Every now and then an artistic director has an idea which must have other theatre heads kicking themselves for not thinking of it first. Laurie Samsom's was to pair and cross-cast two rarely seen early works by Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams.
Set in a Connecticut farmstead, Beyond the Horizon (1918) is O'Neill's first full-length play and charts the Mayo family's disintegration after two brothers are diverted from following their intended life paths. Had local belle Ruth married natural-born farmer Robert instead of his bookish brother Andrew, the farm would have flourished and Andrew would have struck out into the world instead of the rejected Robert.
It is a fair bet that O'Neill's Pulitzer-winning work influenced Williams when he wrote his own version of tangled love. Set in small–town Mississippi Delta, Spring Storm also has two suitors with opposing temperaments falling for the same girl. And just as Williams's early instinct for social satire is revealed in his play, so is O'Neill's for devastating tragedy in his. This double bill (do see both) is perfectly complimentary, beautifully acted and terrifically directed.