Last night we saw Long Days Journey Into Night, a play written by Eugene O’Neil. We had read the script already for class in Fayetteville, which I had really liked and had made me very excited to see the play. I was also excited to see Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson—actors who I knew were very talented from some of there film work. When reading the script, I did notice some benefit to reading over watching. The italicized lines (any non-dialogue, really) were so insightful to the story to me, and I knew that they were things I would not have distinctly picked up on in a performance. So, I really felt for this play specifically that reading it was helpful. Also, I found out I knew one of the other actors, Louisa Harland as Cathleen, who plays Orla in Derry Girls (such a good show, I highly suggest!).
When the play started, I wasn’t immediately as impressed as I thought I would be. I do not mean to hate on the show or any of the performances, because overall I really did enjoy it and the actors. I think I just may have gone in with very high expectations and at first thought I was going to be disappointed. I won’t put in writing the specifics of what I may not have liked about the performances, because I really don’t want to dog on the actors like that. I talked about it the day of, things I was a bit underwhelmed with, but looking back I honestly think I was too quick with my judgement so fresh out of the play. Now that I’ve been able to sit with it a bit more and probably forgot some of the details already, I don’t really have anything to complain about. They all performed their roles well, and I thought their relationship dynamics were really very powerful, which is such a key part of this story. The love-hate relationships they kind of all have between each other is so emotional and powerful. They all have self-loathing and guilt, but all push blame onto each other, which fuels this resentment between them. I thought their performances of drug and alcohol use were well done, efficient, and tasteful. It was certainly not overdone—something I think is a big risk in a lot of media. In fact, Patricia Clarkson’s transition to sober to using was so subtle I almost didn’t catch it. While she was not on stage so much in the second half, when she was, she was incredible. The men, I felt, also preformed drunk well. It wasn’t for comedy, which is an important distinction from a lot of other portrayals. They weren’t staggering all over the stage or anything, Brian Cox even stood on a table twice while he was supposed to be pretty drunk. (I was actually so nervous he was going to fall and get hurt, that would have been so scary!) They also didn’t slur their words, and I could still understand them. Instead, it was more subtle variations—they would occasionally sway a bit or a small stagger—but nothing over the top. Brian Cox even slipped into a Irish accent, something detailed in the script that I feel he did a great job implementing. But speaking of accents, that was honestly my biggest complaint. The character Jamie, played by Irish actor Daryl McCormack, had a great performance but not so great American accent. I don’t know how to explain it, he still spoke with powerful emotion and I could understand him clearly, but it was almost monotone. Whatever it was, it was unfortunately distracting at times and did detract from his performance a bit for me.
So, while I was not quite as impressed as I thought I would be by intermission, by the time I am writing this I am more satisfied with it. Either way I am very glad I got the chance to see it and would still recommend it to other theatregoers!
Theatre in London U of A 