New London, Connecticut was O'Neill's boyhood home. The Monte Cristo Cottage-- named for his father's most famous role ("The Count of Monte Cristo")-- faced the Thames River water from its hilltop perch across Pequot Street. The Thames empties into Long Island sound, separated by a sliver of land from the Atlantic Ocean. Interviews with surviving contemporaries of the young O'Neill-- in 1977, well into their late eighties, talked of O'Neill's bookishness, his mother's shyness (and "illness"), and his father's boisterousness. Clearly, they didn't fit into this staid New England Seaport. O'Neill read by the sea as a young boy, went to sea as a young man, wrote of the sea as a young writer.









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The Monte Cristo Cottage, as it was seen by the actors in 1977. Their first reactions and observations to the cottage were documented via 16mm film and videotape in September, 1977. Their candid observations in light of the plays (they were by this time in rehearsals) were eye-opening. Burr talked about the absentee father syndrome. Regina David talked about the stark surroundings of the claustrophobic rooms, and the mother's acceptance of such an "unpleasant" environment. Phil Heald looked out over the river just as young Eugene must have. We were lucky to interview the surviving sister of O'Neill's unrequited boyhood love, Maibelle Scott. In a dialogue with the voice of O'Neill for our show (actor Daniel Mooney) she recreated the conversation that led to O'Neill's meeting Maibelle at a wedding they attended in 1912. In "Ah, Wilderness", O'Neill recreates this love affair-- but with a happy ending. There was no such happy ending in "Long Day's Journey".



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