Diff'rent
| Diff'rent | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Eugene O'Neill |
| Characters | Emma, Captain Caleb, and Benny |
| Date premiered | April 4, 1921 |
| Place premiered | Princess Theatre on Broadway, United States |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Tragedy |
| Setting | 1890 and 1920, Seaside Village, New England |
Diff'rent is a two-act tragedy written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. The story concerns a woman who rejects her fiancée over a single infidelity and much later becomes engaged to another man who turns out to have poor character. The first man commits suicide, and she regrets her choice.
The play premiered in 1921 at the Princess Theatre on Broadway, when theatres reopened following closures due to the Spanish flu. A second production ran on Broadway in 1938.
Background
The Spanish flu ended officially in 1920, the year before the play premiered and for the year that Act II of the play is taking place.[1] The Roaring Twenties was at its dawn. Flapper became a new word in the U.S. vocabulary, which according to Webster's Dictionary was “a young girl, esp. one somewhat daring in conduct, speech and dress,”.[2] World War I ended three years earlier.[3] Young women in the audience may have seen a world in 1921 where men for marriage during the war were either older or younger than the women seeking husbands. It was known at the time that the Spanish Flu and World War I had altered the U.S. gender ratio, with more women in the population than men. This was largely due to the Spanish Flu having increased the mortality rates for men from 20-40.[4][5] Like COVID, the Spanish Flu caused people to stay isolated in their homes. The end of the pandemic allowed people to socialize again.[6]
The title of the show Diff'rent makes use of the way people speak in the village. Making use of the way a certain community spoke was a device often used in O'Neill plays.
Plot
Act I
Setting: The parlor of home on a side street of a seaport village in New England in 1890.
Emma is engaged to an older man, a sea captain named Caleb. She discovers that he was briefly unfaithful while at sea and calls off the wedding. In the seaport village, the women tended to accept the promiscuity of the men who work at sea. Emma however, expected her future husband to be of different nature than the sailors in the village.
Act II
Setting: The same location in 1920.
30 years go by, but the aging sea captain still hopes that he can marry his former fiancé from 1890, Emma. Caleb's sister's Harriet and her husband, Alfred, have raised their son Benny, who has now returned to the seaside from a tour of duty in World War I, where he had been stationed in France. Benny becomes good friends with Emma, who he sometimes calls Aunt Emma.
On the stage, the audience sees that Benny is having various financial problems and has hatched a plan. However, the audience does not know what it is.
Emma does not know that Benny was actually a grifter and charlatan. Caleb later arrives and notices how her home and her attire have been modernized from how they had been when he was engaged to Emma. Caleb explains to Emma who Benny really is, his dishonesty and so on. Caleb explains also points out that he, however, was always been honest with her. Emma says that she is going to marry Benny, but after Caleb leaves and Benny returns, she regrets her choice. She discovers that Benny was plotting to get a bribe from Caleb to not marry Emma. Benny was using Emma as if she were property that he could negotiate with. Emma is overwhelmed with shock of Benny explaining this to her.
Emma later learns of Caleb's suicide, and she begins to exit, intending to join Caleb.[7]
Productions
Premiere
Diff'rent premiered on April 4, 1921 at the Princess Theatre on Broadway.[8] It was the first show for the theatre after what were called the Princess Musicals, a series of musicals that took place in the theater from 1913-1918.[9] The theater had been closed during the Spanish Flu pandemic and reopened with Diff'rent. Emma was played by Mary Blair, Caleb by James Light, and Benny by Charles Eliis.[8]
1938 Broadway revival
A second production took place at Maxine Elliott's Theatre on Broadway, opening on January 25, 1938. Leonore Sorsby was Emma, Erford Gage was Caleb, and Frank Daly was Benny.[10]
References
- ^ "The End of the 1918 Flu Pandemic".
- ^ "The Roaring Twenties | AP US History Study Guide from The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History". www.gilderlehrman.org. 2012-03-06. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
- ^ "World War I | History, Summary, Causes, Combatants, Casualties, Map, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2023-09-30. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
- ^ Woo, G. (2019-01). "Age-dependence of the 1918 pandemic". British Actuarial Journal. 24: e3. doi:10.1017/S1357321719000023. ISSN 1357-3217.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Gagnon, Alain; Miller, Matthew S.; Hallman, Stacey A.; Bourbeau, Robert; Herring, D. Ann; Earn, David JD.; Madrenas, Joaquín (2013-08-05). "Age-Specific Mortality During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Unravelling the Mystery of High Young Adult Mortality". PLoS ONE. 8 (8): e69586. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0069586. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3734171. PMID 23940526.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ Tomes, Nancy (2010). ""Destroyer and Teacher": Managing the Masses During the 1918–1919 Influenza Pandemic". Public Health Reports. 125 (Suppl 3): 48–62. ISSN 0033-3549. PMC 2862334. PMID 20568568.
- ^ "DIFF'RENT". gutenberg.net.au. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
- ^ a b "Diff'rent (1921 Broadway production)".
- ^ "Broadway History: The Princess Musicals, Bigger Was NOT Better | Broadway Scene". Broadway Scene | Provided by All Tickets Inc. 2013-07-08. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
- ^ "Diff'rent (1938 Production on Broadway)".