A Review on the Textplay "Before Breakfast” written by Eugene O’Neill

The text “Before Breakfast” is a one act play written by Eugene O’Neill. What makes this short drama special is the fact that the drama consists mainly of the female lead, Mrs. Rowland, talking to and berating her husband for over twenty minutes. And throughout it all, not once does her husband ever appears on the stage (other than a avery brief glimpse the audience get of his hand). We might as well call this drama “a one character play”. And yet despite it is mainly played by one character only, the drama manages to convey all the necessary element of the usual drama, such as the setting, the plot, and the conflicts—even if we only see it from the way Mrs. Rowland sees.

The Apple's Cart's King Magnus

King Magnus is the main character of a drama play titled The Apple Cart by Darryl Shawn. He was the king of the United Kingdom, or the Great Britain as people called it at the time. He wasn’t the kind of king that would only sit and enjoy the wealth of his position while merely watching his citizens idly without doing anything. He was the kind of king that always observed and cared about his people, and would always try to help them as much as he could.

He was someone who appreciated the idea of democratize and liberalism, although he didn’t partially liked the idea of England being a republic because of some reasons. One of his new elected ministers was a democrat that actually supported the idea of Britain as a republic, but they respected each other greatly and acknowledged the other’s ideals and beliefs after their first meeting.

King Magnus was very clever. When the cabinet that led by the prime minister gave him an ultimatum to stop actively voicing out his opinions to public and stop ruling the kingdom because that only made the cabinet looked bad as if they were actually not working, and asked him to be only an icon, a symbol to the kingdom, King Magnus calmly and cleverly tricked them by saying that he would retire from the king position so he could participate in the election and make his way to the parliament, thus he could freely voicing his opinion. Knowing what would happen if a former king participated in such election, the cabinet not-so-willingly cancelled their ultimatum, and once again everything went back to normal.

I would say that King Magnus was really an admirable person. He always faced every situation calmly and answered every challenge logically, and sometimes he joked as to lighten up the situation. He was also someone who could easily break the ice and he always thought every move and every step thoroughly and carefully before doing it, and he certainly wasn’t someone you want to mess with. But he still was a man that could be tempted with women, and although he did have an affair with a woman inside his palace, he still got his priorities straight, and would never sacrifice his kingdom or his dear queen for anything.

All in all, King Magnus was definitely not someone you should underestimate.