Marco Millions
by Eugene O'Neill
SATIRE WITH SONGS
A burlesque retelling of the life of Marco Polo casts the 14th century Italian adventurer as an avatar of a Roaring 1920's tycoon.
directed by Talya Klein
THE HERE & NOW
South Windham, VT
O'Neill's take-down of an American value system, in which making a profit trumps all else, stings nearly ninety years after it was written.
"...biting in its irony, suffused with poetry, rich and dramatic in its simple story,
and resplendently colorful in its background, atmosphere and imagery"
- Women's Wear Daily, 1928
About The Play
From the Harvard Crimson, Cambridge, 1964:
"One does not normally associate humor with Eugene O'Neill. Yet he was fully capable of it ... Finished in 1925 and originally produced in 1928, the play [is a] neglected treasure ... Though imbued with much poetic philosophizing, it is nonetheless peppered with brilliant epigrams and witty repartee. For all its use of the historical Marco Polo and exotic sites in medieval Venice, Persia, India, Mongolia and Cathay, there is no mistaking that the target of this epic satire was the materialistic and acquisitive American businessman -- a creature that O'Neill also examined in Desire Under the Elms, The Great God Brown, and Long Day's Journey Into Night ..."
From The Villager, New York City, 2006:
"One of Eugene O’Neill’s lesser known, misunderstood, and perhaps most controversial plays. It was originally produced on Broadway in 1928 with lavish costumes and a cast of 19, including the legendary Alfred Lunt. It was revived again two years later and then didn’t appear on the New York stage until 1964, with a pared-down cast in a production at Lincoln Center ... Although it was never a critical or commercial sensation in New York, Marco Millions was still an immensely popular American staple in countless regional productions nationwide -- as intellectually engaging to audiences and reviewers in Middle America as Strange Interlude and Long Day’s Journey Into Night ... Marco Millions confronts the misunderstandings about race, class, anti-Semitism in the Middle East, Western imperialism and religious intolerance -- all topics that seem ripped out of today’s headlines."
About The Company
The Here and Now, based in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, produces shows that are part party, part art. The company writes: "We are committed to creating unique, one-off, 'you had to be there' events in diverse locations."
Since its launch in 2014, The Here and Now has produced shows including As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and Cymbeline. The group's signature annual event is its Shakespeare Free-For-All, a week-long retreat for actors that culminates in a roving, site-specific performance of a Shakespeare play, free for the community, followed by a potluck BBQ.
Online, The Here and Now provides updates mainly through social media. The company posts to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as @bethehereandnow.