A Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’neil is a tragically realistic play about a family that brings itself up and tears itself down. When we read the play for class, I really enjoyed the script. The characters are so interesting to me and the descent we see as everyone succumbs to their own poisons by the end of the play is fascinating to watch. However, my expectations for the show itself were not as high as some of my fellow theatergoers. While I enjoyed the script, I read it more as a novel than a play, so I knew there would be a lot of long monologues without much action happening throughout the play.
Upon arriving at my seat, I was a little concerned. While the view of the stage was alright, I could feel my legs slowly falling asleep and to make matters worse, my eyes wanted to follow suit. We had just spent the majority of the day in the British Museum, so I had to keep myself from drifting off a few times. At last, the show began and I was able to focus on the dialogue and see the story come to life.
All of the actors did such a fantastic job acting drunk. At the end of the play when everything sort of falls apart, the relationship between the father and his sons comes through in such an honest, devastating way as they all speak from hate and love. One of my favorite moments was when Jamie tells Edmund how he tried to sabotage his little brother in order to make himself look better even though he “loves his guts.” I also enjoyed seeing the gradual transition in Mary as she slowly uses more opium and becomes increasingly distant and incoherent. The only problem I had with her character was how the first transition happened. I don’t think the nervous, drug-free Mary at the top of the show and Mary after her first use were very different. The only reason I knew that she had used it was because the character says so.
I was also a little distracted throughout the show because of the children’s American accents. The only reason I could tell they were using accents was because they would occasionally use the British pronunciation. Whenever Edmund would say “been” as in “where have you been?” he would pronounce it as “bean” instead of “bin.” This is so trivial and it shouldn’t matter, but I would be taken out of the moment wherever I caught a mistake like that.
I enjoyed the show for the most part, but it is definitely not my favorite. I didn’t agree with all of the choices, but at the end of the day, I took a long day’s journey into a lovely play.
Cheers!
I don’t have any pictures of the play, so here are Nick and Ace
Theatre in London U of A 