Reviews

Hindered by the fact that Hickley seems to switch between fiction's greatest villain and a confused madman several times in the last act. The schizophrenic handling of Hickley's motives, while spurring on the regress of all the others in the bar, ultimately makes that regress seem less tragic than it really should be. However, the revelation of Parritt's foil to Hickley seems to cover these holes (if the astute reader is looking for them). The pieces come together nicely, but with only one character completing a full arc and the majority of the cast returning to their developmental starting line, the play ends without a sense of closure that could bother some readers.

tittypete's review against another edition

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2.0

Drunk people yammer on and on about their pipe dreams. Then their friend shows up and says everybody needs to give up their pipe dreams. He encourages all his friends to prove to themselves that their dreams are futile So they all attempt to chase their dreams for like half a day and everyone of them gives up and/or fails. This makes them all bummed out and ruins drinking for them. But then their friend tells them he killed his wife because he couldn't stand her pipe dream that he'd stop drinking and cheating on her and it was making him feel guilty. This leads all the drunk people to think he's crazy and that all the stuff he told them about giving up their pipe dreams was crazy too. The dude gets arrested and they all enjoy drinking and self delusion again. Then one of them who won't delude himself anymore jumps off the fire escape and dies. PIPE DREAMS.

Made me want to drink. And there's still 14 more days left of lent. Way too long, boring and repetitive but I guess it's a classic because it was a brand new kind of bummer when it came out.

Frick off,

Mitz

caitpoytress's review against another edition

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3.0

tomorrow, tomorrow, there's always tomorrow, you're only a day away...

hakkun1's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

deeparcher's review against another edition

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3.0

I felt the same way about this as I do about Saturday Night Fever in that I just want to smack everybody in the story. I'm sure if I saw the play on stage that it would have more emotional impact, but I had a hard time caring about anything that happened because no one else in the play did either.

magnetgrrl's review against another edition

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4.0

This is one of the richest plays, symbolically, of modern American theater. But like most if not all O'Neill plays, it is as interesting to read as it is to see on the stage. Lots of other plays of this era that are heavy on symbolism rely on the visual cues of the production to bring the meaning through, and therefore can seem remote and boring when reading them. (Unless you're a director perhaps, and particularly trained to read plays with an inner eye for staging them.) O'Neill really uses theater as a composite art, and he isn't afraid to get a little meta, making all kinds of references and loops and homages, using tropes of Greek theater and quoting the Bible; weaving pieces of Jungian psychology, American popular culture, and ancient myth all at once.

This play is, overall, a bit depressing, and has somewhat of a "what can you do, the world is f*cked" political edge to it - critiquing both the idealism and delusion of socialism and anarchism while at the same time showing them to be the best pathetic hope we have against other more exploitative systems, as most of his plays seem to do. (NB, not necessarily my opinions.) But "The Iceman Cometh" is also funny and intense and a loopy sensory experience. It has a lot of interesting characters whose stories you're genuinely invested in seeing unfold. And I remember I encountered the phrase "pipe-dream" for the first time reading this play.

shwetakudrimoti17's review against another edition

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2.0

what the *honk* is this drama? i. understand. nothing.

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