Long Day's Journey Into Night - Apollo Theatre

Review Summary

Average Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars based on 1 review(s)



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David Suchet is an actor with a huge reputation in the United Kingdom, whether it is his acclaimed stage work or his long-running appearances as Hercule Poirot in the ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Poirot” series. As a result his latest appearances on the stage in the West End are always met with great anticipation, from 2010’s run in Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons” to this production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey into Night”. The show is set to appear at the Apollo Theatre in 2012 (the same venue as “All My Sons”) and with Anthony Page at the helm it is likely to attract a great deal of attention.

“Long Day’s Journey into Night” sees Suchet portray James Tyrone, the patriarch of the Tyrone family in 1912. O’Neill earned a Pulitzer Prize for what has been described as a semi-autobiographical piece, the action of which takes place over a single summer’s day. The Tyrone family consists of James, his wife Mary and their sons Jamie and Edmund and during the course of this day we witness the brunt of their dysfunctions and addictions rise to the surface in a story of regrets, conflict and resentment.

O’Neill penned a wide range of play over his career, which started in the early 1910s and continued beyond his death in the 1950s with the publication of posthumous works in the 1960s and 1980s. “Long Day’s Journey into Night” appeared in 1956, though it was penned over a decade earlier, and appeared alongside a wealth of other shows over his time such as other Pulitzer Prize-winners “Beyond the Horizon” in 1918, “Anna Christie” in 1920 and “Strange Interlude” in 1928. His other credits include “The Iceman Cometh” from 1940 and “A Moon for the Misbegotten” from the early 1940s.

Director Anthony Page, meanwhile, has been behind a wealth of film, television and stage shows over his career and was the Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Court Theatre from 1969 to 1972, for whom he directed a wide range of shows. His other theatre credits include “Marriage Play” for The National Theatre and “Design For Living” at the Old Vic Theatre.

Prior to the arrival of “Long Day’s Journey into Night” at the Apollo Theatre, “Yes, Prime Minister” is set to complete its run at the venue and this is followed by the reappearance of Jez Butterworth’s “Jerusalem”.

“Long Day’s Journey into Night” is at the Apollo Theatre from Monday 2nd April 2012 to Saturday 18th August 2012.