Long Day's Journey Into Night is a dramatic play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill, widely considered to be his masterwork - the autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself, his older brother, and their parents. The play was first published in 1956, and although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death, in 1956  his third wife, Carlotta arranged for this autobiographical masterpiece to be published, and produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. The Generic Theatre has mounted this production, under the direction of Linda Marley Smith and I personally feel that their version of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, albeit “long”, (running 3 hours), is definitely a trip worth taking.

I am one of those people who loves a “story” driven “story” if you get my meaning, and there is plenty of story here. This family is a dysfunctional mess. The Tyrones paint a great portrait of deception, disappointment, and denial.  However, I felt that the first part of the show lacked the intensity the last act contained. Based on the dialogue of the show there were several instances where I found myself waiting for the scene to reach an eventual high point of drama and tension but it didn’t happen.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the performance, but it seemed to me at times that pacing of this show was just too slow.

It’s obvious in the first act that the father James Tyrone (Joel King) and his son Jamie (Steve Stacy) have issues, but their sparring was all one level. I would have preferred a slow simmer, that built up to a raging boil, but they just started out “angry” and stayed “stewed”. However, Stacy redeems himself in Act IV, when in his drunken stupor he reveals levels and complexities to his character that eventually draw us into him. Whereas in the first part of the show I felt he was just rebellious and angry, by the end of the show, I genuinely felt sorry for him and his self-loathing.

As for his father James, I kept wondering to myself if he had any feelings at all. I never got the feeling that he cared about anyone except for himself and how much money he did or didn’t have. If that’s how he was suppose to be, that’s fine, mission achieved;  but I would have like to have seen more range from a man who had so much on his plate to deal with.  I also had a hard time with his inconsistent accent. Some words were very “Irish” but the majority of his speech was “other”.

Speaking of accents, I had a very hard time understanding what the maid Cathleen, played by Jaimie Bauer, was saying for most of her time onstage. While I enjoyed her spunky characterization, a lot of her lines were lost in her accent. Her character seemed to be a bit of a firecracker and she really did lighten the load with such heavy material, and I would have much rather gotten to enjoy her character sans the accent.

The highlight performances of the evening for me were those of John Cauthen as Edmund and Carol Wright as Mary. John Cauthen as Edmund played a character torn at every level, it was obvious that he loved and loathed everyone all at once. He’s the one who is physically sick, but appears to have the most emotional strength consistently throughout the show.  By the end of the show, you get the impression that there is an old soul trapped in that young man’s heart.

Carol Wright was eerie in her portrayal of a woman trying to deny and eventually succumbing to her afflictions and addictions; floating from the past to the present. She put on the happy face but when speaking from her heart, she was anything but. She did an awesome job of trying to keep it together, while slowing, and basically losing it.

The set (Hank Sparks) was beautifully decorated and gave you a very “homey” feel, which was a great juxtaposition, given Mary’s constant laments of the summer place not being a “home”. Of particular note was the circular rug, not wanting to spoil the surprise, I will say no further.  I loved the light change during scene changes in which Cathleen would actually come in to tidy-up.

All costumes (Celia Burnett) were appropriate. But one distraction for me was the ill-fitting wig on Mary. Wigs are difficult enough to begin with, but this particular character is always fiddling with her hair, so it’s imperative that the wig fits and is styled in such a manner that it is believable that it IS her hair.

Normally, I am a big believer in LESS IS MORE, but NOT when it comes to sound (Bill Clancy).  I think the foghorn should have been louder to assist in setting the dreary mood.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night runs September 21 – October 14, 2007 at the Generic.