A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN – 2025 REVIEW OF ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTON

Reviewed by James Karas

The Almeida Theatre is a very small venue in London but it stages some of the finest productions in London. It tackled Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For The Misbegotten with mixed results. I should mention at the outset that the play is so creaky that it almost guarantees mixed results.

O’Neill finished what turned out to be his last play in 1943. It has been produced a handful of times including a production at the Shaw Festival in 2009 but producers have stayed clear of it most of the time. The production Directed by Rebecca Frecknall with a talented cast attempt to bring the play to life but it must work with their hands tied behind their backs.

The play is set in a farmhouse in Connecticut where Josie Hogan (Ruth Wilson) and her father Phil Hogan (David  Threlfall) live. Don’t look at the script if you can avoid it. But if you did check it, you will note O’Neill’s description of Josie as “so oversize for a woman that she is almost a freak – five feet eleven in her stockings and weighs around one hundred and eighty.” He adds that “she is more powerful than any but an exceptionally strong man …. But there is no mannish quality about her. She is all woman.” No need to imagine the freak because in this production, Josie is played by an attractive Ruth Wilson who has none of the attributes described by O’Neill.

That is positive but the play itself is dominated by verbosity and booze and by characters who are largely incapable of any meaningful contact or communication. Phil is a foulmouthed drunkard, who is so violent at times that his daughter has to use a stick to protect herself. His son Mike (Peter Corby) escapes furtively from the farm after stealing some of his father’s money and runs away to freedom. Phil is capable of some affection towards Josie and plots a way to get title to the farm, but overall, he is an unsavory and disgusting person.

Ruth Wilson and David Threlfall. Photograph: Marc Brenner

Josie is the central character and she is sexually active and very proudly permissive with sexual wares. If she looked like O’Neill describes her, she would have very few takers. Despite her foul mouth and slutty habits, she does have a positive side and she probably does fall in love with James Tyrone (Michael Shannon), the would-be owner of the farm (waiting for the probate of his mother’s will). But she and Tyrone are so inarticulate or beyond the ability to express affection that the only thing that comes out of their relationship is boredom.

Tyrone is usually stone drunk and spends a night with Josie who is trying to have him seduce her so she can claim the farm. One does not know what to make of the two emotional losers.

In fairness I should mention that Phil does show affection towards his daughter and Tyrone’s drinking may be the result of his feelings of guilt. But the writing is so turgid that not much comes across to the audience.

The set by Tom Scutt  shows a dilapidated house with a raised platform that may be a bedroom. There are ladders and boards around the stage indicating the lack of an orderly house.

Director Rebecca Frecknall  could not save the production from its booze and verbosity and in the end, we applauded because it was over.
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A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill continues until August 16, 2025,  at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, England. https://almeida.co.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press