Fulcrum point

There is a point in an artist's career where he has mastered his craft but has not lost his youthful enthusiasm for his material. This is why an artist's best work usually comes in the middle of his career. In literature and film, fans gravitate toward an artist's best pieces, but theater is ephemeral, and once it is gone the only thing that remains are memories for the audience, regrets from people who missed the show, and reputation for the director.

Sean Graney's production of "The Hairy Ape" is doubly marvelous because the play itself comes the central period of O'Neill's work, and Graney is entering into his own central period.