Long Day's Journey Into Night (review)

In act 4 of Long Day's Journey Into Night Edmund Tyrone describes his mother, Mary: "She moves above and beyond us, a ghost haunting the past." It seems that Scott Edmiston, director of a recent New Repertory Theatre production of the play, took a cue from this description. Just about everything in this production at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Massachusetts felt full of ghosts "haunting the past." From a stark white set that was far more evocative than naturalistic, to the characters' pale costumes, to the way Mary (Karen MacDonald) seemed to float down the stairs and around the living room, Edmiston's take on the play of the "four haunted Tyrones" was both eerie and effective.

The strongest aspect of the production was Karen MacDonald's performance as Mary. MacDonald, a Boston theater veteran, kept Mary's vulnerability and fragility close to the surface, so despite the resolved and capable front she put on for her family at the start of the play, the audience was never allowed to believe Mary was completely healthy. Her half-hearted smiles and never-still hands only added to the tension she shared with her fellow family members. At the end of the play, MacDonald handled the shifts in emotion and allegiances required of the character with dexterity and skill. She switched between vituperation aimed at husband James to great tenderness for son Edmund in such a wild way that her complete submission to the effects of morphine was very believable. MacDonald's transformation to the innocent convent girl in the play's final moments was remarkable. Her voice and body movements became lighter, and gestures like the twirling of her hair as well as lots of giggles only added to the rich pathos and heartbreak of the scene.

Fig. 1.

Will Lyman and Karen MacDonald in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Photo by Andrew Brilliant / Brilliant Pictures.

MacDonald also had palpable chemistry with Will Lyman, who played James Tyrone. In act 1, the two seemed barely able to keep their hands off each another. Lyman dramatically dipped MacDonald back in order to kiss her, grabbed her around her waist, and twirled her around the room. Such caressing only made the distance between husband and wife at the end of the play all the more painful. By act 4 Lyman seemed to avoid touching his wife at all costs as she glided in and out of the living room in a drugged haze. Lyman was also effective before and during his confession to Edmund about his artistic regrets, for he gave us a glimpse of both the melodramatic actor and ruinous effects of his career choices. In act 4, before Edmund entered, Lyman mimed swashbuckling swordplay, certainly a nod to James O'Neill's famed role in The Count of Monte Cristo. This display seemed to demonstrate the character's inability, even whilst on vacation, to escape the role that damaged his artistry so badly. In his confession scene, Lyman, who throughout the play showed a stern rigidity in dealing with son Jamie, conveyed a palpable vulnerability, which revealed that he was in fact a broken man. In his dedication of Long Day's Journey Into Night, O'Neill explains that he wrote the play "with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all the four haunted Tyrones." With Lyman's powerful performance, the character of James Tyrone did in fact earn pity, understanding, and forgiveness.

Lewis D. Wheeler did a commendable job as Jamie Tyrone. He masterfully demonstrated the conflicted nature of the character, particularly when discussing Edmund with his father in act 1, a scene that requires Jamie to first spew venomous insults about his brother and then succumb to deep regret. Melissa Baroni was simply delightful as Cathleen. After Cathleen and Mary returned from the pharmacy, MacDonald braided Baroni's hair, and the two laughed...