Long Day's Journey into Night
Long Day's Journey into Night is a drama play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1941–42, first published in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his magnum opus and one of the finest American plays of the 20th century. It premiered in Sweden in February 1956 and then opened on Broadway in November 1956, winning the Tony Award for Best Play.
O'Neill posthumously received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Long Day's Journey into Night. The work concerns the Tyrone family, consisting of parents James and Mary and their sons Edmund and Jamie. The "Long Day" refers to the setting of the play, which takes place during one day. The play is semi-autobiographical.
Summary
The play takes place on a single day in August 1912, from around 8:30 a.m. to midnight. The setting is the seaside Connecticut home of the Tyrones, Monte Cristo Cottage. The four main characters are the semi-autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself, his older brother, and their parents.This play portrays a family in a ferociously negative light as the parents and two sons express accusations, blame, and resentments—qualities that are often paired with pathetic and self-defeating attempts at affection, encouragement, tenderness, and yearnings for things to be otherwise. The pain of this family is made worse by their depth of self-understanding and self-analysis, combined with a brutal honesty, as they see it, and an ability to boldly express themselves. The story deals with the mother's addiction to morphine, the family's addiction to whiskey, the father's miserliness, the older brother's licentiousness, and younger brother's illness.
Synopsis
Act I
James Tyrone is a 65-year-old actor who had long ago bought a "vehicle" play for himself and had established his reputation based on this one role with which he had toured for years. Although that "vehicle" had served him well financially, he is now resentful that his having become so identified with this character has limited his scope and opportunities as a classical actor. He is a wealthy though somewhat miserly man. His money is all tied up in property which he hangs onto in spite of impending financial hardship. His dress and appearance are showing signs of his strained financial circumstances, but he retains many of the mixed affectations of a classical actor in spite of his shabby attire.His wife Mary has recently returned from treatment for morphine addiction and has put on some much-needed weight as a result. She is looking much healthier than the family has been accustomed to, and they remark frequently on her improved appearance. However, she still retains the haggard facial features of a long-time addict. As a recovering addict, she is restless and anxious. She also suffers from insomnia, which is not made any easier by her husband and children's loud snoring. When Edmund, her younger son, hears her moving around at night and entering the spare bedroom, he becomes alarmed, because this is the room where, in the past, she would satisfy her addiction. He questions her about it indirectly. She reassures him that she just went there to get away from her husband's snoring.
In addition to Mary's problems, the family is worried about Edmund's coughing; they fear that he might have tuberculosis, and are anxiously awaiting a doctor's diagnosis. Edmund is more concerned about the effect a positive diagnosis might have on his mother than on himself. The constant possibility that she might relapse worries him still further. Once again, he indirectly speaks to his mother about her addiction. He asks her to "promise not to worry yourself sick and to take care of yourself." "Of course I promise you," she protests, but then adds, "But I suppose you're remembering I've promised before on my word of honor."
Act II
Jamie and Edmund taunt each other about stealing their father's alcohol and watering it down so he won't notice. They speak about Mary's conduct. Jamie berates Edmund for leaving their mother unsupervised. Edmund berates Jamie for being suspicious. Both, however, are deeply worried that their mother's addiction may have resurfaced. Jamie points out to Edmund that they had concealed their mother's addiction from him for ten years, explaining that his naiveté about the nature of the disease was understandable but deluded. They discuss the upcoming results of Edmund's tests for tuberculosis, and Jamie tells him to prepare for the worst.Mary appears. She is distraught about Edmund's coughing, which he tries to suppress so as not to alarm her, fearing anything that might trigger her addiction again. When Edmund accepts his mother's excuse that she had been upstairs so long because she had been "lying down", Jamie looks at them both contemptuously. Mary notices and starts becoming defensive and belligerent, berating Jamie for his cynicism and disrespect for his parents. Jamie is quick to point out that the only reason he has survived as an actor is through his father's influence in the business.
Mary speaks of her frustration with their summer home, its impermanence and shabbiness, and her husband's indifference to his surroundings. With irony, she alludes to her belief that this air of detachment might be the very reason he has tolerated her addiction for so long. This frightens Edmund, who is trying desperately to hang on to his belief in normality while faced with two emotionally horrific problems at once. Finally, unable to tolerate the way Jamie is looking at her, she asks him angrily why he is doing it. "You know!", he shoots back, and tells her to take a look at her glazed eyes in the mirror.
