Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a show that I was deeply looking forward to and it did not disappoint. At first, I had trouble with the acting because I could not tell if it was a character choice or not for all of Mary’s lines to feel so regular and almost monotone. However, as the play went on, it started to seem like a genius choice. This is supposed to be what a typical day in the life of this dysfunctional family looked like. If you’re expecting a lot of screaming fighting, that’s just simply not realistic. The people who have seen what this looks like firsthand, which I have, we’re able to appreciate how actually realistic it was.
My one critique is that I wish we would’ve seen more fog as the play progressed. I loved the symbolism of the fog representing the slip away from sanity in the script, and I felt like we were missing a lot of that this time. Otherwise, I was impressed by the lighting and sound design. I noticed the moment where Mr Tyrone stood on the table and turned more lights on, the dialogue took an upbeat turn and when he turned them off again, it was right back to the same negative bickering.
I don’t know that I would recommend this to someone who isn’t a regular theatre goer. I think they might call it boring simply because they don’t understand the beauty behind the theatricality. I actually am unsure of what my opinion would be had I not previously read and analyzed the script.
All in all, I love this play and think it was done beautifully. I was crying the whole way through act 2. Such an impactful message given by a talented cast and artistic director. Bravo!
Theatre in London U of A 