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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2017 7:36:51 GMT
Come guys who saw this in Bristol, is it really good? Be honest. Is it Good  It's got Jeremy Irons in it- be still my beating heart! I really enjoyed it and the chance to see Jezza Irons on stage was a treat. But everyone was really great in the production.
(caveat I Irons is one of the actors I occasionally just ignore outside of the roles he plays for my sanity, and ability to enjoy my Brideshead Revisited Box-set)
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Post by callum on Aug 29, 2017 1:08:17 GMT
Was watching Helen Mirren's Theater Talk interview and when Michael Riedel asked if she'd ever wanted to play Mary Tyrone she said it's a boring part because she wanders in and out always on heroin! I was shocked, I love this part!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 7:31:10 GMT
She doesn't exactly have a great deal of agency of her own though. She exists primarily in relation to the men in her life, and although great actresses make her a compelling watch, it doesn't quite excuse O'Neill's failing to write a completely rounded character in the first place.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2017 11:46:52 GMT
Playing at The Wallis, Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, California from June 8 to July 1 2018.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2017 13:07:46 GMT
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Post by callum on Nov 28, 2017 18:30:59 GMT
Lesley Manville looks to be getting excellent notices for Phantom Thread - wonder if they'll let her go to Oscars if she's nominated...
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Post by tonyloco on Dec 2, 2017 21:41:14 GMT
Please can anyone tell me whether this production gives us the complete final act with all the poetry quotations? The last two major productions I saw had almost none of the poetry at all. I can understand the desire of a producer to want to keep running time down to a reasonable commercial length but on the other hand I would love to experience seeing the play that O’Neill actually wrote.
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 4, 2017 14:21:32 GMT
/\ You should think yourself very lucky to be able to see any version of Long Day's Journey. On his death, O'Neill left strict instructions that it was never to be performed.
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Post by tonyloco on Dec 4, 2017 19:52:18 GMT
Thanks TallPaul. I didn’t actually know that, so I clearly haven’t been paying attention to my programme notes.
That’s very important because I had not appreciated the importance of the superb production I saw in Sydney in July 1959. After the show I walked back to the city centre with Clive James who drew my attention to the significance of the poetry in the last act. I then bought a copy of the play that I still have and see it is the English edition by Jonathan Cape, June 1956, reprinted 1956 and 1958.
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Post by tonyloco on Dec 5, 2017 0:03:07 GMT
PS On one of those early evening quiz shows recently a contestant offered up a play by Eugene O’Neill called: “Long Day’s Journey into Space”
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Post by TallPaul on Dec 5, 2017 13:57:10 GMT
I should probably have added, tonyloco, that O'Neill didn't even want the script published until 25 years after his death, so 1978. His wife over-ruled his wishes, which I always think is a rather dangerous thing to do to dead people, just in case. I'm going to stop now, lest anyone thinks I'm an O'Neill scholar! |
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Post by tonyloco on Dec 5, 2017 22:42:47 GMT
Thanks again, TallPaul. Wikipedia has a summary of this information. I find it all intriguing, especially as that powerful production in Sydney in 1959, just three years after the first publication, made a huge impression on me and I can still remember it clearly in a general way.
I am looking forward to seeing the current production, but only if the last act is fairly complete, which I suspect it will not be!
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Post by jason71 on Jan 18, 2018 14:38:31 GMT
Will Wyndhams be doing day seats for this show?
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Post by joem on Jan 18, 2018 22:00:05 GMT
How does this compare with the Suchet production?
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Post by callum on Jan 23, 2018 14:17:39 GMT
Lesley Manville looks to be getting excellent notices for Phantom Thread - wonder if they'll let her go to Oscars if she's nominated... If you need any psychic readings, I'll be hanging around with my crystal ball outside the Wyndham's. |
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 23, 2018 14:43:22 GMT
^^If it's made from crystal, it certainly will be hanging around!
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Post by couldileaveyou on Jan 28, 2018 19:42:39 GMT
I saw today's matinee and here there are some thoughts.
