TCTP’s disconsolate, fearless Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Long Day’s Journey Into Night is set in August 1912. It transpires in the cycle of a single day: beginning after breakfast, and ending in the deep hours after midnight. Mary Tyrone and James Tyrone live with their two grown sons: Jamie and Edmund, in a summer house on the coast of Connecticut. Jamie (as many older brothers do) has taken Edmund under his wing. The two are no strangers to liquor blitzes and visiting brothels. The Tyrones might seem like any other family. It’s not unusual to take good-natured jabs at each other. Any long-term relationship will have squabbles and arguments and maybe a knockdown dragout from time to time. Contentiousness is there from the start, but it only seems to pass.

At the beginning nothing seems out of the ordinary. Breakfast is over, James and Mary are flirting, in the next room the brothers are laughing, which James assumes is at his expense. When they emerge they tell an amusing anecdote, but not without dad admonishing their politics. Mary cannot go for long without noticing their constant attention. She asks if her hair has come down. There is much discussion about going into town, getting Edmund to the doctor, what’s really making him sick. When Jamie and his dad are alone, things get really heated, but they stop abruptly when Mary appears. They go outside to do yardwork. When James returns he gives Edmund some folding money (a monumental event) to spend on liquor and the ladies.

Mary is distraught, reminded of her battle with morphine addiction, which happened when she was giving birth, assisted by her husband’s quack doctor. Edmund feels guilty because he “caused” his mother’s addiction.  All three of the men are terrified that she will start injecting again. Jamie’s cynicism and bitterness with the world are so tangible, They are unmistakable. And chilling.  Mary is quiet, but shares painful truths almost nonchalantly. James lost his successful career as an actor, by no fault of his own.  

Long Day’s Journey Into Night tells the story of a family that cares deeply for one another, but is stuck in a tangle of triggers, vehemence, and crushing self-recrimination. None of the family members want to discuss things openly, but they can’t let anything go. They can’t forgive themselves for making choices that supposedly ruined their halcyon lives, or the life of their loved ones. The drama culminates in a devastating confession, when Jamie, for all his love, can’t contain his need to sabotage Edmund’s life. Jamie has enough clarity to make this painful admission. They all care intensely, but love doesn’t win.

Director Jackie Kemp has taken this phenomenal cast and extracts overwhelming, utterly un-selfconscious, performances. Mary-Margaret Pyeatt’s Mary is delicate and poised, nearly frail. Her bearing is regal, if understated. Stephen Miller’s James has that broken nonbility aspect. He’s proud, but never arrogant. Noah Riddle as the younger brother, Edmund, is somber, soft spoken, chipper, but clearly tentative. He is the least resentful. Joey Folsom’s Jamie is ferocious, disparaging. His performance is a fatal mix of disappointment and vindictiveness. Mr. Kemp has demonstrated (more than once) his cunning, meticulous genius for evincing the essence of daunting, impossible scripts, so alarming and relevant, they might have been written last week. He respects us enough to create life-changing, unpretty, astonishing theatre.

I am consistently amazed how The Classics Theatre Project sets nearly impossible tasks before themselves. Groundbreaking, unnerving shows like: Dutchman, Fool for Love, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Long Day’s Journey Into Night is considered one of the best plays ever written. It premiered (November 1956) in America, posthumously, at Eugene O’Neill’s insistence. It has never been a secret that the content is fearlessly personal. We can only imagine what it must be like for TCTP’s cast members to pour themselves into this excruciating, profoundly disturbing piece, night after night. This exhibition of punishment and despair. If you want drama that never buffers, never apologizes for being raw, never panders to mediocrity, check out TCTP’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

The Classics Theatre Project presents: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, playing May 19^th -June 11^th, 2023. The Stone Cottage. 15650 Addison Road Addison, TX 75001. (214) 923-3619. theclassicstheatreproject.com