Customer Reviews

Night of January 16th: A Comedy-Drama in Three Acts

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As an admirer of Ayn Rand's play, Night of January 16th, I'd heard about the "amateur theatre" Longman's version, edited by Nathaniel Edward Reeid, and had always wondered how bad it was, for Miss Rand to explicitly denounce and disown it.

I saw the play last night, at a local production which used the Longman script. It has indeed been changed, from an outstanding drama, to a senseless mess.

Most of the brilliant humor from the original is lost, while endless juvenile comedic touches are added; some characters are virtually unrecognizable (with, incredibly, a "gun moll" added as the last, "comic-relief" witness), the plot is contorted, and the theme and climax are reduced from a grand scale, sense-of-life morality play to a choice between rationally determining the facts (voiced, believe it or not, by the "bad guys") or emotionally following your heart.

Having loved the original play, and the productions of it which I've seen, the evening was a big disappointment.

If you're interested in reading Night of January 16th, be sure the read the original. If you're planning a production of the play, I encourage you to read the original, and, if you have a morbid curiosity, compare it to the mutilated "Comedy-Drama" version, and decide for yourself.