Ah, Wilderness

Ah, Wilderness!
Poster for WPA production of Ah, Wilderness! at Federal Theater Playhouse, New Orleans
Written by	Eugene O'Neill
Date premiered	October 2, 1933
Place premiered	Guild Theatre New York City
Original language	English
Genre	Comedy
Setting	The Miller family home in small town Connecticut, July 4, 1906.

Ah, Wilderness! is a comedy by American playwright Eugene O'Neill that premiered on Broadway at the Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It varies from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn of the century America.

The play was successful in its first Broadway production and the touring production that followed. It has since become a staple of community repertory.

The play takes place on the Fourth of July, 1906, and focuses on the Miller family, presumably of New London, Connecticut. The main plot deals with the middle son, 16-year-old Richard, and his coming of age in turn of the twentieth-century America. "Perhaps the most atypical of the author's works, the play presents a sentimental tale of youthful indiscretion in a turn-of-the-century New England town."

The title derives from Quatrain XII of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (5th edition, 1889), one of Richard's favorite poems:

Theatre Guild Producer
Philip Moeller Director
Robert Edmond Jones Scenic Designer
CAST
George M. Cohan as Nat Miller
Adelaide Bean as Mildred Miller
John Butler as Salesman
Ruth Chorpenning as Norah
Elisha Cook, Jr. as the son, Richard Miller
Ruth Gilbert as Muriel McComber
Eda Heinemann as Lily Miller
Ruth Holden as Belle
Gene Lockhart as Sid Davis
Marjorie Marquis as David's mother, Essie Miller
Donald McClelland as Bartender
William Post, Jr. as Arthur Miller
Richard Sterling as David McComber
Walter Vonnegut, Jr. as Tommy Miller
John Wynne as Wint Selby