Act III
Mary and Cathleen return home from their drive to the drugstore, where Mary has sent Cathleen in to purchase her morphine prescription. Not wanting to be alone, Mary does not allow Cathleen to go to the kitchen to finish dinner and offers her a drink instead. Mary does most of the talking and discusses her love for fog but her hatred of the foghorn, and her husband's obvious obsession with money. Mary has already taken some of her "prescription". She talks about her past in a Catholic convent and the promise she once had as a pianist and the fact that it was once thought that she might become a nun. She also makes it clear that while she fell in love with her husband from the time she met him, she had never taken to the theatre crowd. She shows her arthritic hands to Cathleen and explains that the pain is why she needs her prescription – an explanation which is untrue and transparent to Cathleen.When Mary dozes off under the influence of the morphine, Cathleen exits to prepare dinner. Mary awakes and begins to have bitter memories about how much she loved her life before she met her husband. She also decides that her prayers as an addict are not being heard by the Virgin and decides to go upstairs to get more drugs, but before she can Edmund and James Sr. return home.
Although both men are drunk, they both realize that Mary is back on morphine, although she attempts to act as if she is not. Jamie has not returned home, but has elected instead to continue drinking and to visit the local whorehouse. After calling Jamie a "hopeless failure" Mary warns that his bad influence will drag his brother down as well. After seeing the condition that his wife is in, James expresses the regret that he bothered to come home, and he attempts to ignore her as she continues her remarks, which include blaming him for Jamie's drinking. Then, as often happens in the play, Mary and James try to get over their animosity and attempt to express their love for one another by remembering happier days. When James goes to the basement to get another bottle of whiskey, Mary continues to talk with Edmund.
When Edmund reveals that he has consumption, Mary refuses to believe it, and attempts to discredit Dr. Hardy, due to her inability to face the reality and severity of the situation. She accuses Edmund of attempting to get more attention by blowing everything out of proportion. In retaliation, Edmund reminds his mother that her own father died of consumption, and then, before exiting, he adds how difficult it is to have a "dope fiend for a mother." Alone, Mary admits that she needs more morphine and hopes that someday she will "accidentally" overdose, because she knows that if she did so on purpose, the Virgin would never forgive her. When James comes back with more alcohol he notes that there was evidence that Jamie had attempted to pick the locks to the whiskey cabinet in the cellar, as he has done before. Mary ignores this and bursts out that she is afraid that Edmund is going to die. She also confides to James that Edmund does not love her because of her drug problem. When James attempts to console her, Mary again rues having given birth to Edmund, who appears to have been conceived to replace a baby they had lost before Edmund's birth. When Cathleen announces dinner, Mary indicates that she is not hungry and is going to bed. James goes in to dinner all alone, knowing that Mary is really going upstairs to get more drugs.
Act IV
Edmund returns home to find his father playing solitaire. While the two argue and drink, they also have an intimate, tender conversation. James explains his stinginess, and also reveals that he ruined his career by staying in an acting job for money. After so many years playing the same part, he lost his talent for versatility. Edmund talks to his father about sailing and of his aspiration to become a great writer one day. They hear Jamie coming home drunk, and James leaves to avoid fighting. Jamie and Edmund converse, and Jamie confesses that although he loves Edmund more than anyone else, he wants him to fail. Jamie passes out. When James returns, Jamie wakes up, and they quarrel anew. Mary, lost in her drug-laden dreams of the past, comes downstairs. Holding her wedding gown, she talks about her convent days and how she lost her vocation by falling in love with James, while her husband and sons silently watch her.Characters
- James Tyrone Sr. – 65 years old. He looks ten years younger and is about five feet eight inches tall but appears taller due to his military-like posture and bearing. He is broad-shouldered and deep-chested and remarkably good-looking for his age with light brown eyes. His speech and movement are those of a classical actor with a studied technique, but he is unpretentious and not temperamental at all with "inclinations still close to his humble beginnings and Irish farmer forebears". His attire is somewhat threadbare and shabby. He wears his clothing to the limit of usefulness. He has been a healthy man his entire life and is free of hang ups and anxieties except for fear of "dying in the poorhouse" and obsession with having money. He has "streaks of sentimental melancholy and rare flashes of intuitive sensibility". He smokes cigars and dislikes being referred to as the "Old Man" by his sons.
