[NEohioPAL]Berko review: LONG DAY'S JOURNEY (Ensemble)

[Roy Berko]

‘LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ GETS GOOD PERFORMANCE
AT ENSEMBLE

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times	

On July 22, 1941,  on the 12th anniversary of his
marriage, Eugene O’Neill wrote this letter to his
wife:  “Dearest: I give you the original script of
this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood. 
A sadly inappropriate gift, it would seem, for a day
celebrating happiness.  But you will understand. I
mean it as a tribute to your love and tenderness which
gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my
dead at last and write this play.”

The play he was referring to was ‘A LONG DAY’S JOURNEY
INTO NIGHT,’ now on stage at Ensemble Theatre.

The history of the script is fascinating.  In the
summer of 1939, at the age of 50, O'Neill began work
on an autobiographical masterpiece that confronted the
truth about his own family.   He completed the work in
1941, but said the play was not to be produced until
25 years after his death.  

His wife, however, knowing of the power of the work,
released it for production in 1956, three years after
O'Neill's death.  It won a Pulitzer Prize and has
often been hailed as O'Neill's greatest play, even
being called the greatest American play of all time. 

Though the names have been changed, O'Neill gives an
account of his explosive home life.  James Tyrone (the
father), is an aging actor and a miserly skinflint.
His wife, Mary, has been a morphine addict since the
birth of their youngest son, Edmund.  Their eldest
son, Jamie is an alcoholic, unable and unwilling to
find work on his own. Edmund, (Eugene O’Neill himself)
who has been away as a sailor, has returned home sick
and awaits the doctor's diagnosis.  Each of them is so
self-centered and self-pitying, that they cannot help
one-another as they sink further and further into
despair.

During his sanitorium confinement for consumption,
O'Neill studied voraciously. He devoted special
attention to the playwrights Ibsen and Strindberg.  
His plays reflect these authors’ stark realistic
styles.  

The 1920 Broadway production of ‘BEYOND THE HORIZON’
marked the start of O'Neill's ascent to fame. He won
the Nobel Prize in 1936, the first American playwright
to receive the honor.  O’Neill’s classics include ‘THE
ICEMAN COMETH,’ ‘THE EMPEROR JONES,’‘ANNA CHRISTIE,’
‘THE HAIRY APE,’‘DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS,’ ‘AH
WILDERNESS,’ and ‘A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN.’

An award winning 1962 film version of ‘LONG DAY’S
JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ starred Dean Stockwell , Jason
Robards, Ralph Richardson, and Katharine Hepburn. 

 ‘LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ is a very difficult
play to perform.  It is very long, talky and
depressing.  Ensemble’s production, under the
direction of Licia Colombi, is a very creditable
staging.

The handsome and slight Andrew Cruse is a perfect
Edmund.  His body wracks with deep-lung coughs, he
convincingly portrays O’Neill’s valiant fight for
sanity in an addictively dysfunctional family.  

In portraying O’Neill’s mother, Annie Kitral takes on
one of the great women’s stage roles. As with
actresses who portray Blanche in ‘STREETCAR NAMED
DESIRE,’ Amanda in ‘THE GLASS MENAGERIE,’ and Martha
in ‘WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF,’ she confronts a
major challenge.  And, she wins the battle.  This is a
finely honed performance.  She clearly carries us
deeper and deeper into her depression as she attempts
to escape from reality through drugs. 

Robert Hawkes gives a good performance as the drunken
and misguided father.   He might have textured the
role more to give a clearer picture of the character’s
mood swings as his frustration with life builds and we
see that, as with most alcoholics, he goes from drug
induced rage to depression.

John Kolibab has some fine moments near the play’s
ending when he purports both his love and hate for his
younger brother while wallowing in a drunken haze. 
He, as with Hawkes, needed more clearly defined
moments of rationality and psychological clashes.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:   A classic nine word review of the
play once stated, “
‘A LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’--yes, it was!” 
Fortunately for local audiences Colombi has cut almost
an hour off the overly-long script and has molded her
cast into an effective unit.  Ensemble’s production is
a fine way to experience the power of O’Neill.

‘LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT’ continues at Ensemble
Theatre, located in the intimate Black Box Theatre in
the Cleveland Play House complex through March 13. 
For ticket information call 216-321-2930.


Roy Berko's web page can be found at www.royberko.info.  His theatre and dance reviews appear on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.


		
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