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Finding the Way to 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2025
Lately, I have been experimenting with the idea of putting the concept of this book into practice, putting it on its feet, as it were. My experiment consists of a re-entrance of Long Day's Journey into Tao House for reasons I hope I have made clear in these pages.
I have argued that Long Day's Journey Into Night belongs—or has its belonging—at Tao House in the moment of its creation, 1939 to 1942. We know the play through the Tyrone home that it summoned to the space and time of Tao House, and I am drawn to the interwoven text and context of that California home. I have even asserted that Long Day's Journey could be performed effectively in that space, and to do so would help us feel the immanence of the Taoist home that it bore out of that space and time.
But, of course, O’Neill's play is bound to work, as a play, much more effectively in the sort of space that usually houses drama's ancient art, a theater. Scenic, lighting, sound, and costume designers can help us experience the imaginative work that a well-directed cast of great actors can do with such a text to locate its story and make it resonate for a receptive audience. And a dramaturg could help. The play does not literally require the antiquated “CURTAIN” called for by the script, but theaters are typically well-equipped to mark the beginning, middle, and end of a play with blackouts or artful music cues. The echoing Basalite block walls and tile floors of Tao House are not ideal for theatrical acoustics, and the California sunlight draws your eye to whatever it will, even an audience's reflection in that giant blue mirror. Setting up a couple dozen folding chairs in that space would be feasible, but the National Park rangers would frown on a performance that ended after midnight with glasses of whisky all over the place.
As of this writing, I have a ticket in March to see a production in London, starring Brian Cox, and I will happily travel over 5,000 miles to Wyndham's Theatre, which opened in 1899 and seats about 800 in a velvety auditorium, to discover Long Day's Journey once again.
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