Long Day's Journey into Night
By Eugene O'Neill
directed by Robin Phillips
Pulitzer winning masterpiece
Meet the Tyrones: Like most resilient, American families, they have had their share of highs and lows – from celebrity and financial success to illness and loss. One fateful day, as their increasingly drunken hours slip by, they are forced to confront the demons that plague them individually, in a final effort to save the family. One of the most powerful plays in American theater and the crowning achievement of a masterful career, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night won both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for Drama and has been enthralling audiences ever since. Epic in scope and elegant in its simplicity, O’Neill’s autobiographical masterpiece “restores the drama to literature and the theater to art” (New York Times).
The O'Neill Festival is generously sponsored by Joan and David Maxwell.
American Voices
Robin Phillips
My first visit to Arena Stage was back in the early 1970s, and I am thrilled to be directing here this season.
I first produced Long Day’s Journey into Night with Jessica Tandy and William Hutt at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario, during the 1970s. I revived the production later during my term as the artistic director of the Stratford Festival, where it proved to be one of our most successful presentations.
I also directed the great Jessica Lange and Charles Dance in a production for London’s West End.
Now I am returning to the play again. I feel very fortunate to be working for this remarkable theater company and I am grateful to Artistic Director Molly Smith for inviting me, and making this opportunity possible.
I am so grateful for the chance to revisit this monumentally beautiful and tragic play.
What a pleasure the new experience promises to be.
