Eugene O'Neill's Hughie, Starring Richard Schiff, Begins Jan. 31 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC

By Michael Gioia
31 Jan 2013

Richard Schiff
Richard Schiff

The Shakespeare Theatre Company in DC presents Eugene O'Neill's Hughie beginning Jan. 31 at the company's Lansburgh Theatre. Emmy Award-winning actor Richard Schiff, recently seen in Broadway's Glengarry Glen Ross, stars. 

Tony Award winner Doug Hughes (Doubt, STC's The Little Foxes) directs Hughie, which continues through March 17. 

Schiff makes his STC mainstage debut as Erie Smith alongside Randall Newsome as Erie's counterpart, the Night Clerk.

"Hughie is a play that has long been on my to-do list," said director Hughes in an earlier statement. "It's great and unique O'Neill, a compact, richly atmospheric, incisively funny and mysterious play that takes place in that twilight region known to all of us who have suffered loss. I guess that qualification would apply to everyone on this planet." 

Here's how the company describes Hughie: "One of Eugene O'Neill's later works, Hughie is a commanding study of Erie Smith, a man whose illusions of a grand lifestyle are wavering after the death of the stranger who quietly validated his larger-than-life confidence. Erie is searching for a new person to affirm his transparent fantasies or else be forced to face his own crushing self-pity. Hughie stands to transfix its audience with the raw force wrought by one of O'Neill's most stirring characters."

Other members of the creative team include set designer Neil Patel, costume designer Catherine Zuber, lighting designer Ben Stanton, composer and sound designer David Van Tieghem, production stage manager James FitzSimmons, assistant stage manager Hannah O'Neill and assistant director Hunter Bird.

Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, was the 2012 recipient of the Tony Award for Regional Theatre. Read the earlier Playbill.com story about the company's 2012-13 season here.

Visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.