Second Half Productions present
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
Written by Eugene O’Neill
Directed by Jeremy Herrin
- Patricia Clarkson, Alex Lawther, Daryl McCormack and Louisa Harland return to London’s West End to star alongside Brian Cox in Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
- Directed by Jeremy Herrin, Long Day’s Journey into Night will preview at Wyndham’s Theatre from 19 March, with opening night on Tuesday 2 April.
- Tickets go on general sale from 10am on 11 May, with priority booking open from 10am today.
- Tickets start at £25 with 50 seats available at that price for every performance throughout the run
Second Half Productions has today announced the full cast for a new production of Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical magnum opus Long Day’s Journey into Night, directed by Jeremy Herrin (Best of Enemies).
Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning actress Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects) will star as matriarch Mary Tyrone alongside Alex Lawther (The End of the F***ing World, Black Mirror) as Edmund, BAFTA award-nominee Daryl McCormack (Bad Sisters, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) as James Jr and Louisa Harland (Derry Girls) as Cathleen. They join Emmy award-winning actor Brian Cox (Succession) who will play James Tyrone, in his first West End role in almost a decade.
Long Day’s Journey into Night will begin previews at Wyndham’s Theatre from 19 March 2024 with opening night on Tuesday 2 April 2024. Fifty seats at £25 will be available for every performance throughout the run. Tickets go on general sale from 10am on 11 May, with priority booking open from 10am today.
Often regarded as the greatest American play of the 20th Century, O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning piece depicts a summer day in the life of the Tyrones, closely based on O’Neill’s own dysfunctional family. Moving and inspiring in equal measure, O’Neill’s masterpiece is a compelling story of love, hate, betrayal, addiction and the impossible fragility of family bonds.
Following his recent acclaimed production of Best of Enemies, Jeremy Herrin’s new production will bring into sharp focus the universality of O’Neill’s beautifully crafted characters and language. Long Day’s Journey into Night is designed byLizzie Clachan with further creative team to be announced.
Patricia Clarkson says: “Mary Tyrone is a complex and multifaceted woman—a gift for any actor to play. I’m thrilled to be returning to the West End with this brilliant cast and director. I look forward to tackling this great American play.”
Brian Cox says:“It has long been an ambition of mine to play Eugene O’Neill’s flawed patriarch James Tyrone, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to do so on a West End stage. I’m a great admirer of Jeremy Herrin’s work and I am looking forward to us delving into O’Neill’s masterpiece together.”
Alex Lawther says: “I can’t wait to discover O’Neill’s beautiful final play with this brilliant cast and team, and to be doing so under Jeremy’s direction – a director I have had the joy of working with once before and have been hoping to do so again, since.”
Daryl McCormack says: “It has been a dream of mine to bring this play to life, since I first read it as a student more than ten years ago. To be accompanied by such talented actors and have a brilliant director in Jeremy, it is a true gift. I eagerly await the work that is ahead of us in reviving this magnificently tragic and haunting play.”
Jeremy Herrin says: “A great play is always relevant and ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is, it’s often argued, the greatest play of the 20th Century. With its searing honesty and blistering depth of emotion, it must be up there.
What is impossible to argue with is that we have the best cast and, in Lizzie Clachan, one of the most exciting designers in the country, to discover what makes O’Neill’s masterwork relevant for now.
I can’t wait to bring this classic to life. I anticipate a feast of fine acting and vivid performances in what I hope to be a high definition production.”
Brian Cox’s theatre credits include: The Score (Theatre Royal Bath); The Great Society (Broadway); The Weir (Donmar Warehouse); The Championship Season (Broadway); Lolita (National Theatre); Rock N Roll (Royal Court, Broadway); Uncle Varick (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); Waiting for Godot (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh); Desire Under The Elms (Broadway); Dublin Carol (Royal Court Theatre); Skylight (Mark Taper Forum, L.A.); Art (Royale Theatre, NYC); St. Nicolas (Primary Stages, NYC and Bush Theatre, London); The Music Man (Regent’s Park, Tour); The Master Builder (Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, Riverside); King Lear/ Richard III (National Theatre).
Television: Succession seasons 1-4 (HBO); Urban Myths – Elizabeth, Michael and Marlon (Sky); Medici: Kingdom of Gold (Big Light Productions); Penny Dreadful (Neal Street Productions); War and Peace (BBC Wales); The Slap (NBC); Scotland in a Day (Channel 4); The Game (BBC Wales); Shetland (BBC Scotland); An Adventure through Space and Time (BBC); The Curse of Edgar (Program 33); Bob Servant (BBC Scotland); Gotham (ABC); The Straits (Bala Pictures Ltd); The Sinking of Laconia (Talkback Thames); The Big C (Sony); On Expenses (BBC); The Day of the Triffids (BBC); Kings (BBC); The Take (Company/ Sky); Miss Marple (ITV); Lost and Found (NBC); The Secret of the Nutcracker (Joe Media).
