Long Day's Journey into Night

On stage at the Argentina Theater is the masterpiece by American playwright Eugene O’Neill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night – directed by Gabriele Lavia – a work-confession that delves into the depths of an unredeemed family failure.

Written in the early 1940s (between 1941 and 1942, with its world premiere in 1956 in Stockholm) and awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1957 (after the author's death), the drama unfolds over the course of a single, interminable night, within the walls of a bourgeois home, in a family gripped by its own demons, conflicts, addictions, and painful secrets.

The play is a merciless autobiographical confession, an anguished journey back into the author's memory: the "prison-house" described by O'Neill is a reflection of his childhood, marked by a successful actor father and relationships frayed by anxiety. The play, set in August 1912 in the Connecticut house, centers on the Tyrone family: a famous actor now in decline, a fragile mother suffering from opiate addiction, and two children torn by a self-destructive struggle between love and redemption. A powerful and poignant drama, therefore, which sees the various characters on stage lead the audience into a short circuit of accusations and affections, in an atmosphere steeped in psychological violence that entangles family bonds.

Long Day's Journey Into Night has been staged numerous times around the world; Sidney Lumet directed the first film adaptation of the play in 1962, starring Katharine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson.

This new production brings the regenerative power of modern tragedy to the forefront, confirming how the stage remains the clearest reflection of human frailty.

Translation: Bruno Fonzia; adaptation: Chiara De Marchi; directed by Gabriele Lavia; starring Gabriele Lavia (James Tyrone), Federica Di Martino (Mary Tyrone, his wife), Jacopo Venturiero (Jamie Tyrone, their firstborn), Ian Gualdani (Edmund Tyrone, secondborn), Beatrice Ceccherin (Cathleen, the waitress).

Photo: Tomasso Lepera