It's an uneven production. I loved the staging and the scenery - which is probably making O'Neill spin in his grave, but he didn't even want this play to ever be staged, so who cares. The set is really wonderful, very similar to Eyre's Ghosts, so similar that I was surprised to discover it's a different designer. But apparently it was Eyre's original concept so he can use it whenever he wants - otherwise we would have been very close to plagiarism. It's also very well directed, and the costumes are wonderful.
The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Rory Keenan is a very good Jamie, but Matthew Beard was pretty bad as Edmund, very declamatory and slightly hysterical. I know it was only the second preview, but there's an awfully long way to go for him, for most of the play he was just dramatically speaking out his line, with very little sense or meaning behind them. Jeremy Irons is, well, bizarre. I find it hard to describe, really. It's not a bad performance, but he does all these puzzling little things, like he has this weird accent or does things with his hands. It's not really a matter of hamming, it's more like he doesn't know how he wants to play the part. There is a lot of mannerism, but it's in the character rather than in the performance, like, he's playing a very theatrical man and Tyrone's theatricality comes across very well during the play. You see a lot of Tyrone the actor, but I wish there were more of Tyrone the man. I remember many of you being unconvinced by his performance in Bristol, and I think I understand now what you meant. Jessica Regan provides comic relief with her Kathleen, she was really lovely and couldn't have been more Irish.
Lesley Manville is extraordinary and delivers an outstanding performance, her Mary Tyrone is one of the most heart-breaking things I have ever seen. She's excellent since the first time she steps on stage, but it's not until her final scene that you realize the magnitude of her performance. There's this moment when she's illuminated by a white spotlight and she looks exactly like the 18 year old girl she's talking about, it's astonishing really. Her phenomenal performance somehow undermines the rest of the show, the quality drops when she's not on stage and you want her back. She makes you wait a lot in the second part, but when she finally returns the payoff is fantastic. The previous scene is not as successful: it's a long dialogue between Edmund and Tyrone, and since the two actors are not at their best the scene never reached its full potential.
It's a four star production for me, and Manville makes it a must-see
PS: The play runs for three hours and a half, the first part lasted 1h20, the second 1h50. It was performed with one interval, between act 2 and 3, but in my opinion it would benefit from a 5 minute break between act 3 and 4.
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Post by skullion on Jan 28, 2018 21:14:56 GMT
Yikes, at that sort of duration I'd better gor for a seat for this one then and not the standing option I often go for at Wyndhams!
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Post by Jon on Jan 28, 2018 21:58:53 GMT
I wonder why they didn't have 1pm and 7pm start times if the show is 3 and a half hours.
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Post by martin1965 on Jan 28, 2018 23:04:37 GMT
Yikes, at that sort of duration I'd better gor for a seat for this one then and not the standing option I often go for at Wyndhams! You've not seen O"Neill before then? His plays are never short. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2018 23:47:33 GMT
You've not seen O"Neill before then? His plays are never short. Except the several of about twenty minutes' duration. |
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Post by callum on Jan 29, 2018 0:53:55 GMT
shorter than the Broadway prod I saw with Jessica Lange a couple of years ago
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Post by lonlad on Jan 29, 2018 2:10:00 GMT
yes 3-1/2 is short for a play that normally clocks in around 3 hrs 50 - wonder if they've edited it at all (seems unlikely). Glad to hear Manville is so good - more and more I think this play belongs to Mary Tyrone.
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Post by skullion on Jan 29, 2018 7:00:45 GMT
Yikes, at that sort of duration I'd better gor for a seat for this one then and not the standing option I often go for at Wyndhams! You've not seen O"Neill before then? His plays are never short. No, first time for me. |
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Post by argon on Jan 29, 2018 19:51:35 GMT
The only thing that stopped this production from tanking for me was the performance of Manville & Keenan. Irons depiction of James Sr. just didn't work for me & Beard was the weakest link.
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It's got Jeremy Irons in it- be still my beating heart!
