PRT Co-op Presents

HUGHIE

1928. 3:00 a.m. on a sultry summer night in Manhattan. In the dingy lobby of a rundown hotel on a Westside Street just off Times Square, two lonely souls share a wandering, one-sided conversation. A downtrodden, introverted Desk Clerk endures the ruminations of Erie Smith, a small-time gambler, haunter of the joints along the Great White Way, as he tries to talk himself out of his despair over the recent death of his best friend and good luck charm, Hughie. Nobel laureate Eugene O'Neill, at the height of his powers, took a break from writing the ineffably tragic “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” to pen this lighter one-act play, in which a brief night’s journey toward dawn kindles an uncharacteristic gleam of hope.