|
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
By Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Michael Patrick Thornton
At The Gift Theatre
4802 N. Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL
Call 773-283-7071, tickets $20
Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 3 hours, 45 minutes with intermission
Through October 15, 2006
O’Neill’s masterpiece in good hands at The Gift Theatre
Who would have ever thought that on the Northwest Side of Chicago, in the “vast wasteland of mediocrity,” that a stellar production of a 20th Century classic by one of the master playwrights would occur? That is exactly what awaits you just off the corner of Lawrence and Milwaukee Avenues at The Gift Theatre.
Their Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Number 5 on my list of “The 25 Significant American Dramatic Plays That Everyone Should See”) is a major achievement for The Gift theatre Company. For a small storefront theatre to attempt to do a four-act, three hour and forty-five minute tragedy seems a stretch unless you realize that The Gift Theatre, under the leadership and craftsmanship of Michael Patrick Thornton, is quite capable of producing quality shows. Eugene O’Neill would tip his hat to this production, it’s that good.
The Gift’s intimate space adds depth to O’Neill’s family tragedy that features the Tyrone’s, a family in despair as they seem to be doomed and trapped in their dark past where fears, addictions and habits dominate the present. Written in 1941 but only produced after O’Neill’s death in 1956, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is set in 1912 in the Tyrone summer home in New London, Connecticut. This most autobiographical play deals with the nature of family love where each person loves more than hates the other family members. The play has no plot and features a day in the life of a dysfunctional family. It is a marvelously talky exposition of past events that the characters can’t seem to escape from. Anyone who loves outstanding, rich dialogue (as I do) will cherish O’Neill’s language. You’ll need to be patient with this play as it takes time to engage us. I believe this work is among the finest American plays ever penned.
 |
We meet James Tyrone (Gary Wingert) the retired former actor whose stinginess and obsession with acquiring land together with his hard drinking makes him difficult to live with. His wife, Mary (Alexandra Main) is a morphine addict after a difficult child birth. She lives in the past as she recalls how she left the convent and put aside her piano as she fell in love with the dashing actor, James.
Jamie (John Kelly Connolly) is the oldest son and failed Thespian who lives for alcohol and whores while Edmund (Brendan Donldson) is the wandering seamen and poet (the voice of O’Neill?) who suffers from consumption (tuberculosis).
Covering one full day, the play features much talk about how the simmering discordances affect each family member. We realize that, despite long arguments and much dark humor, the family can’t seem to be capable of communicating with one another. Example, no one has the guts to face and deal with Mary’s morphine addiction or Jamie’s drinking or Edmund’s illness.
What strikes us, after we engage with O’Neill’s enticing language and the strongly human portrays from the terrific cast, is O’Neill’s non judgmental, unbiased assessment of each character. Each are presented not as good or evil but as flawed and deeply human people whose love for one another wins out over their immense dislikes. From James’ fear of poverty that makes him a miser to Mary’s struggle with morphine to the son’s drinking and lack of purpose, we see emerging from all the rancor that love does indeed prevail in the Tyrone family despite all being trapped in the past. It is really a long journey into the past that eventually becomes tragic.
You would be hard pressed to find four finer performances than Gary Wingert, Brendan Donaldson, John Kelly Connelly and Alexandra Main gave here. Each had their strong, eloquent moments with Alexandra Main (despite being too young looking) delivering a fabulously rich, almost memorizing interruption of Mary as delusional addict. Director Michael Patrick Thornton kept the pace moving so that the flow built dramatic tension and masked the show’s actual length. With intoxicating theatre, time becomes meaningless.
Kudos to the craftsmanship of the folks at The Gift Theatre for nailing a classic. It is a wonderful experience to spend an evening enjoying beautiful language played marvelously in an intimate setting. I almost asked them to pour me a whiskey.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date reviewed: September 1, 2006
|
