O'Neill at New Rep

Victoria Petrosino, New Rep Reviewer

New Rep’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (for which he posthumously received a Pulitzer prize for drama) is immersive and conflict-ridden, showing (yet again) New Rep’s ability to assemble talented actors in dialogue-driven dramas.

The 3+ hour play revolves around James Tyrone (Will Lyman), an aging alcoholic actor with a refined Irish brogue who alternately plays the loving husband, the disappointed father, and the remorseful man, angry at himself for selling-out his love of acting.  His wife Mary (Karen MacDonald) is both euphemistically evasive (calling Edmund’s hacking cough a “summer cold”) and bitingly honest (telling James of her disdain for their house’s impermanence).  She flits between reality and memory, causing family-wide fear of an imminent relapse into her morphine addiction.  Their sons Edmund (Nicholas Dillenburg), the poet, and Jamie (Lewis D. Wheeler), the profligate, provoke their parents to admit the truth of their current situation.

Scenic designer Janie Howland creates the perfect canvas for the tense, monologue-driven play with her idea of the family’s dilapidated seaside Connecticut “home.”  While the characters repeatedly remark on the dense fog that refuses to dissipate outside, the audience sees that same struggle to hide within the home.  The floors and furniture are bleached white; insubstantial white wicker chairs and lace curtains add to the feeling of fleetingness, to the family’s dismissal of the present in favor of the past, however distressing and hurtful that past may be.  

Costume designer Charles Schoonmaker dresses the characters in neutral colors as well.  Pale pinks and creams help the characters blend into their whitewashed surroundings, reinforcing the idea that the characters hide behind their respective delusions.  The blank canvas of the stage belies the unhidden tensions between the family members, a lifetime of regrets perpetually darkening each interaction.  The pale color scheme aids the ghost-like, ephemeral theme of the production: each character lives a sliver of his or her life in the present, and spends the rest looking back at a lifetime of regrets.

While the monologues are excellent, the fascinating part of watching New Rep’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is watching the other characters react to those monologues.  They each show emotion rawly, terrified that the next remark may strike too closely to the truth.  They are vigilant, and fearful, and steeped in sadness, ready to react and deflect blame.  Watching these reactions underscores the multitude of regrets that have taken their toll on this family.  Lyman, in particular, looks aged and sullen and utterly beaten as he listens to Mary speaking of Eugene and of her love of the piano, as she gazes woefully at her arthritic hands.

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is another compelling example of New Rep's Legacy season.  The acting is exceptional: the actors are expressive and the accents are spot-on.  Even in the midst of watching the cast dredge up a  lifetime of regrets, the audience couldn’t help but laugh along with “Jamie’s trick” or Edmund’s pig story.  The production allows a new audience to experience one of the classic plays of the 20th century.