Ah, Wilderness!

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Ah, Wilderness! is a play by Eugene O'Neill, and has the distinction of being the only true comedy he would ever write. In contrast to O'Neill's other, often tragic works, the overall tone of Ah, Wilderness! is rather sentimental and nostalgic.

The play takes place around the Fourth of July, 1906, and focuses on the Miller family of Connecticut. The main plot deals with the middle son, 17-year-old Richard, and his coming of age.

The title derives from Quatrain XI of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which is one of Richard's favorite poems.

Ah, Wilderness was made into a 1935 movie directed by Clarence Brown, starring Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, and a young Mickey Rooney.

The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical Take Me Along starring Jackie Gleason as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film) and Walter Pidgeon as Ned. The play ran for 448 performances.

[edit] External links

• Ah, Wilderness! at Internet Broadway Database
• E-text of the play, in HTML-format.
• Ah, Wilderness! at the Internet Movie Database