Eugene O’Neill’s masterpiece, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is an exquisitely intricate piece of theater. In New Rep’s production, these intricacies are sharply realized in a superbly acted and overall excellent production that is well worth the three-hour time investment it requires.
Over the course of one long day, O’Neill shows us his family: a mother with a destructive addiction, a father who carries his closely-guarded disappointments everywhere, and an older brother who channels his anger and resentment into a drinking problem. And then there is Edmund, O’Neill’s version of himself, who suffers as quietly as he can while doing his best to keep the peace.
This play is largely about blame. Each member of the family talks vindictively about the past, describing in detail the ways in which others failed them, recounting the steps that led to the sad reality of the present. What’s miraculous is the discovery, as a viewer, that no one is really to blame: this is just life, a stunning picture of the loneliness and hurt that we impose on each other and life imposes on us.
Will Lyman and Karen MacDonald, familiar to seasoned Boston theatergoers, are perfect in the parts of James and Mary Tyrone. As he did in “Exits and Entrances,” Lyman fully embodies the aging actor he is portraying, and all of James’ issues, revealed over the course of the play, are infused into every line he speaks. In the role of Mary, MacDonald shines – she makes Mary’s tragedies beautiful at times, and thus all the more scary and devastating.
In the roles of Jamie and Edmund, Lewis D. Wheeler and Nicholas Dillenburg are also ideally cast. Both of these performances have an element of a slow burn – at first, it’s not clear how entrenched these boys will be in the family crises, but with each scene more and more is stripped away as the performances deepen. It is fascinating.
Director Scott Edmiston deserves great praise for this production. He recognizes that this play doesn’t need much more than excellent actors clearly speaking these carefully constructed words, and he doesn’t get in their way. The action unfolds in waves as the day goes on and on. By nightfall, much is revealed, but it is still just a slow churning towards an end without real resolution. This is a picture of a family’s life just as it is: hard, confusing, and continuing.
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