HUGHIE and BEFORE BREAKFAST
If you’re familiar with the play Before Breakfast, then you know that it consists of an early-morning tirade delivered by one Mrs. Rowland to her lazy, drunken, unemployed, unfaithful husband, who remains offstage during the entire play, never once responding to her taunts. In the end, much to Mrs. Rowland’s surprise, the husband kills himself. But in this production, there’s no offstage bumping and groaning, and Mrs. Rowland doesn’t run “shrieking madly into the outer hallway” at the end. She just sits there as the silence and darkness close in around her.
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That would be Hughie, the former night clerk, who recently died. According to Erie, Hughie was a sucker, trapped in a dull marriage that drained the life out of him. For Erie, Hughie was a chance to show off, to embroider on his exploits, and, in return, Erie breathed some life into Hughie. But now Hughie’s dead and Erie’s starting to come apart at the seams.
