Page 25 - 2018 Festival Edition

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Experience
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SUMMER EVENTS 2018
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum Induction Celebration Jun 16, 9 AM - 5 PM
Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Baseball-themed activities take place all day, followed by the induction ceremony at 1 PM.
Quarry Kick-off Party
Jun 30, 1 - 4 PM, St. Marys Quarry
Enjoy the opening of Canada’s largest outdoor freshwater pool with fun, free activities!
Canada Day Party
Jul 1, 11 AM - 4 PM, Cadzow Park
Celebrate our nation with family activities, live music, free birthday cupcakes and more.
Stonetown Heritage Festival
Jul 13, 7:30 - 10 PM
Jul 14, 8:30 AM - 10:30 PM Downtown is alive with performers, vendors and free, family-friendly fun. complete the festival!
Melodies at the Museum
Wednesdays in August, 7 - 8 PM Cadzow Park
Sunset concerts by talented local performers on the St. Marys Museum lawn are a summertime favourite. Admission by donation.
River Rock Music Festival
Aug 10 & 11, Milt Dunnell Field
An eco-minded music festival, with vendors, food and activities for the whole family.
St. Marys Car Show
Aug 18, 12 - 3 PM
Milt Dunnell Field
$10 vehicle registration fee
A bevy of beautiful vintage automobiles, all free to admire!
Pooch Plunge
Sep 1, 10 AM - 12 PM
St. Marys Quarry
Celebrate the “dog days of summer” with a morning of sun and fun with your pup!
Discover more events
calendar.townofstmarys.com
Contact us to plan your visit
events@town.stmarys.on.ca or 519-284-2340
SCOTT WENTWORTH AS JAMES TYRONE AND
SEANA MCKENNA AS MARY CAVAN TYRONE IN LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT. PHOTO BY EMILY COOPER.
And it’s that intensity, from both the play’s subject matter and the cast’s heavy rehearsal schedule, that strengthens the bonds between each of the actors, giv- ing their performances an enhanced sense of familial authenticity.
But just as any family can often find a way to laugh in the darkest of circum- stances, a dark streak of Irish humour is peppered throughout the play’s heavier subject matter – providing a sense of levity when it’s needed most, and giving the audience brief glimpses of the family’s underlying desire to forgive each other’s past misdeeds.
“There’s something in the truthfulness of this writing, of the exposure of this writing, of the love that this family feels, of the fact that they’re all going to have to get up the next morning after the play is over and have breakfast together,” Wentworth said. “There’s a buoyancy and a life force in this play that was kind of a surprise to encounter.”
“And you are watching, in a way, someone’s diary being enacted,” McKenna said. “... It’s so personal and it’s about his family. You are watching his life in front of you, and some of it, I think, is so close to home.”
Because both Wentworth and McKenna have acted with one another before – and both have adolescent boys of their own at home – much of their inspira- tion for how they’ve decided to portray their characters comes from personal experience. That familiarity is bolstered because the play explicitly deals with issues many families can relate to: alcoholism, addiction to opiates, illness, and financial stress,
“These great plays are great for a reason because they actually do mirror life and give us information about the whole spectrum of life,” Wentworth said.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts. It’s not the huge climactic moments. It’s all the little snips,” McKenna continued.
“It’s family life. It’s like the worst Thanksgiving dinner you’ve ever been to,” Potter said.
In directing Long Day’s Journey into Night – something Potter has dreamed of doing with a cast of this calibre for much of his career – he has found the emo- tional interplay between characters is already quite apparent in the play’s text alone.
“It’s like reality theatre. You really feel like everything ... has been said – like in real life it was said. O’Neill’s not just being a stenographer, transcribing these events. It’s all real,” Potter said. “... And if you trust that it’s real, that it actually happened, then you don’t need to pump it up.
“And that’s my hope, that people will watch it with a sense that it’s a bit like watching an accident unfold.”
And like an accident, A Long Day’s Journey into Night is messy, it’s infuriat- ing, and it’s heartbreaking. But through it all, the underlying love and respect that the Tyrones and the actors who play them have for each other carries them through some of the worst trials life can deliver in one piece – as a family.
THE BEACON HERALD | 2018 FESTIVAL EDITION
PAGE 25