Friday All Day Long, What a Journey, Part Two

It was late in the afternoon and we still had a bit of time before we had to go to the theater, so we returned to the apartment on Rupert Street to relax with Richard. The Apollo Theater is at the foot of Rupert Street and Shaftsbury Avenue, so it was perhaps a two minute walk.

There had been a poster outside the theater door that said, "The show is four hours long with one intermission." The starting time was therefore at 7:00. This seemed to mean that we wouldn't get out until 11:00, which is very late for London. But, when we got to the door at about 6:30, the notice said, "The performance will last three hours." Ah ha! Good, that meant final curtain at 10:00, which was the perfect timing. It turned out that the director had decided to cut one hour of the script. Looking back, what he cut were the lengthy poems read by the cast. I don't think we could have lasted a full four hours, knowing what we experienced in the performance.

The Apollo Theatre has an interesting history.

 We had seats in the Stalls section, downstairs, in Row 5 right in the center, so close enough to see the actors breathe, but still far enough away to enjoy the magic of the show. We had some familiarity with the play, but had never seen it performed, so we were excited.

This is an auto-biographical story. Eugene O'Neill's father was a touring actor and the family went with him on his rambling career. The family would be described today as "disfunctional" and the anger, alcohol, drugs and fighting were part of his childhood.

O'Neill died in 1953 and ordered his third wife to inform Bennet Cerf, the publisher, "LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT is to be published 25 years after my death - but never produced as a play." His widow decided to defy this order and have the play produced. "He was tortured by it," she said. This was the dedication he wrote to her: "Dearest, I give you the original script of this play of old sorrow, written in tears and blood." It is a funny piece of history that the first performance of the play was in Sweden, in Swedish, because O'Neill has so ordered in his will.

Not only a very strong script, but better still: VERY strong actors! David Suchet and Laurie Metcalf as James Tyrone (father) and Mary Cavan Tyrone (mother). Richard recognized Laurie Metcalf, "She comes from Chicago. I've seen her in productions at the Steppenwolf Theater. She is excellent." Judy and I had never heard of her (or of Steppenwolf).

David Suchet, on the other hand, was world famous. Of course, the Hercule Poirot character on TV is perhaps the most well known, but he has been in many West End productions and is an Associate Artist and Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has acted in many classical Shakespeare plays, and more than 20 films. David has also had a huge success on TV and won many awards for his acting, including the Best Actor BBC Award for THE LIFE OF FREUD. And, typically for British repertory actors, he has been in many radio dramas. This would be our first time seeing him act in person on the stage.

Okay, so we sort of expected an evening of good theater. And, an evening of excellent acting. And an outstanding script. But we were not prepared for this play. It was so strong, so moving, a complete surprise. At intermission, a man seated next to us, as he stood up, said, "Unremitting tension." Boy, was he right. There was not a moment where you could sit back and relax. Every word was a sword, a spear, with a direct hit. The family was broken, but glued together. A failed, alcoholic father, a morphine addicted mother, an older brother also an alcoholic, and the younger brother without any direction, just angry and defeated. 

Here is a brief synopsis of only one encounter between the brothers in Act Four to give you an idea of the tension. The older brother comes home drunk and cries about his failures. He gets cruel and says of their mother: "Where's the hophead?" The younger brother punches him in the face and they both end up crying. In their drunken tears one brother accuses his parents of poisoning his mind against his other brother, hoping he would die, so that the inheritance would be saved. This leads to accusations between them both, and a final drink to reconcile them to their fate. And, this is only one single moment in the play. After the final curtain, we and the whole audience were on their feet. It was a spectacular performance. The play is intense and the actors made a perfect interpretation of the script. We loved it, but, in fact, it was Unremittingly Tense. We almost couldn't speak as we left the theater. Just a "good night" and Richard went one way and we went up Rupert Street to calm down.

Here is the complete review of the play by the Theater Critic of the London Guardian Newspaper. And so we did: we saw it.

End of Friday.