NHB Classic Plays
On the Evils of Tobacco
A bittersweet monologue in which a scientific lecture is hijacked by thoughts of domestic misery.
All God's Chillun Got Wings
An expressionist play about a violently dysfunctional mixed-race marriage, inspired by an old Negro spiritual.
Desire Under the Elms
A story of greed, yearning and murder with incest and infanticide, and edged with echoes of Ancient Greek tragedy within a New England farming family.
The Emperor Jones
An expressionistic chronicle of a black dictator's flight from his oppressed subjects.
The Great God Brown
A demonstration of O'Neill's expressionistic experimentation with masks to emphasise the distinction between characters, and the lack of understanding in human relationships.
The Hairy Ape
A nightmarish condemnation of the dehumanising effects of industrialisation on the American people.