Long Day’s Journey Into Night

The production of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” at the Wyndham theatre was interesting to say the least.  “Long Day’s Journey into Night” was one of the three plays we read before coming to London.  The script is great and was my favorite out of the three that we had read, so I was very excited to see it especially considering that Brian Cox would also be in the production we were seeing.  Seeing it live was incredible; however, I had some issues with it.  My issues are with the tech.  My first issue is the set, in the script the room the play takes place in is filled with stuff but in this production the room was empty.  The set wasn’t minimalistic because it was a complete unit, but it was also empty.  I understand that the set was meant to look like the house had no soul but instead the set just seemed boring to me.  The sound design was also very weird, there was this prerecorded music that played at the beginning and intermission which I didn’t really get but it was fine.  However, a short melody would play when something important happened during the play and I hated that.  It almost felt insulting, as if I as the viewer couldn’t understand the story or its themes.  Lastly, the lighting felt awkward.  The play takes place in one room at different parts of the day, so the setting never changed.  Throughout the play lights are turned off and on so there are lights that mimic the lights in that house and the placement of these lights are so weird.  They are not realistic to where actual lights would be in a house like that.  They were at awkward positions and created strange lighting.  Also at the end when the mom entered all the lights turned on suddenly and it completely blinded me.  While the tech elements weren’t that great I must say the acting was incredible.  Every actor gave a stellar performance and did incredible justice to the script.