Photo by Joan Marcus

Usually the thought of having to sit in a theatre for almost four hours fills me with a slight sense of dread. Even shows around the two and a half hours mark sometimes feel too long for my liking. However, it is a testament to the material and to the talented group who deliver it, that when the lights came back on at the American Airlines Theatre the other week after I had attended a performance of Long Day's Journey Into Night, time seemed to have flown by. I really didn't feel like I had sat in that chair for almost four hours. Indeed I had lost all sense of time altogether.

For me, and I assume like for so many others who have seen this timeless play, its characters and their struggles reminded me constantly of the characters in my own life, who mirror them. I believe that is one of the key reasons of the drama's continued popularity. Some say O'Neill was definitely ahead of his time, writing a play in 1941 (it was only later published in 1956) that included morphine addiction as one of its themes. 75 years later, most of us probably know at least one person who is struggling with some sort of addiction that is resulting in the breakdown of the family unit. The play is as relevant today as ever.

Nominated for a total of 7 Tony Awards at this year's ceremony, this Jonathan Kent-helmed revival stars two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange as Mary Tyrone and she certainly gives a sovereign and haunting performance. Her subtle physicality is a marvel to behold as she relapses and reverts back to her old ways, as her family look on helplessly. It was Oscar and Tony nominee Michael Shannon's performance as Jamie, however, that stole the show for me. The eldest son of the Tyrone family cannot cope with the disappointment he has turned out to be to his father. In direct contrast to his Dad's miserly ways, he throws his money at liquor and prostitutes and is at constant verbal war with the patriarch of the troubled family. His relationship to his younger brother Edmond is a touchingly honest and sincere one that is also ladled with jealousy and feelings of inferiority. Shannon balances these complicated relations perfectly. Furthermore, for the last act of the play, Jamie returns completely inebriated from the whorehouse and I have seen a number of actors fail over the years to convince the audience of their character's drunken state. Shannon gives a master class here, as far as I'm concerned.

Natasha Katz's Tony-nominated lighting design is spot-on, creating an eerily dim and bleak atmosphere as we take this fated journey into the night. The moving curtain, which floats across the stage between the four acts is ghostly like the shell of Mary Tyrone floating through the corridors of the house at night, with 'poison' in her veins, oblivious to the world.

This revival may not be interpreting the story of the Tyrone family and its many conflicts in any groundbreakingly new ways, and portions of O'Neill's repetitive dialogue could be trimmed in my opinion, but make no mistake about it, it is these heartbreakingly honest performances by this cast of five that make this production worth a visit. Don't let this show's running time dissuade you. Sit back and let yourself be taken on this long day's journey with them.

Click here for tickets to Long Day's Journey Into Night for performances through to 26 June 2016 at Broadway's American Airlines Theatre.

- by Tom Millward