Troubling 'Long Day's Journey' at Pear
O'Neill play takes hard look at dysfunction

By Keith Kreitman, CONTRIBUTOR
Article Last Updated:09/28/2006 11:13:42 AM PDT

EUGENE O'Neill's autobiographical play "Long Day's Journey Into Night," is looked upon as one of the dramatic masterpieces of the 20th Century.

Writing it more than 50 years ago must have been self-inflicted torture for O'Neill.

It takes great courage to honestly face, examine and reveal the deepest secrets in one's own family, especially if the family may be characterized as highly dysfunctional.

The drama takes place in the living room of the fictional Tyrone family's shabby waterfront home in New London, Conn., on a summer day in 1912.

The play is remarkably well-written, organized and graced with plain-spoken but magnificent dialogue.

In its three hours, one gets to know each of the four Tyrone family members in depth, their deep love and equally deep hatred for each other and how, within those relationships, all have severely damaged each other with character flaws.

Obviously, this is a very mature play and requires a very mature cast, and director Jeanie Forte achieves that in The Pear Avenue Theatre's current production.

Tom Ammon, in what may be his most solid performance ever, is father James Tyrone Sr., the miserly, formerly famous stage actor who sold out his artistry and greedily continues to invest in losing property ventures.

Diane Tasca is mother Mary Tyrone, a former beauty who gave up her ambitions to be a nun and a pianist so she could marry and then neglected her children to cater to her actor husband's needs.

It was her husband's miserliness that led her to become addicted to narcotics when he engaged a cheap hotel doctor after the birth of his second son.

For Tasca's performance, I need only say, as I have before, she stands alone as the Katharine Hepburn among the many fine actresses in the Bay Area.

She hardly seems to be in same world with the rest of us after she has absorbed the spirit of any role she undertakes.

Eric Rice also gives a rocksolid performance as eldest son James Tyrone Jr., an alcoholic rake who has bitterly disappointed his father. Jamie never succeeds at anything (except drinking) and attempts to subvert his younger brother's talent.

John Russell is Edmund Tyrone, the playwright's second self, and this remarkable young actor endows his character with dignity, grace of forgiveness and a quiet reserve.

His impressive expressions say more than words as he listens to the long soliloquies the playwright has given the other members of the family to fill in the historical background that culminates in this long day's confrontation.

Sarah Eismann is Cathleen, the cheeky young lass the Tyrones had hired for the summer as a second maid.

After three years of wandering the world penniless, Edmund has returned to the shelter of his family's home, only to have revealed to him that day, he has contracted the dreaded, often fatal, consumption and will need to be placed in a sanitarium.

Somehow, this is not a morbid play. It has a nobility that makes it a moving experience, especially as we recognize some of the family dysfunctions that have affected our own lives.

Pear Avenue Theatre continues to offer the kind of great theater that rarely makes it to the larger houses and is doing so with increasing artistic success.

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