- Mary Cavan Tyrone – 54 years old, the wife and mother of the family who lapses between self-delusion and the haze of her morphine addiction. She is medium height with a young graceful figure, a trifle plump with distinctly Irish facial features. She was once extremely pretty and is still striking. She wears no make-up and her hair is thick, white and perfectly coiffed. She has large, dark, almost black, eyes. She has a soft and attractive voice with a "touch of Irish lilt when she is merry". Mary has been addicted to morphine since the difficult birth of her youngest son Edmund. The doctor who treated her simply gave her painkillers, which led to a longtime morphine addiction that continues to plague her.
- James "Jamie" Jr. – 33 years old, the older son. He has thinning hair, an aquiline nose and shows signs of premature disintegration. He has a habitual expression of cynicism. He resembles his father. "On the rare occasions when he smiles without sneering, his personality possesses the remnant of a humorous, romantic, irresponsible Irish charm – the beguiling ne'er-do-well, with a strain of the sentimentally poetic". He is attractive to women and popular with men. He is an actor like his father but has difficulty finding work due to a reputation for being an irresponsible, womanizing alcoholic. He and his father argue a great deal about this. Jamie often refers to his father as "Old Gaspard", a character from the opera Les cloches de Corneville, who is also a miser.
- Edmund – 23 years old, the younger and more intellectually and poetically inclined son. He is thin and wiry. He looks like both his parents but more like his mother. He has her big dark eyes and hypersensitive mouth in a long narrow Irish face with dark brown hair and red highlights from the sun. Like his mother, he is extremely nervous. He is in bad health and his cheeks are sunken. Later he is diagnosed with tuberculosis. He is politically inclined to have socialist leanings. He traveled the world by working in the merchant navy and caught tuberculosis while abroad.
- Cathleen – "The second girl", she is the summer maid. She is a "buxom Irish peasant", in her early twenties with red cheeks, black hair and blue eyes. She is "amiable, ignorant, clumsy with a well-meaning stupidity".
- Eugene Tyrone – A son born before Edmund who died of measles at the age of two. He was infected by Jamie who was seven at the time and had been told not to enter his room but disobeyed. Mary believes that Jamie had the intent of hurting Eugene.
- Bridget – A cook.
- McGuire – A real estate agent who has swindled James Tyrone in the past.
- Shaughnessy – A tenant on a farm owned by the Tyrones.
- Harker – A friend of James Tyrone, "the Standard Oil millionaire", owns a neighboring farm to Shaughnessy with whom he gets into conflicts, often postulated to be based on Edward Harkness, Standard Oil heir, who had a summer home nearby in Waterford, Connecticut.
- Doctor Hardy – The Tyrones' physician at the insistence of James, though the other family members don't think much of him and suspect he is only their doctor because he is cheap.
- Captain Turner – The Tyrones' neighbor.
- Smythe – A garage assistant whom James hired as a chauffeur for Mary. Mary suspects he is intentionally damaging the car to provide work for the garage.
- The mistress – A woman with whom James had had an affair before his marriage, who had later sued him causing Mary to be shunned by her friends as someone with undesirable social connections.
- Mary's father – Died of tuberculosis.
- James's parents and siblings – The family immigrated to the United States when James was 8 years old. His father abandoned the family two years later and returned to Ireland, where he died after ingesting rat poison. It was suspected suicide but James refuses to believe that. He had two older brothers and three sisters.
History of the play
O'Neill did not copyright the play. In 1945 he had a sealed copy of the manuscript placed in the document vault of publisher Random House, instructing that it not be published until 25 years after his death. He sent a second sealed copy to the O'Neill collection at Yale University.
Soon after O'Neill's death, his widow Carlotta Monterey demanded that Random House contravene O'Neill's explicit wishes and publish the play at once. "We refused, of course," wrote publisher Bennett Cerf in his memoirs, "but then were horrified to learn that legally all the cards were in her hand. … I do not regret that we took the stand we did, because I still think we were right." Monterey had the play published by the Yale University Press in 1956, with the bulk of the proceeds deeded to Yale's Eugene O'Neill Collection and for scholarships at its drama school.
