Long Day’s Journey into Night- The Empty Space, Salford

Writer: Eugene O’Neill
Director: Jake Murray

Long Day’s Journey into Night, regarded as one of the greatest plays of the 20^thcentury, presents a number of challenges for acting companies with a lengthy running time and long heavyweight speeches. Elysium Theatre Company also copes with making a change in cast at short notice.

In 1912 the Tyrone family holiday in their seaside cottage in Connecticut. All is not well. Patriarch James Tyrone (Edmund Dehn) is unable to forget his poverty-stricken childhood so watches every penny and, hating himself, for wasting his acting talent in a crowd-pleasing but artistically unfulfilling role, drinks heavily. Recovering addict Mary Tyrone (Joyce Branagh) is kept under supervision by the family having only recently been released from a sanitorium and in danger of a relapse. Older son Jamie Tyrone (Danny Solomon) eases his self-loathing with a debauched lifestyle involving alcohol and sex workers. Younger son (and onstage stand-in for author Eugene O’Neill) Edmund (Dan Bradford) was kept in ignorance about his mother’s frail health but now has to acknowledge the truth and also seek financial assistance from his father to treat the onset of tuberculosis.

Long Day’s Journey into Night examines the impact of addiction not only upon the addict but also their immediate family. The opening scenes of the play have the family of recovering addict Mary Tyrone on tenterhooks, anxiously keeping an eye on her in case she reverts to her bad habits. However, this supervision forces the family to acknowledge how Mary’s morphine addiction is a result of James paying only for cheap medical care during her pregnancy which may set an ominous precedent as he tries to persuade his ailing son Edmund to enter a state sanatorium, rather than an expensive clinic, for treatment.

As Mary succumbs to temptation she loses inhibitions and speaks freely about secrets the family would prefer to conceal. Joyce Branagh delivers these devastating revelations in a vague manner with a fixed smile and a sweet tone as if telling a bedtime story which makes them all the more powerful. In a distracted voice Mary recalls how she was dragged by her actor husband through shabby hotels and left lonely and anxious while he pursued his career. Mercilessly she analyses how her husband’s stinginess actually leads to greater expense in the long run.  To the horror of her family Mary vocalises her belief that Jamie deliberately infected his younger brother with measles and so caused his death. Branagh conveys a weary sense of faded grandeur, an awareness Mary married beneath her social station.

Joyce Branagh depicts Mary’s mental deterioration in a gradual subtle manner. Prior to giving into temptation she is twitchy and anxious, tapping fingers or scratching. Having taken morphine Mary becomes distracted, adopting a thousand-yard stare and defying anyone to challenge her about her addiction. Even in the final scene Branagh continues to develop the character, reverting to childhood and waving her legs as if on a child’s swing. Branagh stepped into the role at short notice and so performs book in hand, it is frustrating to imagine the quality of performance she would have achieved with adequate time to prepare.

James Tyrone is a former grand Shakespearian actor turned matinee idol which suggests an imposing yet seductive personality. Yet Edmund Dehn down-plays the role making James diffident and soft-spoken; it is hard to believe such an unassuming character could stand up to the powerful personalities of his sons.  Dan Bradford takes a gentle approach making Edmund more a poetry-quoting bruised romantic than a boozy depressive. Danny Solomon, by contrast is on fiery form suggesting Jamie loathes members of his family but himself most of all. The result is that the confrontations between father and sons are disappointing with James appearing tired and not up to making forceful arguments or justifying his parsimony.

Long Day’s Journey into Night is a daunting prospect for any theatre company but the current production suggests circumstances have limited the success of the Elysium Theatre Company.

Reviewed on 22^nd May 2026