Night of the Auk
A blank-verse drama of Moon voyagers witnessing Earth's nuclear war.
In 1956, Arch Oboler’s three-act science fiction drama Night of the Auk premiered on Broadway. Written in blank verse, it follows moon explorers who return to Earth. The play originated from Oboler’s radio drama Rocket from Manhattan, broadcast in September 1945 on Arch Oboler’s Plays. A book edition came out in 1958.
Quick Facts
- Writer
- Arch Oboler
- Characters
- Doctor Bruner
- Colonel Tom Russell
- Lt. Mac Hartman
- Lewis Rohnen
- Lt. Jan Kephart
- Setting
- "A rocket ship returning from inter-stellar space", "The day after some tomorrow"
- Premiere date
- November 12, 1956
- Premiere place
- Shubert Theatre; Washington, D.C.
- Original language
- English
- Genre
- Science fiction drama
Facts from the source article.
History of the play
Night of the Auk originated from Oboler's radio play "Rocket from Manhattan", broadcast on September 20, 1945, as part of Arch Oboler's Plays. That radio drama featured three characters: Dr. Chamberlain, Maj. Russell, and Maj. Reynolds. Its action was set on September 20, 2000, exactly 55 years after the broadcast date. The published edition of Night of the Auk is dedicated to Norman Cousins and to Oboler's son Peter, who drowned at age six in rainwater collected in bomb shelter excavations at the family's Malibu home.
Productions
The original production of Night of the Auk was produced by Kermit Bloomgarden and directed by Sidney Lumet. Its cast included Martin Brooks as Lt. Jan Kephart, Wendell Corey as Colonel Tom Russell, Christopher Plummer as Lewis Rohnen, Claude Rains as Doctor Bruner, and Dick York as Lt. Mac Hartman. The world premiere took place at the Shubert Theatre in Washington, D.C., on November 12, 1956. Jay Carmody of The Washington Star wrote that if prizes were awarded for the most provocative play of the season, Oboler might be busy making room on his mantel, calling it a lively and imaginative theater piece. The play opened at the Playhouse in New York on December 3, 1956, and ran for only eight performances. Jack Gaver of the United Press described it as a coldly powerful, strangely moving drama of stature, while Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times wrote that Oboler's dialogue was streaked with purple patches and sounded like gibberish. Time reviewed the play in its December 17, 1956 issue. Oboler later felt the Washington run was doomed by overly realistic presentation conflicting with the poetic dialogue. Scholar Charles A. Carpenter attributed the play's failure to conflicting modes of parable and melodrama. Christopher Plummer lamented the blank verse, noting that Bloomgarden's suggestions to reduce pretension were ignored. Claude Rains considered it a damned good play. A television adaptation aired on The Play of the Week on May 2, 1960, with William Shatner as Lewis Rohnen and James MacArthur as Lt. Hartman. An Off-Broadway production at the Cricket Theatre opened on May 21, 1963, and lasted three performances.
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