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A review by david_rhee
Beyond the Horizon: A Play in Three Acts by Eugene O'Neill
3.0
First impressions of Beyond the Horizon were unfavorable to me personally. The Esau-Jacob formula is used to characterize the two Mayo brothers, and as a reader I've found this to be a negative far more often than it is a positive. However, there is an early twist and the two brothers go their separate paths in an unplanned way, and things proceed in a much better direction than the predictable way I was dreading.
Over the course of the three acts, the developments are profound as each brother experiences his own growth or decay. With each curtain fall and rise, we see the resultant states of the cast after the passage of years. The mythical air of O'Neill's play contributes to the unending clash between the natures of people and what is sent by the waves of time. I have noticed after reading Beyond the Horizon and starting Strange Interlude there is a borderline soap opera-ish feel in his plays. I don't know how I feel about this quality yet. Overall, Beyond the Horizon is a good play which avoids the sorely predictable happily-ever-afters and possesses an ease of movement from act to act.
Over the course of the three acts, the developments are profound as each brother experiences his own growth or decay. With each curtain fall and rise, we see the resultant states of the cast after the passage of years. The mythical air of O'Neill's play contributes to the unending clash between the natures of people and what is sent by the waves of time. I have noticed after reading Beyond the Horizon and starting Strange Interlude there is a borderline soap opera-ish feel in his plays. I don't know how I feel about this quality yet. Overall, Beyond the Horizon is a good play which avoids the sorely predictable happily-ever-afters and possesses an ease of movement from act to act.