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A Touch of the Poet is aplay byEugene O'Neill completed in 1942 but not performed until 1958, after his death.
It and its sequel,More Stately Mansions, were intended to be part of a nine-play cycle entitledA Tale of Possessors Self-Dispossessed. Set in the dining room of Melody's Tavern, located in a village a few miles fromBoston, it centers on ageing pub owner Major Cornelius ("Con") Melody, a braggart, social climber, and victim of the American class system in 1828 Massachusetts.
The play has been produced onBroadway four times. The original production, directed byHarold Clurman, opened on October 2, 1958,[1] at theHelen Hayes Theatre (at the time, called The Little Theatre), where it ran for 284 performances. The cast includedHelen Hayes,Eric Portman,Betty Field, andKim Stanley. Both the play and Stanley earnedTony Award nominations.
The first revival, directed by Jack Sydow, played in repertory withThe Imaginary Invalid andTonight at 8.30 at the ANTA Playhouse in 1967.
Ten years later, the second revival, directed byJosé Quintero, opened on December 28, 1977, again at the Helen Hayes Theatre, where it ran for 141 performances. The cast includedGeraldine Fitzgerald,Milo O'Shea,Kathryn Walker, andJason Robards, who was Tony-nominated for Best Actor in Play.
After 32 previews, the third revival, directed byDoug Hughes, opened on December 8, 2005, atStudio 54, where it ran for 50 performances.Gabriel Byrne andEmily Bergl headed the cast.
In 1988,Timothy Dalton andVanessa Redgrave starred in a production that played at theYoung Vic andComedy Theatres in London.[2]Irish Repertory Theatre's 2022off-Broadway production starredRobert Cuccioli as Con; Ciarán O'Reilly directed.[3]
Richard Eder ofThe New York Times wrote after seeing the 1977 revival thatA Touch of the Poet "is not one of [O'Neill's] greatest plays but it has greatness in it. It is a difficult greatness to pry out fully in performance. This play about the tearing-away of a tavern keeper's monstrous illusion about himself has pain, humor and even grandeur. Much of this comes from the language, which has rarely run so clear and uncluttered in O'Neill, even if there is too much of it. It is the dramatic structure that is sometimes cluttered, unsure, even absent-minded."[4]