''Lazarus Laughed'' is a play by

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

written in 1925. Its sub-title was ''A Play for Imaginative Theatre''. It is a long theo-philosophical meditation with more than a hundred actors making up a masked chorus. In theatrical format, ''Lazarus Laughed'' appears to be a

Greek tragedy Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy. Greek tragedy is widely believed ...

. But the underlying message is similar to the

mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

s from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. O'Neill's play, ''

The Great God Brown ''The Great God Brown'' is a play by Eugene O'Neill, first staged in 1926. O'Neill began writing notes for the play in 1922 – "Play of masks – removable – the man who really is and the mask he wears before the world" – and wrote the play be ...

'', can be considered as an introduction to this play.

Story

The story features characters and events following the raising of Lazarus of

Bethany Bethany ( grc-gre, Βηθανία,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā'') or what is locally known as Al-Eizariya or al-Azariya ( ar, العيزرية, " laceof Lazarus"), is a Palestinian town in the West ...

from the dead by

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. As Lazarus is the first man to return from the realm of the dead, the crowd reacts intently to his words. Over and over again he declares to them that there is no death – only God’s eternal laughter. The more Lazarus laughs, the younger and stronger he becomes. The more he laughs, the older and weaker his wife Miriam (who trusts him but does not understand his laughter) becomes. The subsequent scenes portray a series of tests (perhaps similar to those trials of

Job Work or labor (or labour in British English) is intentional activity people perform to support the needs and wants of themselves, others, or a wider community. In the context of economics, work can be viewed as the human activity that cont ...

) by the Jews, Romans and Greeks to try the faith of Lazarus. Consequently, members of his family are taken from him, but Lazarus continues always to laugh, even as Miriam is poisoned by the Roman Emperor

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus (; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was the second Roman emperor. He reigned from AD 14 until 37, succeeding his stepfather, the first Roman emperor Augustus. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC. His father ...

and continuing on to the very end, when Tiberius burns him at the stake.

Acts and Scenes

*Act One, Scenes One and Two take place in Bethany. *Act Two, Scene One takes place in Athens. Scene Two is in Rome. *Act Three, Scenes One and Two are in Tiberius' palace. *Act Four, Scene One is still in Tiberius' palace. Scene Two is in the interior of a Roman theatre.

Production history

Since the play was first published, it has hardly ever been produced in major theatre venues. The

Pasadena Community Playhouse The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California, United States. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engage ...

(Pasadena Community Players) staged the only major production of it, and its world premiere, in 1928, with 151 actors and 420 roles, including

Irving Pichel Irving Pichel (June 24, 1891 – July 13, 1954) was an American actor and film director, who won acclaim both as an actor and director in his Hollywood career. Career Pichel was born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh. He attended Pittsburgh Cent ...

as the title character. The smaller scale, but still sizeable, European premiere was staged in 1971 by the American Repertory Theater in Europe (ARTE) with a cast of over 40 mostly student actors performing 150 different roles. "For a bit of extra strength the title role (was) entrusted to Paul Abbott of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco."L. A. Times, July 24, 1971 This touring production was performed (in English) in several ancient outdoor amphitheaters in Italy, including the Teatro Grande in the ruins of

Pompeii Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the '' comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...

, Teatro Romano in Verona, and the magnificent Greco-Roman Teatro Antico in

Taormina Taormina ( , , also , ; scn, Taurmina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina, on the east coast of the island of Sicily, Italy. Taormina has been a tourist destination since the 19th century. Its beaches on ...

, Sicily.Christian Science Monitor, August 8, 1972 Performances were also given in the Teatro Romano in Fiesole (near Florence) & Villa Negrone in Lugano, Switzerland. The production attracted large audiences and garnered rave reviews from major Italian newspapers.

Quotations

*"Tragic is the plight of the tragedian whose only audience is himself! Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors. Terrified is Caligula by the faces he makes! But I tell you to laugh in the mirror, that seeing your life gay, you may begin to live as a guest, and not as a condemned one!"—Act II, Scene I.

Notes

Bibliography

* Bogard, Travis
"Contour in Time"
New York: Oxford University Press, 1972, Revised Edition, 1988

Chapter VII, The Triumvirate, 2 (1921–1926). An Excerpt follows below.

Lazarus Laughed is a play which answers in all particulars to this faith. It attempts to visualize with intensity a religious spirit that O’Neill had perceived dimly all his life. Lazarus, characterized early in the play as a man who in life was nothing but a bungling farmer, is reminiscent of Robert Mayo, but now transformed and exalted by his journey beyond the farthest horizon. Caligula, deformed, ape-like in his antics, is a distillation of other spiritually deformed characters with whom O’Neill has been concerned—the Hairy Ape, Marco, with his spiritual hump, the capering Billy Brown. Tiberius Caesar, Pompeia and Miriam also bring into sharp focus in a specifically religious context human characteristics in which, earlier, O’Neill has sensed a "faint indication" of spirit.

* Cf. p. 700 and onwards for "Lazarus Laughed" commentary.

In ''Lazarus Laughed'', however, we have a positive and joyous assertion of the will to live, a proclamation made by an idealistic prophet who is tortured by no doubts, a man so sure of his message that he has actually banished death from his world; but O'Neill took care to put this prophet into a world two thousand years younger than it is now. ''Lazarus Laughed'' is not life; it is the playwright's dream between an earlier and later hell on earth.

* Cf pp. 255–256 on Lazarus Laughed, in the chapter "O'Neill, the Humanist" by Esther M. Jackson. * Cf. pp. 319–333, on "Lazarus Laughed", in Chapter 2, "The Mariner's Horizon: Experimental Plays and Maturation". * *

External links

*Wei, Wei Wu
''Why Lazarus Laughed: The Essential Doctrine Zen-Advaita-Tantra''
Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London, 1960

A book title with a play on words of the title of O'Neill's play. {{Eugene O'Neill 1925 plays Plays by Eugene O'Neill Plays set in ancient Rome Cultural depictions of Jesus Cultural depictions of Caligula Tragedy plays