Miller nails O'Neill!

Just watched the 1987 production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night directed by -Jonathan Miller, which I saw on public TV when it first came out. I thought it was a masterpiece then and even moreso now. Indeed, my dear and late friend Ger and I tipped many beers over endless praise and admiration for this production. The actors are Jack Lemmon, Bethel Leslie, Peter Gallagher, Kevin Spacey and Jodie Lynne McClintock. All are first rate.

In an interview on the DVD, Miller talks about his desire to do two things: first, get the play off its classic pedestal as an "American Greek Tragedy" and, two, to return to the play's heart as a story about a dysfunctional showbiz family of addicts. Soon, in  rehearsal, he found himself needing to "rescore" the text because dialogue was naturally overlapping -- indeed, this is the way families speak, especially in moments of emotion. This overlapping of dialogue caught Miller hell from the traditional critics but it's spot on. This is the best play-performance about alcoholic speech ever presented. Also, the result is to bring down the play's performance time to an astounding 3 hours!

Jonathan Miller

I can't praise this production highly enough. I can't imagine a better interpretation of this play, ever. Miller's approach has so much more energy than the usual slow, long and overly "respectful" performance. This is an amazing DVD, highly recommended.