Audible’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night: What’s Your Poison?

The Tyrones in lockdown look a lot like you and me. Amazon boxes, Chinese takeout, Starbucks, not to mention the Purell. Never mind that Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the classic 1912 American play by Eugene O’Neill, features another kind of affliction than the one we are experiencing. The scaled down version of O’Neill’s play, an Audible production directed by Robert O’Hara at the Minetta Lane Theater, neatly conflates what’s ailing us. The title says much about the longeuers, the boredom, the stasis that forces this family—and us-- to relive sad pasts. The Tyrones in seaside residence make the best of it at first. James (Bill Camp in cut offs) flirts with Mary (Elizabeth Marvel in workout tights), his wife of many years, remarking to their two sons at how great she looks—a picture of health doing yoga. Before too long the tippling begins. Never too early to take a shot: James, the sons Jamie (Jason Bowen), not doing much, and Edmund (Ato Blankson-Wood), ambitious with a bad cough—whiskey is their medium. Mary’s something else, retreating upstairs, visibly tying up her arm, shooting up.

It always seemed remarkable that given the level of inebriation, O’Neill’s words could spill out of these characters’ mouths like Shakespeare or at least T. S. Eliot. Not a slur to be had. Maybe because acting is the family business. But this production shows something different in its attempt to provide visuals for Mary’s mental state. Abstract projections by Yee Eun Nam--(I am not sure how these will translate for Audible), go far in setting an dreamy state-of-consciousness that defines this character. Elizabeth Marvel’s final moments, a steady slow mo of decline—a cold stare reminiscent of addicts on New York streets-- complete a picture of a pandemic gone on too long.

 

 

Regina Weinreich