Strange Interlude

Winner of the 1928 Pulitzer Prize, Strange Interlude is a Freudian melodrama that seeks to explore the vast, unfathomable murk of the human unconscious. To accomplish this goal, playwright Eugene O’Neill employed an experimental use of soliloquies, where characters revealed their unvarnished inner thoughts directly to the audience, revealing the psychic turmoil lurking beneath the placid masks of polite society. Following its first exhibitions, Strange Interlude also became a lightning rod of controversy and censorship due to its frank portrayals of topics such as abortion, infidelity, sexual desire, and mental illness. Set in the aftermath of World War I, the play follows the lives of several characters over the span of two decades. Our central character, Nina Leeds, is haunted by the recent death of her fiancé during the war. Her despair and despondency gradually take an inward, self-destructive turn, as she indulges in a number of sordid affairs before tumbling into a loveless marriage. Thus begins a chain of events that will haunt the lives of all who fall within Nina’s orbit. - Summary by ChuckW