Long Day's Journey Into Night

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night playing in Paragon's new space is indeed a very long day's journey into night.

Paragon's Long Day's Journey Into Night. Photo credit: E. Tyler Photography.

When Crossroads Theatre was bought by the City of Denver, Paragon moved its space to a room in Kim Robard's Dance Studio on S. Santa Fe Drive. It is yet to be determined if this room can actually be turned into a theatre with adequate lighting or whether this was a huge mistake for Paragon.

The room and the lighting didn't do anything for the play much less for the actors. Set in the middle as a theatre in the round, three floor spots each with 8 spots set on the edge of the makeshift stage turned Long Day's Journey it into a nightmare for those sitting opposite the spots. Even on the one side where one could be without having the bright spots shoot straight into the eyes, the lights on the two ends glare without apology. Even the ceiling lights found more attention in the eyes than on the actors. The floor spots distort the character's faces, wiping them clean of expression, casting unwelcome and unbecoming shadows where unwelcome and unbecoming shadows are not wanted. Lighting designer, Jen Orf, undoubtedly had to work with what was available with the set design by David LaFont. Yes, the play takes place in the living room of the Tyrone's summer home. Had the space been cut in half, the intimacy of the play would have had a chance to be intimate.

The large space given to the stage interferes with the intimacy of the revealing conversations and hurtful confrontations between family members. Directed by Jarrod Holbrook, this production of Long Day's Journey produces too much physical space between the actors and too much emotional space between characters.

With too much space, physical and emotional, the confrontations lose their impact. The value of the play loses its breathtaking revelations.

Long Day's Journey covers one day August 12, 1912 beginning at 8:30 AM, ending around midnight. Unfortunately, on Opening Night, it felt as though we were there for the entire 15 1/2 hours.

The long and intense autobiographical play, O'Neill finished it in 1941, requesting it not be published until 25 years after his death. He presented the script to his wife Carlotta on their 12th wedding anniversary. Two years after his death, the play had its world premier in Stockholm, Sweden in 1956, winning the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1957.

A long time favorite play, the 3 1/2 hours generally flies, but not this time. Frequently, it became necessary to look away from the action on stage because of the irritating bright spots.

I champion Paragon for initiating experimental use of the large room, but certainly someone, during rehearsal would have noticed the problematic lighting. I am sorry their first play in the new space was Long Day's Journey. This is one time a traditional stage setting would have worked better for the actors as well as for the audience.

For some reason, Jim Hunt, playing James Tyrone, escapes the drawn, drained look from the blighted spots giving an outstanding performance as a washed up actor who became too identified with his role in Monte Cristo played way too many times. It paid well. Hunt as Tyrone, nearly breaks the heart especially in his monologue reviewing his life and accrued mistakes. Now he has a wife, Mary (Kathryn Gray) who is a drug addict, a son, James (Michael Stricker), who is an alcoholic, and son, Edmund (Brandon Krohm) "who would have been much better born a seagull than a man" struggling with consumption.

Not only does the floor spots wipe out Gray's expressions for Mary, but also her ill-fitting wig allows her own hair to seep down in back ruining the illusion Gray so hoped to capture. Her bland ill-fitting dress doesn't help matters either. Rather than seeing, hearing and feeling Mary Tyrone, the lights, wig, and dress block the view into this deeply wounded woman fretting over Edmond, desperately trying without success to hide her own addiction.

Time, and not enough of it, may have been the culprit for hurried decisions, moving and finding its way into a new space, but sad Long Day's Journey had to suffer. Because of Paragon?s stellar reputation, Long Day's Journey Into Night was a perfect choice. A hurried and harried atmosphere creates the necessity to ignore details, and this production begged for details to be paid.

One more thing Paragon needs to consider. When it snows, not only do the outside stairs need to be cleared, but the ramp as well. With salt.

Long Day's Journey into Night
By Eugene O'Neill, Directed by Jarrad Holbrook