Ensemble Theatre’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is superb classic theater

...and you thought your family was messed up. Believe me it is nothing compared to the Tyrone family in Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize winning epic “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”. The show is currently being produced by Ensemble Theatre and on stage in the Marinello Theatre at John Carroll University in University Heights.

James Tyrone (Doug Sutherland) is a gadabout actor who has typecast himself to one role (a play he purchased as a young man). Although the performances have earned him a good and steady income (over $1,000,000 in today’s dollars per year) he has not been allowed to grow as an actor by learning new roles. On top of that, the money he has earned has been wasted on questionable investments, real estate deals and “loans” to fellow actors. He is, in effect, land rich but dirt poor.

The family lives between seasons in a dilapidated summer house near the east coast. It is August, 1912 and a time when great fogs roll in necessitating the use of fog horns in the bay. The family room where all of the scenes take place reflects their poverty being filled with distressed furniture that at one time was of high quality but now like the family has fallen into disrepair.

James loves his wife Mary (Mary Alice Beck) who he is totally devoted even though she just recently recovered from a morphine addiction and with current pressures has slid back in. James on his part is a heavy drinker who once he starts cannot stop. He has turned his sons into his de facto drinking “buddies”. Fact is all of the male members of the family drink at alcoholic proportions with predictable results.

James has a love/hate relationship with his sons Jamie (Dan Zalevsky) and Edmund (Michael J. Montanus). His anger towards Jamie is especially palpable. James and Mary blame Jamie for the death of their middle son Eugene from measles. It seems that while James and Mary were traveling on tour Jamie contracted the disease and went into Eugene’s room giving his younger sibling measles which proved fatal.

Jamie is a near-do-well drunkard who has a penchant for over weight cheap whores. While he hates living at home, his failure in other many exploits has given him no choice but to return and work for his supper (and drink). He is a darling when sober and after a couple of drinks but the later heavy drinking brings about a change for the worse.

Edmond left the family years ago to sail the world in tramp steamers working his way around the globe and at times experiencing homelessness, poverty and hunger. He has returned home with what appears to be consumption (tuberculosis) and will soon be leaving for a sanitarium in order to hopefully recover.

The three hour and forty five minute epic (with three intermissions) is a series of arguments, fights, break-ups, make-ups and feeble excuses for the men’s aberrant behavior. When the three men go to town to get a definitive diagnosis on Edmund, Mary sneaks into town with Cathleen the maid (Mia Radabaugh) and has her purchase her morphine fix at the town pharmacy (you could do things like that back then).

Thus the remainder of the time has Mary floating in and out of the scenes after injecting a double dose of morphium (as it was known in 1912). She spends her time reminiscing about being raised in a convent, her prowess at playing the piano, wanting to become a nun but then meeting James and getting married instead.

As for the show, it is inspiring. The Marinello Theatre black box theater is very intimate with most of the seats close to the stage. At times you find yourself wanting to leap on the stage to referee one of the many arguments. Doug Sutherland is James Tyrone in every aspect flitting from one emotional mood to another over and over again. Mary Alice Beck as Mary Tyrone is his equal in stage presence as she drops down the rabbit hole of addiction right in front of our eyes.

Dan Zalevsky as Jamie Tyrone is a lovable drunk with a streak of malice hidden just under the surface. Michael J. Montanus as Edmund Tyrone plays the sickly but functioning son with ease. There are even some very convincing coughing fits thrown in. Mia Radabaugh as Cathleen does well as the typical Irish maid but her accent could have been curbed back just a bit for better understanding of what she was saying.

The distressed set is the genius design of Ian Hinz giving a feel of past elegance that has faded over time. Ian also designed the lighting that worked well to isolate. Rebecca Moseley supplied the many props needed to propel the story as well as was in charge of the sound design. The show was superbly co-directed by Rebecca Moseley and Ian Wolfgang Hinz who definitely stepped up to the challenge.

One of the great advantages of great theater is that it illustrates situations that many of us would wish to turn away from but cannot. In this case the entire Tyrone family puts the “fun” in “dysfunctional” to the point where witnesses (audience members) feel the urge to step in and do an intervention on the entire family. It is well worth the time investment that this show requires.

The Ensemble Theatre production of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day Journey Into Night” will be on stage in the Marinello Theatre at John Carroll University in University Heights (1 John Carroll Blvd, University Heights, Ohio) through February 22, 2026. For more information and tickets go to https://www.ensembletheatrecle.org/ or call (216) 321-2930.