The Iceman Cometh

The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. It has subsequently been adapted for the screen multiple times. The work tells the story of a number of alcoholic dead-enders who live together in a flop house above a saloon and what happens to them when the most outwardly "successful" of them embraces sobriety and reveals that he has been on the run after murdering his "beloved" wife. Characters Harry Hope: Widowed proprietor of the saloon and rooming house where the play takes place. He has a tendency to give free drinks, though he constantly says otherwise Ed Mosher: Hope's brother-in-law (brother of Hope's late wife Bess), a con-man and former circus man Pat McGloin: Former police lieutenant who was convicted on criminal charges and kicked off the force Willie Oban: Harvard Law School alumnus Joe Mott: Former proprietor of a gambling house General Piet Wetjoen: Former leader of a Boer commando Captain Cecil Lewis: Former Captain of British infantry James "Jimmy Tomorrow" Cameron: Former Boer War correspondent who is constantly daydreaming about getting his old job back again tomorrow (hence his nickname) Hugo Kalmar: Former editor of anarchist periodicals who often quotes the Old Testament Larry Slade: Former syndicalist-anarchist Rocky Pioggi: Night bartender, who is paid little and makes his living mostly by allowing Pearl and Margie to stay at the bar in exchange for a substantial cut of the money they make from prostitution, although he despises being called a pimp Don Parritt: Teenage son of a former anarchist Pearl: Streetwalker working for Rocky Margie: Streetwalker working for Rocky Cora: Streetwalker, Chuck's girlfriend Chuck Morello: Day bartender, Cora's boyfriend Theodore "Hickey" Hickman: Hardware salesman Moran: Police detective Lieb: Police detective Plot summary The Iceman Cometh is set in New York in 1912 in Harry Hope's downmarket Greenwich Village saloon and rooming house. The patrons, twelve men and three prostitutes, are dead-end alcoholics who spend every possible moment seeking oblivion in one another's company and trying to con or wheedle free drinks from Harry and the bartenders.