Long Day's Journey Worth Taking

by Frank Furnari, New Rep Reviewer

Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the Tony and Pulitzer award-winning play by Eugene O’Neill is considered by many to be his masterpiece and the New Rep production certainly does the play justice. It takes place over the course of one day at the Tyrone family house in August of 1912. The play is semi-autobiographical and gives the audience a glimpse of O’Neill’s dysfunctional family.

We meet James, the father – an actor originally from Ireland who loves to drink and hates to spend money. Mary, his wife has recently came home from being treated for her morphine addition. The couple has two sons, Jamie the older son who is following in his father’s footsteps as an actor and Edmund, the younger, sickly son who works as a poet. As the title states, it is a long day with the play running almost 3.5hrs and while over all it’s a great play, it does feel long especially at points in the second half when it is just the three men drinking and talking. While the play was written 70 years ago, it still feels relevant and if one has seen the popular play August Osage County by Tracy Letts, one certainly sees how this show has influenced it – the family problems, the mother addicted to prescription medication - the similarities were more striking given Janie E. Howland’s set design, which bares a resemblance to the Broadway and touring production set of August.

In my opinion, the best part of this production was Karen MacDonald’s wonderful, layered, and compelling portrayal of Mary. Whenever MacDonald is on stage, she captivates you– it is a joy to watch such a performance. In addition to her, Will Lyman’s James is another stellar performance, especially in his scenes with MacDonald. With Scott Edminston’s direction, it feels as if they have been together for many years, especially when MacDonald is talking about the other opportunities of her youth, Lyman’s reaction is a tired one, one that has heard this many times over the years. Both Lewis D. Wheeler as Jamie and Nicholas Dillenburg as Edmund give good performance, however they do not deliver the same caliber as MacDonald and Lyman. Melissa Baroni rounds out the cast as Cathleen, the cheery, inexperienced Irish summer maid who comes in and out of the kitchen to deal with the off-stage cook as well as providing Mary company while the men are away.

Sometimes classics can start to show their age, but this was not the case with A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The struggles seen by this family are as familiar today as they were when O’Neill wrote it and in the hands of a talented team, it makes for a great (long) night of theater.