Arizona Theatre Company's Long Day's Journey Into Night at The Herberger Theatre
(out of 
)Mark S.P. Turvin
(home office) (602) 912-0117
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@goldfishpublishers.com
Reviewed 11/14/98
(out of )It's been called the greatest American play by many, and in the very least, ranks with Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, Miller's Death of a Salesman and Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf as the competition for that coveted slot. Many people read Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night for classes, but few people are lucky enough to see a full production of this long, gut-wrenching autobiographical work. Arizona Theatre Company and famed Director Marshall Mason have taken the challenge, and mounted a production that features three local actors, and gives Mr. Mason a chance to showcase his deep intellect and masterful craftsmanship. As wonderfully deep, textured and layered as this production is, there is also something rather cold and emotionally distancing that caused this reviewer to be unable to connect with the production in anything more than a cerebral sense.
Set in the early-to-mid teens of this century in the port of New
London, CT, O'Neill has fictionalized his family, giving us entrée
into the palatial but barren summer house of former matinee idol
and perennial touring actor James Tyron and his brooding brood.
While he anaesthetizes himself from his choices that have left
him touring in the same show decade after decade and pinching
his pennies until they're flat, his family isn't much better.
His wife is wrangling with a morphine addiction, his eldest son
is a drunken hack clinging to his father's coattails, and his
youngest son, based on the author, is a fellow alcohol-abuser
whose rich-yet-harrowing adventures have left him a consumptive.
Through the course of a single August night, this original dysfunctional
family will sink from unspoken hatreds just bubbling beneath the
surface into substance-induced madness and horrifying revelations
from which no family could ever recover.
Mr. Mason must be commended on his paring of this script, shaving
a play which repeats itself four times over to repeating itself
only twice. There was nothing missing from these wise tweaks.
Also to be commended are his interpretations and the way he supports
the text with the taut stage business. An audience member knows
that this is a multi-faceted show, and Mr. Mason does all he can,
through pacing, blocking, and even some interesting handling of
dialogue. Despite all of these wonderful intellectual contributions,
the production is emotionally distant. While this is a difficult
play for an audience member to connect to any of the characters
within, it seems that little time was given to allow such a connection
in the first place. The result is a beautiful gem behind security
glass.
The cast is generally taut, though one suffers from miscasting.
The strongest members of the cast are Ruth Reid as the
tormented Mary Tyrone, and Kim Bennett as the self-loathing
James Jr. Ms. Reid has what is probably the hardest role in the
play, and one of the most difficult in American theatre. This
is a woman who begins the play hoping to kick her morphine addiction,
but who descends once more into it, and becomes a ghost in her
own house as a result. To this end, Ms. Reid is remarkable. She
conveys Mary's vain attempts at avoiding her "medicine"
in the first scene with an economy of movement and reaction, but
then believably presents the slowly slipping woman as she takes
more and more to fade from the present and inhabit her past. Mr.
Bennett is devastatingly funny and believable as he shows the
depth of his self-hatred and overall malice while always remaining
amusingly ironic.
Solid performances come from ASU alum Jason Kuykendall
as the ailing Edmund, and local actress Shana Bousard as
the young Irish serving girl Cathleen. Mr. Kuykendall has the
unenviable task of carrying some of O'Neill's longest and most
eloquent monologues, and does a pretty good job of creating the
lyrical pictures of his poetry. Right off, though, it's unmistakable
to recognize that Mr. Kuykendall just doesn't seem sick enough
to warrant so much attention. His wheezing is sporadic, and his
coughing fits often seem forced. Ms. Bousard does a good job of
presenting the often maligned Irish immigrant, though she seems
much more intelligent than textually referred to.
The only disappointment comes from Lawrence Pressman as
the great-actor-forever-associated-with-a-role, James. There is
little about him that can believably show his former matinee idol
days. Mr. Pressman is too beaten down by life, and too much of
a weakling, to offer even glimpses of what made him what he is
today, besides his ghosts and addictions. Part of this seems to
be Mr. Mason's choice, allowing the weaknesses to outshine whatever
strengths this character once had, but there are definite moments
when Mr. Pressman's James could have regained this power, but
failed to do so. The resulting character leaves an audience wondering
why Mary could have been so attracted to and bedazzled with this
wreck-of-a-man, and how he didn't fail much sooner.
Technically, the show is stunning. Scenic Designer Ming Cho
Lee has created a set that seems to be constructed of the
very fog referred to in the text. The clever use of scrim and
the dramatic stairway help to keep the tone of this production
perfectly. Phil Monat's lighting is equally impressive,
more shadow than light until just the right moments. Laura
Crow's unusual costumes were problematic, as they never seemed
to decide whether they were to be of the period, hint at the period,
or avoid the period altogether. David Dansky's sound design
was perfect, adding the ambient sounds of New London in a believable
and dramatic way.
Arizona
Theatre Company and Marshall Mason had to know how difficult
the production they intended to mount would be, and have done
a very good job of giving life to this rarely-seen masterpiece.
And while Mr. Mason's intellectual handling of this show is a
treat, one sorely misses the chance to emotionally connect with
the action onstage, even if it were to lead to an immediate recoiling
as the darkness of each character is subsequently revealed. This
type of emotional involvement would help to temper the over two-and-a-half
hour commitment the audience makes in taking this journey.
Production Details:
Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill
Arizona
Theatre Company at The Herberger Theatre,
Phoenix
252-8497
November 13th - November 29th, 1998