The Great God Brown by Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) The Great God Brown is a 1926 play by Eugene O'Neill. It is noted for its use of masks. The play was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1925-1926. Dion Anthony and his friend William A. "Billy" Brown are sons of business partners. Both love Margaret, but she falls in love with Dion when he is presented behind a cruel and cynical mask, even though he is a sensitive artist. After the two men inherit the business, Dion retires to paint, but fails and eventually dies. Billy takes the mask and poses as Margaret's husband. By the time she finds out, the "real" Billy has faded away. Brown is accused of killing his "real" self, and only the unmasked prostitute Cybel is there to comfort him. Eventually Billy dies as well, and years later Margaret pledges her undying love to Dion's mask.

"The Great God Brown" is a play by Eugene O'Neal dealing with the topic of human personality and social image. To express this, all the characters in the play, except a prostitute Cybel, wear masks covering their real identities. According to the plot, two young men, sons of wealthy landowners, fall in love with one girl, Margaret. Yet, Margaret has to decide what she loves most: a mask of a man or his real personality.

Why are the seriously ill seldom healed? Why do people fall in the Spirit yet remain unchanged? Why can believers speak in tongues and wage spiritual warfare without impacting society? This book confronts you with its life-changing answers.

"The Great God Pan is a haunting, deeply affecting play about the interaction of identity, psychology and pathology. Ms. Herzog writes with keen sensitivity to the complex weave of feelings embedded in all human relationships, with particular attention to the way we tiptoe around areas of radioactive emotion." - New York Times "Whatever the ideal contemporary American drama is, it has to look a lot like The Great God Pan. It is provocative and subtle, slowly, carefully revelatory, sweetly moving, thought-provoking, funny and insightful." - New York Observer "An intelligent, delicately articulate writer." - Village Voice "A moving and unsettling look at the nature of identity and the vagaries of memory. With subtlety and compassion, Herzog contemplates how well we can really know ourselves." - Backstage Jamie's life in Brooklyn seems just fine: a beautiful girlfriend, a burgeoning journalism career, and parents who live just far enough away. But when a possible childhood trauma comes to light, lives are thrown into a tailspin. Unsettling and deeply compassionate, The Great God Pan tells the intimate tale of what is lost and won when a hidden truth is suddenly revealed. Amy Herzog's plays include 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize finalist), After the Revolution and Belleville. Ms. Herzog is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Whiting Writers' Award, an Obie Award and the Helen Merrill Award for Aspiring Playwrights.

In this wide-ranging book that moves from Greek drama to modern poetry, David Brown explores the ways in which the poetry and drama of the past were rooted in religious questions. He posits that their creative potential needs to be rediscovered to bring present-day worship and experience of God alive.