Film: Little Wing (Paramount+); The Parenting (HBO Max); The Electric State (Universal Pictures); Skelly (Walk Like A Duck Entertainment); Prisoner’s Daughter (Oakhurst Entertainment); The Independent (Anonymous Content); Mending the Line (Artimage Entertainment); The Last Right (CrossDay Productions); Separation (Yale Productions); Remember Me (Create Entertainment); The Bay of Silence (Silent Bay Productions); Strange But True; Churchill (Salon Pictures); The Etruscan Smile (Don Valley Films); Morgan (Fox UK Productions); The Anomaly (Universal Pictures); Supertroopers 2 (Broken Lizard Industries); The Jesuit (Itaca Films); Mindscape (Safran Company); Red 2 (DC Entertainment); The Campaign (Everyman Pictures); Blood (Red/ Neal Street); The Autopsy of Jane Doe (42); The Carer (Hopscotch Films); Dog Fight (Everyman Pictures); Theatre of Dreams (Messiah Pictures Limited); Edwin Boyd (Myriad Pictures); Caesar: Rise of the Apes (20th Century Fox); Pixels (Columbia Pictures).
Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award and Emmy Award-winning actress, Patricia Clarkson takes on roles as varied as the platforms for which she plays them. This multi-faceted approach makes her one of today’s most respected actresses.
Clarkson’s continuous innovative work in independent film earned her the 2018 British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Sally Potter’s film The Party. In 2010 she received rave reviews for her starring role in the award-winning romantic drama, Cairo Time, which put her career in the American spotlight. She won the Independent Award for Acting Excellence at the 2009 ShoWest Awards. In 2003, her role in Pieces of April earned her nominations for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, Broadcast Film Critics and Independent Spirit awards. The National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics named her Best Supporting Actress of the Year for her work in Pieces of April and The Station Agent.
She will next be seen in the artistic masterpiece and timely drama Monica from Andrea Pallaoro. Clarkson most recently finished filming biopic Lilly, playing the title role of Fair Pay activist Lilly Ledbetter, and playing the lead character in spy series Gray. This year has already seen her in She Said about the New York Times reporters who helped launch the #MeToo movement, in the role of Pulitzer-prize winning editor Rebecca Corbett.
In television, was most recently seen in the second season of AMC+/Sundance TV’s State of the Union alongside Brendan Gleeson, for which she won her third Emmy Award. She just completed filming television series Gray, in the lead role of Cornelia Gray, a CIA spy. Recent television projects include the HBO limited series Sharp Objects and the sixth and final season of Netflix’s House of Cards.
2019 garnered Clarkson the Golden Globe Award and Critics’ Choice Award for her role in HBO’s Sharp Objects. The same year she was also seen at the helm of the Krewe of Muses Mardi Gras Parade, she was honoured with the Precious Gem Award at the Miami Film Festival, and honoured with the prestigious “Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema” from the 54th annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Recent films include Isabel Coixet’s The Bookshop, the independent film drama Jonathan, opposite Ansel Elgort, the final instalment of the Maze Runner trilogy, the detective film Out of Blue based on the Martin Amis novel, in which she plays the lead character, and Sally Potter’s film The Party, for which she won a British Independent Film Award for her role.
In 2014 she starred alongside Sir Ben Kingsley in Learning to Drive directed by Isabel Coixet. The film won runner up honours for the People’s Choice Award at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in August 2015 and opened to critical acclaim. Other recent films include the timely thriller The East, opposite Brit Marling and Alexander Skarsgård, the comedy Friends with Benefits, in which she co-stars with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis and the Lone Scherfig directed drama, One Day with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. In 2010, she was seen in the box office hit Easy A.
Clarkson and the cast of Good Night, and Good Luck. with George Clooney and David Straithairn, received both Screen Actors Guild and Gotham Award nominations for Best Ensemble. Far From Heaven won her a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Supporting Actress, All The Real Girls won her a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and The Safety of Objects earned her an Acting Prize at the Deauville Film Festival. The Green Mile earned Clarkson and cast (including Tom Hanks and James Cromwell) a Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble Award nomination, and High Art earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Supporting Actress.
