Fresh from playing the beastly patriarch in Succession, Brian Cox has returned to his theatre roots, taking on another grandiose head of the family.
Brian stars in a new revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night in the West End alongside Oscar and Tony nominee Patricia Clarkson.
In the production Brian plays the flawed father of the dysfunctional Irish-American Tyrone family while Patricia plays his opium-addicted wife.
Reviews for the West End revival have hailed the the two leads as giving an acting masterclass with Patricia in particular lavished with praise for her hauntingly accurate depiction of an addict.
Brian Cox stars in a new revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night this in the West End alongside Oscar and Tony nominee Patricia Clarkson
In the production Brian plays the flawed father of the dysfunctional Irish-American Tyrone family while Patricia plays his opium-addicted wife
Set in August 1912 at the Tyrones’ summer home in Connecticut, this powerful play by Eugene, which is semi-autobiographical, follows a single day in the lives of the family.
As the day begins to lead into the night, the Tyrones grapple with their own shortcomings, addictions, and struggles, blaming and resenting one another in the process.
Written by O’Neill between 1939 and 1941 and posthumously published in 1956, Long Day’s Journey Into Night earned O’Neill the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1957 and the Tony Award for Best Play.
Arifa Akbar for The Guardian writes ‘Cox is, as always, thrilling to watch. Yet it is Patricia Clarkson as his ‘morphine fiend’ of a wife, just returned from a sanatorium and tumbling back into addiction, who steals the show.’
The review also calls out Louisa Harland who plays family maid Cathleen with Akbar declaring ‘that you want more of her. She lifts every scene she is in, turning a functional role into a comic highlight.’
Supporting actors Daryl McCormack and Laurie Kynaston are also praised for their performances as Cox and Clarkson’s two sons.
Nick Curtis for Evening Standard writes: ‘Kynaston brings great delicacy and watchfulness to Edmund’ and ‘McCormack, so breezy in Bad Sisters and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, brings a malign, defeated charisma to Jamie.’
The acting though does not necessarily make for an enjoyable night at the theatre though with Patrick Marimon for Daily Mail writing ‘as a distant fog horn calls them into the night, and mist rolls in off the Atlantic Ocean ‘like the ghost of the sea’, this is a pretty good approximation to purgatory – and not an experience I can in good conscience recommend to anyone.’
Reviews for the revival have hailed the the two leads as giving ‘an acting masterclass’ with Patricia in particular lavished with praise for her hauntingly accurate depiction of an addict
Nick Curtis for Evening Standard writes: ‘Laurie Kynaston brings great delicacy and watchfulness to Edmund’
Daryl McCormack ‘brings a malign, defeated charisma to Jamie’ according to critics
Tim Bano for The Independent agrees, deciding: ‘It’s not exactly an enjoyable night out at the theatre. What it is, though, is very impressive, often mesmerising, and – when it hits right – profoundly moving.’
Clive Davis for The Times says ‘Cox is always watchable, but he’s still not able to prevent long-winded confrontations and confessions from slipping into melodrama.’
Scottish actor Brian began his career on the stage. He left school at 15 with no qualifications and worked in Rep before studying drama.
He worked consistently, acting opposite Laurence Olivier in a filmed production of King Lear before playing Lear himself at the National Theatre.
Patricia’s first professional role was also in theatre. After graduating from the Yale School of Drama, she was cast in a 1986 Broadway production of The House of Blue Leaves, before she moved into film.
Her later stage work has included US productions of the classics A Streetcar Named Desire and The Elephant Man. Long Day’s Journey Into Night marks her West End debut.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Mail Online
