When British novelist Evelyn Waugh caught the first London production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, he described it as “an intolerable Irish-American play about a family being drunk and rude to one another in half-darkness.” Sounds like your typical Thanksgiving dinner to me.
The home is open to the public nowadays. Last summer, as a matter of fact, I took the tour, following an incongruously cheerful guide as she rattled off her spiel about the building’s history as a habitat for addiction and limitless sadness. O’Neill’s lengthy stage directions paint a surprisingly accurate picture of the first floor, right down to the placement of windows and light fixtures. Magaw follows those specs pretty closely, maybe because his director, Auburn, is a playwright too (best known for Proof, another drama about a troubled family), and therefore inclined to let the author have his way.
Mary Beth Fisher doesn’t strike me as an obvious fit for the role. Her talents for communicating common sense and righteous albeit withering anger seem at odds with a character prone to panic when she’s not high and elaborate, romanticized reminiscence when she is. But it turns out Fisher’s natural, grounded quality helps keep her from drifting too far into either hysteria or glassy-eyed torpor. Her Mary is mercurial and intelligent, with flashes of mordant wit, keen insight, and gut-wrenching sorrow. v
Through 4/10: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 2 and 7:30 PM (except 3/26, 2 PM only), Sun 2 and 7:30 PM (except 4/3, 7:30 PM only; 4/10, 2 PM only) Court Theatre 5535 S. Ellis 773-753-4472 courttheatre.org $48-$68
