I Love This Play So Much

When I was finding the play to watch, I could see so many choices. From musical to drama. They were all the best. But finally, I found one play that I found the most interesting after I read the summary of the play. Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill. The play was about family and the conflicts between each character. 

Source: Geffen Playhouse/Alfred Molina and Jane Kaczmarek

Long Day’s Journey Into Night took place in the 1912 summer home of the Tyrone family with all the members who were hiding the secrets inside them, the thoughts they had on other family members, and just like that, they could not live as they wanted, and carry the mask for all the time because of the dark past which they dug it up. Mary Tyrone returned to her family recently after receiving treatment for her morphine addiction. Edmund, the younger son of the Tyrones, had begun to cough very violently. James Tyrone, husband of Mary and father of Jamie, the oldest son, and Edmund, together with Jamie doubted Edmund had tuberculosis. Throughout the course of the play, Mary was still addicted to morphine and much to the disappointment of her family members. But after all, that family was still together and loved each other no matter what happened. It is so emotional to watch. 

This play is a drama. It is more like a tragedy because it has so many emotional levels. This play is realism. In the play, each character had created a conflict which is also true in real life.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night can relate to any family which is not always perfect or happy like other people think. They all have secrets and lies. They were all the personalities that any family member can have. A drug addict, a short temper person, a weak person, an impotent father, and a husband. The fight between each member could happen in any household. Even in my family. I cried and in some moments I laughed. This play is the best and to be honest, I can watch it over and over again. The play depicted the theme of something that was once great but now, it was rotten to the core. It was because of jealousy, selfishness, stubbornness, the impotent, and together, they pushed the whole family into a mess. Eugene O’Neil had done a great job when he built this play which was based on his real-life experience with his own family. And he wanted to show how we are living and what role we are carrying in our own house. From that we can answer questions: Are we good? Are we bad? Do we satisfy anyone in the family? Or are we living true-self? 

I chose the version with Alfred Molina and Jane Kaczmarek played. They had done a great job when playing James and Mary. Both stood out the most in this play. Alfred had portrayed a father and a husband who was failed in keeping the family happy and could not help his wife. But he was also a passionate Shakespeare actor; he knew every play of Shakespeare but he had to leave his career behind because of his father. But the real star of this play was Jane Kaczmarek. She had portrayed a mother who just returned home from her treatment of morphine addiction but she did not fully recover, she was still suffering from it. The addiction inside her was getting worse. Kaczmarek had helped to expose the desperate inside Mary Tyrones. Her mental was unstable, she could not control her emotion whether in front of her husband or her sons. She yelled whenever she felt uncomfortable; she tormented herself whenever she saw Edmund coughed or father and son fought. Although she loved Tyrone, she sometimes regretted marrying him because of the dreams she had to sacrifice of becoming a nun or a concert pianist. At the end of the play, she wore the wedding dress from her wedding with Tyrone. Mary Tyrone reminded me of one iconic character from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois, who was poorly and pitiful because of what happened in her life which led to her mental issue.

I also loved the performance of Colin Woodell as Edmund; and Stephen Louis Grush. Their performances were great but there were some moments that I feel they talked so quickly and in the scene where they were fighting, both of their facial expression did not completely expose the character’s feelings and it looked like they just tried to scream at each other’s face. But overall, they had a great performance. The production design had told about the Tyrone family which was in a middle-class family, the lightning was set to change from the morning to the evening to fit with the plot of the play. Director, Jeanie Hackett had done a great job when she rebuilt an old play but it still got the groove and the value inside.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night was a great play and there was nothing bad about the play. I felt with all the conflicts and the emotion of each character. In my real life, I am like Jamie Tyrone. I am always getting angry, I always envy anyone who is better than I or I cannot be like them. Seeing Jamie, I feel like this is the mistake that I have to fix. Jamie was a guy like that but after all, he still loved his family and did whatever it took to keep the family happy and peaceful. This play had told me a lot about the value of the family. Sometimes it contains storms inside but if everyone knows how to stay together and be strong, it will go through the storm. I highly recommend this play to watch and to bring into the teaching lesson.