Autobiographical content
In key aspects, the play closely parallels Eugene O'Neill's own life. The location, a summer home in Connecticut, corresponds to the family home, Monte Cristo Cottage, in New London, Connecticut. The actual cottage, today owned and operated by the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, is made up as it may appear in the play. The family in the script corresponds to the O'Neill family, which was Irish-American, with three name changes: The family name "O'Neill" is changed to "Tyrone," which is the name of the earldom granted to Conn O'Neill by Henry VIII. The names of the second and third sons are reversed, "Eugene" with "Edmund". In fact, Eugene, the playwright, was the third and the youngest child, and he corresponds to the character of "Edmund" in the play. O'Neill's mother, Mary Ellen "Ella" Quinlan, corresponds to the character Mary Cavan. The ages are all the actual ages of the O'Neill family in August 1912.Eugene O'Neill's father, James O'Neill, was a promising young actor in his youth, as was the father in the play. He also shared the stage with Edwin Booth, who is mentioned in the play. James O'Neill achieved commercial success in the title role of Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, playing the title role about 6,000 times; he was criticized for "selling out" for commercial success at the expense of artistic merit.
Eugene's mother Mary did attend a Catholic school in the Midwest, Saint Mary's College, of Notre Dame, Indiana. Subsequent to the date when the play is set, but prior to the play's writing, Eugene's older brother Jamie did drink himself to death.
Regarding O'Neill himself, by 1912 he had attended a renowned university, spent several years at sea, and suffered from depression and alcoholism, and did contribute to the local newspaper, the New London Telegraph, writing poetry as well as reporting. He did go to a sanatorium in 1912–13 due to suffering from tuberculosis, whereupon he devoted himself to playwriting. The events in the play are thus set immediately prior to O'Neill beginning his career in earnest.
Productions
Premiere productions
Long Day's Journey into Night was first performed by the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. During O'Neill's lifetime, the Swedish people had embraced his work to a far greater extent than had any other nation, including his own. Thus, the play had its world premiere in Stockholm on February 2, 1956, in Swedish, in a production directed by Bengt Ekerot, with the cast of Lars Hanson, Inga Tidblad, Ulf Palme, Jarl Kulle and Catrin Westerlund. The premiere and production were very successful, and the directing and acting critically acclaimed.The Broadway debut of Long Day's Journey into Night took place at the Helen Hayes Theatre on 7 November 1956, shortly after its American premiere at Boston's Wilbur Theatre. The production was directed by José Quintero, and its cast included Fredric March, Florence Eldridge who was March's wife in real life, Jason Robards Jr., Bradford Dillman, and Katherine Ross. The production won the Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play of the season.
The play's first production in the United Kingdom came in 1958, opening first in Edinburgh, Scotland, and then moving to the Globe Theatre in London's West End. It was directed again by Quintero, and the cast included Anthony Quayle, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Ian Bannen, Alan Bates, and Etain O'Dell.
Other notable productions
- 1970: Memorial Art Center ; with Robert Foxworth, Gerald Richards, Jo Van Fleet, directed by Michael Howard.
- 1971: Promenade Theatre, New York; with Robert Ryan, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Stacy Keach, James Naughton, and Paddy Croft, directed by Arvin Brown; 1971 Theatre World Award for Naughton and Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award for production.
- 1971: National Theatre, London; with Laurence Olivier, Constance Cummings, Denis Quilley, Ronald Pickup, and Jo Maxwell-Muller, directed by Michael Blakemore. This production would be adapted into a videotaped television version, which aired 10 March 1973; the cast was as above, excepting the substitution of Maureen Lipman. The TV version was directed by Michael Blakemore and Peter Wood. Olivier won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
- 1973: The South Australian Theatre Company's Melbourne production is considered one of the landmark productions in Australian theatre, largely due to Patricia Kennedy's Mary, which was described as "the best female performance on the Melbourne stage in 1973".
- 1976: Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; with Jason Robards Jr., Zoe Caldwell, Kevin Conway, Michael Moriarty, and Lindsay Crouse, directed by Jason Robards Jr.
- 1986: Broadhurst Theatre, New York; with Jack Lemmon, Bethel Leslie, Kevin Spacey, Peter Gallagher, and Jodie Lynne McClintock, directed by Jonathan Miller. A television version of this production was aired in 1987.
- 1988: Neil Simon Theatre, New York; with Jason Robards Jr., Colleen Dewhurst, Jamey Sheridan, Campbell Scott, and Jane Macfie, directed by José Quintero. This production ran in repertory with O'Neill's play, Ah, Wilderness!,, featuring the same actors. Dewhurst was also the real-life mother of Campbell Scott.
