Buntport Theater and Paragon Theatre have coordinated efforts this season to present two facets of a landmark American play, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Paragon is presenting a full production of this epic play in their new facility on South Santa Fe, and Buntport has created The World is Mine, an original world premiere that takes place in the mind of Eugene O’Neill as he struggles to come to terms with his life and family, and begins to write what would become his most famous work and receive a Pulitzer Prize. Both shows are good individually, but seeing them both adds a level of understanding that enhances both, giving “the full experience.” I saw the two productions on consecutive evenings, starting with The World is Mine at Buntport, which is the order I will describe them here.
The World is Mine follows Eugene O’Neill inside his own mind as the playwright recovers from an appendectomy and struggles with writer’s block. The other characters are people from O’Neill’s life (his wife; a nurse), but they are all (and they admit this) projections of O’Neill himself – a fact we can’t forget because they all have the same mustache. The script wanders from dialogue to explicit stage directions to surrealism to theatricality, with brief interactions with the real world delivered straight out at the back of the audience. As O’Neill remembers the events of the past, he begins to pull together the play, enlisting whoever he needs at the moment for characters, with snippets of dialogue from Long Day’s Journey interspersed with his internal mental conversations.
Erik Edborg anchors the show as O’Neill, and is excellent at “turning on a dime.” He jumps from thoughtful introversion to dialogue, and from clever comedy to serious pain to silliness adroitly. As his wife, Carlotta, Erin Rollman is melodramatic and clever, and her sing-song voice adds an extra level to the characterization. Hannah Duggan is naïve and genuine as Cathleen, the nurse, contrasting the cynical superficiality of the other characters. As the Swedish Emissary, Brian Colonna is funny, but gets serious and even brutal when he steps into Jamie, O’Neill’s older brother, in the memory sequences.
The set, lighting, and costumes, created as always by the Buntport ensemble, fit the show well. The set has surreal and idiosyncratic elements that support the story, including some very funny ways that drinks appear or are filled, carrying through the alcohol that pervades Long Day’s Journey.
Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the story of one day, a very difficult day, for the Tyrone family. There is hope initially – the mother has shaken a long-term addiction to morphine and in spite of the usual sibling and parent-child bickering, things seem to be on the right track. But as the day progresses, things get worse, the arguments get more vicious, blame is bandied about, and everything falls apart.
The cast is superb. Kathryn Gray is Mary, showing beautiful tenderness, but lashing out in anger unexpectedly. Her bald-face denial of “I don’t know what you are talking about” is chilling. Her treatment of husband James, played by Jim Hunt, drives our sympathy – Hunt is loving and initially hopeful, but when things crumble, we feel his pain deeply. Michael Stricker is brother Jamie, hardened and cynical, but caring deep down. Brandon Kruhm is Edmund, the character O’Neill based on himself. Kruhm’s Edmund is sympathetic, truly caring about his family, and earnestly hoping that things will work out. Holly Ann Peterson rounds things out as Cathleen, the mostly comic maid, with an authentic thick Irish brogue.
David Lafont’s set design is clean and works well in-the-round, extending upward to define the space on stage. Brynn Starr Coplan’s costumes fit the period well, and carry through the palette of the scenery nicely. Unfortunately, Jen Orf’s lighting design caused some real problems – the lights glaring directly in my face for most of the show made even looking at the actors difficult at times. Perhaps it was because of unfamiliarity with the new space, or due to the challenges of a low ceiling and theatre in-the-round, but something went very wrong. Orf is an excellent and experienced designer – I just don’t understand what happened here.
Taken individually, these shows are both engaging and well-performed. After seeing The World is Mine, Long Day’s Journey Into Night seemed somehow more clear to me than it would otherwise have been. While some of what the Buntport ensemble included was based on fact, some was included to make a better story (just as O’Neill undoubtedly did in his play), but all increased the depth of my understanding. Long Day’s Journey is a very sad story, but a very real story about complex family relationships and the toll that secrets can take. As Mary puts it, “None of us can help what life has made of us.” It is not hopeful, but knowing that in the character of Edmund, O’Neill is representing himself added insights and gave the play some hope. These two plays are very different, but are tied together – both are worth seeing, even if you can only see one. But if you take advantage of the opportunity to see both, you will be rewarded with a unique perspective on one of this country’s most important playwrights
-Craig Williamson, February 16, 2010, North Denver Tribune