Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson
Wyndham’s Theatre, London
April 2024
Photo by Johan Persson
080 – Long Day’s Journey into Night, by Eugene O’Neill
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Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical magnum opus Long Day’s Journey into Night presents a single day and night in the lives of the troubled Tyrone family, during which they conduct a torturous and tragic self-examination. It is a relentlessly bitter and mournful round robin of recriminations and self-dramatization, written as an act of personal confrontation with O’Neill’s own family demons. As the title suggests, the play is long and taxing. It is raw and despairing, but also lyrical, and ultimately heartbreakingly moving.
Eugene O’Neill finished writing Long Day’s Journey into Night in April 1941, but because of the personal revelations it contained he gave explicit instructions that the play was not to be published until 25 years after his death, and more extraordinarily, that it should never be performed on stage. However, within three years of his death his widow allowed both the publication of the play, and the first productions at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, and then on Broadway, where it received ecstatic reviews and won the fourth Pulitzer prize of O’Neill’s career.
It has been staged many times since, filmed on a number of occasions, and become a staple of educational curricula, particularly in North America. As we record this episode, a powerful new production is playing in the West End of London, with Brian Cox, most recently renowned as the ruthless patriarch Logan Roy in the TV series Succession, and Patricia Clarkson leading the cast.
I am very excited and privileged to be able to talk to the London production’s director, Jeremy Herrin, about this monumental play.
Jeremy Herrin
Jeremy Herrin has been a director of Live Theatre Newcastle, The Royal Court, and Headlong theatre companies. Highlights of his distinguished career include directing Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies for the RSC, with transfers to London and New York; as well as James Graham’s plays This House, Labour of Love and Best of Enemies in London.
Jeremy also directed the original production of Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things at the National Theatre, in the West End and New York, and he is directing a revival of the play at the Trafalgar theatre in London, opening in May 2024.
Jeremy recommended People, Places & Things by Duncan Macmillan.
The Footnotes to our episode on Eugene O’Neill’s magnum opus Long Day’s Journey into Night contain observations on the publication and first production of the play, James Tyrone the actor, Mary’s preoccupation with the past, and O’Neill’s dramatic form.
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113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Published 24th August
Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.
As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.
112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.
To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.
111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.
Hi Douglas, I really enjoy your podcast. Just listened to long days journey into night after I read it to research a role I’m going to audition for. Much appreciated and take care.
Thank you for your kind feedback Jeffrey. Good luck with your audition!