- 1988: Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm; with Jarl Kulle, Bibi Andersson, Thommy Berggren, Peter Stormare, and , directed by Ingmar Bergman.
- 1991: National Theatre, London and Bristol Old Vic co-production; with Timothy West, Prunella Scales, Seán McGinley, Stephen Dillane, and Geraldine Fitzgerald, directed by Howard Davies.
- 1994: Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario; with William Hutt, Martha Henry, Peter Donaldson, Tom McCamus, and Martha Burns, directed by Diana Leblanc. This production was made into a film in 1996, directed by David Wellington.
- 2000: Lyric Theatre, London; with Jessica Lange, Charles Dance, Paul Rudd, Paul Nicholls, and Olivia Colman.
- 2003: Plymouth Theatre, New York; with Brian Dennehy, Vanessa Redgrave, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Sean Leonard, and Fiana Toibin, directed by Robert Falls.
- 2005: Centaur Theatre, Montreal; with Albert Millaire, Rosemary Dunsmore, Alain Goulem, Brendan Murray, Laura Teasdale, directed by David Latham
- 2007: Druid Theatre, Galway; with James Cromwell, Marie Mullen, Aidan Kelly, Michael Esper, and Maude Fahy, directed by Garry Hynes.
- 2010: Co-production with Sydney Theatre & Artists Repertory Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company; with William Hurt, Luke Mullins, Robyn Nevin, Emily Russell and Todd Van Voris, directed by Andrew Upton.
- 2010: Riksteatret ; with Bjørn Sundquist, Liv Ullmann, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen and Viktoria Winge, directed by Stein Winge.
- 2011–2012 Apollo Theatre, London ; with David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf, Trevor White, Kyle Soller and Rosie Sansom as Cathleen, directed by Anthony Page. In Glasgow the production played at the Theatre Royal.
- 2016: American Airlines Theatre, Broadway, New York; with Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne, Michael Shannon, John Gallagher Jr. and Colby Minifie directed by Jonathan Kent.
- 2017: Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles; with Jane Kaczmarek, Alfred Molina, Angela Goethals, directed by Jeanie Hackett.
- 2017, 2018: Monte Cristo Cottage, New London, CT; with Anne Flammang, Christie Max Williams, Eric Michaelian, Victor Chiburis, Amy Bentley/Madeleine Dauer/C.S.E Cooney, directed by Derron Wood. This production was performed in the actual room where O'Neill set the play with an extremely limited and intimate audience. Certain performances took place over the course of entire days at the approximate times that the scenes take place to utilize natural lighting. The production received a special award from the CT Critics Circle.
- 2018: Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ontario ; with Seana McKenna, Scott Wentworth, Gordon S. Miller, Charlie Gallant, Amy Keating.
- 2018: Wyndham's Theatre, London ; with Lesley Manville, Jeremy Irons, Rory Keenan, Matthew Beard, Jessica Regan, Richard Eyre’s production.
Film adaptations
In 1973, the ITV Sunday Night Theatre program on British television presented a videotaped television version of the 1971 production at the National Theatre directed by Peter Wood and starring Laurence Olivier, Constance Cummings, Denis Quilley, and Ronald Pickup. Olivier won a Best Actor Emmy Award for this performance.
A 1982 made-for-TV film directed by William Woodman was produced by ABC featuring an all-African American cast of Earle Hyman, Ruby Dee, Thommie Blackwell, and Peter Francis James.
A 1987 made-for-TV film directed by Jonathan Miller starred Kevin Spacey as Jamie, Peter Gallagher as Edmund, Jack Lemmon as James Tyrone, Bethel Leslie as Mary, and Jodie Lynne McClintock as Cathleen. Lemmon was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in Mini-Series or Made-for-TV Movie the following year.
A 1996 film adaptation was directed by Canadian director David Wellington and starred William Hutt as James, Martha Henry as Mary, Peter Donaldson as Jamie, Tom McCamus as Edmund and Martha Burns as Cathleen. The same cast had previously performed the play at Canada's Stratford Festival; Wellington essentially filmed the stage production without significant changes. The film swept the acting awards at the 17th Genie Awards, winning awards for Hutt, Henry, Donaldson and Burns. This version was later aired by PBS on its Great Performances series in 1999.