneath the Bough A Jug of Wine, A Loaf of Bread – and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness – Oh, Wilderness is Paradise now. IF YOU GO “Ah, Wilderness” AHS Mountain Avenue Theater 7.30 p.m. Nov. 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 Matinee 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 Tickets $7 advance; $8 door Call 482-8771. O’Neill takes us back almost a hundred years to Independence Day, July 4, 1906 in New London, Conn., to the home of the Millers. It is a celebration of family, food, and fireworks, not that different from today perhaps. Except that one of the four children — Arthur, 19 (Justin Williams); Richard, 17 (Taylor Sharpe); Tommy, 11 (Jeffrey Star); and their sister Mildred,15 (Rebecca Saladoff) — is in dire trouble. Well, Richard is the culprit and the center of the play. It’s not just that his mother has discovered his cache of unwholesome literature — Swinburne, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Ibsen, Shaw, Kipling and Wilde — but also that some juicy excerpts he sent his girl friend Muriel have fallen into her father’s hands, and she has been forbidden to associate with Richard ever again. So, if the fat is in the fire, it sparks a rebellion in Richard, who is only too ready to indulge his adolescent angst, embrace socialism, scoff at Yale, and vehemently declare: “I wish we were still under England.” Well, he’s in for some sobering experiences, and how he regains the confidence of his parents and resumes his romance makes for a joyous journey. (Incidentally, Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” is one of the plays in OSF’s 2006 season.) "Ah Wilderness!” has the comfortable flair of a period piece. Most of the action takes place at the Miller home, with a scene at a local house of ill-repute, and another on a strip of beach along the harbor. Some of the actors are called on to play roles close to their actual ages, though in a different era and mores. Others will be challenged more: Travis Walker as Nat, the father and owner of the Evening Globe; Sabrina Podsobinski as Essie, the mother; Juliana Wheeler as Lily, Nat’s introverted sister; and Cory Shulters as Sid Davis, Essie’s alcoholic brother. Two other contrasting roles offer opportunity to Kelly Hammond as Belle, the prostitute who plies her trade at the dubiously named Pleasant Beach House, and to Natasha Barnes as Muriel, Richard’s real but innocent girl friend. Too, Spenser Meeks (the bartender), Josh Houghton (the salesman), Ally Bachus (Nora, the Irish “greenhorn “ and family help), and Erin Terrall as Wint Selby, a classmate of Arthur’s at Yale, have their moments to shine. When “Ah, Wilderness!” was first staged in 1933, singer/songwriter George M. Cohan (“Give my Regards to Broadway”) took on the role of Nat Miller with great success. The show ran for two years. The play has often been revived, once with Will Rogers, and notably in 1988 when Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst played the parents. Locally, OSF produced the play in 1983 and then Peter Alzado directed an enjoyable version at Actors’ Theater in Talent in1998. Inevitably, a movie came out, in 1935; the star-studded cast included Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, and Alice MacMahon, with Mickey Rooney as Tommy, the kid brother. A lavish musical remake — “Summer Holiday” — again featured Rooney, this time as the rebellious Richard. O’Neill (1888-1953), long after 1933, confessed that he wished he had had such a youth as that he invented for Richard Miller. Eugene was a frail boy, later afflicted with tuberculosis, but after leaving the sanatorium in 1913, he was sent by his parents to a boarding-house in New London run by the Rippins family, being assured of an upstairs bedroom and three healthy meals a day. So he undoubtedly got an inkling of life with a family so different from his own. It is not unsurprising that he would set “Ah, Wilderness!” in New London, particularly as his family spent summers there at Monte Cristo, a two-story, eight-room wooden cottage overlooking the Thames river. In fact, he used its ground floor plan as his setting for both “Ah, Wilderness!” and his epic “Long Day’s Journey into Night.” all photos submitted “Ah, Wilderness!” is a warm and human comedy. Don’t miss it! Performances are at 7.30 p.m. on Nov. 2 (preview, seats $5), 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12, with matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov.13. All advance tickets are $7; at the door, $8). For information call 482-8771. 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