Long Day's Journey Into Night

It’s a long journey, but it’s worth the trip. The York Shakespeare Company’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a lengthy but well-acted, swiftly staged, heartfelt production of one of the greatest and most challenging works of drama written.O’Neill wrote the famously autobiographical play, a thinly disguised portrait of his own family, while in his fifties and requested that it not be published until 25 years after his death. The desperately sad story of a family struggling with alcoholism and illness was inspired by his own parents and siblings and paints a less-than-flattering portrait of everyone involved.The Tyrone clan has no shortage of hurt and anger between them, and this is apparent from the first scene. The patriarch, Jim (Bill Fairbairn) is a former actor currently living in his family’s summer home in Connecticut with his wife and two sons. Mary, played by Rebecca Street, is a recovering morphine addict just released from the sanitarium. Jamie (Seth Duerr) the older son, is a failed actor and alcoholic, much to his father’s chagrin and Edmund (Alexander Harvey) has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, a fact his mother repeatedly denies.The years of hurt and sadness this family shares is apparent as they fluctuate between love and hate and calm and anger in the blink of an eye. The concern and resentment they have for each other is magnified with the loaded, passive-aggressive comments they say and the blunt, furious accusations they make.“You know the way she gets,” the father says of the mother when she begins acting strangely and showing signs of another relapse. Yes, they do, and that much is clear.Street’s performance as Mary is riveting. As she descends further into her addiction, her anger and sadness becomes clear, as she mentions the life she sacrificed to marry Jim and the illness that followed the birth of her sons. She frequently makes spiteful, harsh comments and follows them with a softly spoken, “Forgive me. I didn’t mean it.” And as she sees her sons watching her and worrying, she becomes more and more defensive. This Mary is gentle and lost as well as angry and defensive, commanding the audience’s sympathy as she struggles with her addiction. Unfortunately, the oversized and ungainly wig Street wears distracts from her performance, especially when she frequently mentions how her long, red hair was one of her most beautiful features when she was young.Fairbairn’s performance as Jim, the weary patriarch of the family, is more subdued, which is both a benefit and a detriment to the role. At first he appears quietly resigned to his wife’s antics and determined to remain a calm and level-headed husband and father; he seems more angry over his son’s failures than those of his his marriage. In the latter half of the play, as he reminisces about his youth and success as an actor, and the subsequent disappointments in his career, more emotion is needed but Fairbair does not deliver. Instead, he speaks quietly and calmly. It is no small feat to have memorized all of Jim Tyrone’s lines, but they should not sound as rehearsed and recited as Fairbairn makes them.Duerr and Harvey are both excellent in their roles as the next generation of Tyrones. Duerr is especially impressive during Jamie’s final, drunken monologue, maintaining incoherence while not overacting. And Harvey’s delivery of Edmund’s poetic description of the ocean is simply beautiful. Rounding out the cast is Julie Jesneck as Cathleen, the maid, complete with red hair and thick brogue.The cast is done a disservice by the set, which is too stark and simple for such an elaborate and lengthy play. While a company this accomplished does not require an complicated background, the production would have benefited from more visuals. But that detriment is a weak one compared to the emotional punch this production carries. It definitely leaves a bruise.