STAGE REVIEW : ‘A Touch of the Poet’ at Celtic Arts

It’s disconcerting to realize that Eugene O’Neill wrote his dreadful “A Touch of the Poet” after “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” Like watching a former ace hurler refusing to retire and giving up countless home run balls, seeing “Poet” is to see O’Neill’s genius in complete rigor mortis.

Gaycq Manifold’s Celtic Arts Center production transcends physical laws by making this truly dead play, about an arrogant, pipe-dreaming innkeeper and his headstrong daughter, a little more dead. Most of the actors appear either unsupervised (did no one inform Bernadette O’Neill as the daughter that her tone of anger becomes an unlistenable drone?) or terribly misdirected (J. P. Burns can’t handle the innkeeper’s transition to goodness any more than his dialect). This is three hours of dreariness, down to Richard Scully’s set and Peter Strauss’ lights.

At 5651 Hollywood Blvd., on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m., through June 25. Tickets: $10; (213) 462-6844.