Long Day's Journey Into Night

Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer prize-winning play is not what one might call an easy watch. As the Tyrone family rip themselves, and each other, apart over the course of one hot day we see some of the worst sides of human nature laid bare.

A masterpiece of writing? Probably. A classic? No doubt. Complex to pull off? Well, there's the problem, it is incredibly demanding for the actors, the audience and the director to make this piece accessible and engaging. The characters depicted are basically not nice and each is living in their own private hell. It is also very long and although we hear James Tyrone speak of the beauty of Shakespeare's language, O'Neill's is often brutal and unforgiving. Whilst this might damn me as a philistine, I also find the script labours and repeats things that the audience pick up very quickly and would prefer to see it (were that possible) cut. I realise that repetition is a part of the way families tell their own stories but an audience that is way ahead of the script can easily tire - especially if the pace falls flat as it did on several occasions when the cast quite frankly lost their way.

I did feel that they were trying to make the play shorter by just speaking faster, at times it was almost impossible to keep up, but in the end it just became rather samey and shouty with little light and shade and almost no shape. Anger and outbursts often came from nowhere, more directorial notes than expressions of inner turmoil. I really hope that these things will sort themselves out as the run continues but at the moment it just feels under prepared.

The set was great and individually the actors provided some powerful performance moments but I am truly sorry to say that this key production in the Bristol Old Vic's 250th Celebrations, with two actors I really admire, left me completely cold and unmoved.