Other film credits include: Martin Scorsese’s thriller Shutter Island, Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Vicky Christina Barcelona, Blind Date with Stanley Tucci, Elegy, No Reservations, All The King’s Men, Lars and the Real Girl, Simply Irresistible, The Pledge, Jumanji, Rocket Gibraltar and The Untouchables.
In 2011, Clarkson was seen in Lifetime’s Five, an anthology of five short films exploring the impact of breast cancer on people’s lives directed by Jennifer Aniston, Alicia Keys, Demi Moore, Patty Jenkins and Penelope Spheeris. She previously guest starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series Six Feet Under, for which she won an Emmy in 2002 and again in 2006.
In December 2014, Clarkson returned to Broadway, after a 25-year hiatus from the stage, to star in The Elephant Man, opposite Bradley Cooper and Alessandro Nivola. Following its successful run on Broadway, the cast reprised their roles on the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London the following year. That year, Clarkson was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle award for “Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play” and a Tony Award nomination for her role in The Elephant Man.
Alex Lawther’s theatre credits include: Hamlet (Park Avenue Armoury, NYC); The Winter’s Tale (La Criée, Marseille), The Tempest (Les Bouffes du Nord, Paris); The Jungle (St Ann’s Warehouse, New York; Playhouse Theatre, West End; Young Vic); Crushed Shells and Mud (Southwark Playhouse); The Glass Supper (Hampstead Theatre); Fault Lines (Hampstead Theatre); South Downs (Harold Pinter Theatre, West End and Chichester Festival Theatre).
Television includes: Star Wars: Andor (Disney+); The End of the F***ing World/ 2 (Channel 4/ Netflix); Howards End (BBC); Black Mirror (Netflix)
Film includes: Earwig (RookFilm); The Last Duel (Scott Free Productions); The French Dispatch (Fox Searchlight); Les Traducteurs (Trésor Films); Ghost Stories (Warp Films); Goodbye Christopher Robin (Fox Searchlight); Old Boys (Film4); Freak Show (Maven Pictures); Departure (Motion Group Pictures); The Imitation Game (Black Bear Pictures); X plus Y (Origin Pictures).
Alex also writes and directs. His debut short film For people in trouble, produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck will premiere at Tribeca this year.
Daryl McCormack is well known for his lead role in British comedy-drama Good luck to you, Leo Grande (2022) opposite Emma Thompson and directed by Sophie Hyde. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2022, and released later the same year, to critical acclaim, earning Daryl two BAFTA nominations, for EE BAFTA Rising Star and Best Lead Actor for his role as ‘Leo’, as well as Daryl and Emma a joint BIFA nomination for Best Joint Lead Performances, amongst other film and crew nominations.
Daryl studied Theatre and Performance at DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and has been named by Screen International as one of their 2021 ‘Stars of Tomorrow’, and The Hollywood Reporter ‘Next Gen’ talent and AP Breakthrough Entertainer’s lists for 2022.
Up next for Daryl is the thriller feature The Lesson, alongside Richard E Grant and Julie Delpy for Bleecker Street.
Daryl recently wrapped filming a co-lead role in gothic thriller The Woman in the Wall, for the BBC in the UK and Showtime in the US, opposite Ruth Wilson.
In August 2022, Daryl featured as Matt Claffin in Sharon Horgan’s dark comedy series, Bad Sisters, which follows a group of five sisters (the Garvey’s) after their parent’s premature death, via Apple TV+.
Daryl joined the season 5 cast of Peaky Blinders (2019) as a preacher’s son, taking over the role of ‘Isaiah Jesus’ from Jordan Bolger, and returned for the 6th iteration of the BBC in February 2022.
In 2020, Daryl starred in Barnaby Thompson’s Pixie as ‘Harland McKenna’.
Louisa Harland is best known for playing Orla McCool in the hit Channel 4 series Derry Girls.
Before commencing her training at Mountview, Louisa appeared as a series regular in Love/Hate for RTE alongside Aidan Gillen and Robert Sheehan. Further screen credits include Channel 5’s The Deceived, Discovery’s mini-series Harley and the Davidsons, Woody Harrelson’s feature film Lost in London and Amy Huberman’s RTE comedy Finding Joy.
On stage Louisa starred in the one woman show Cotton Fingers with National Theatre Wales and performed in a sell-out run at the Royal Court of Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp; a collection of new plays by Caryl Churchill.
Louisa played a leading role in the comedy/horror feature film Boys from County Hell and in 2022, the third and final season of Derry Girls aired, to wide-spread critical acclaim.
Louisa will be playing the title role in Sally Wainwright’s highly-anticipated new Disney+ series, The Ballad of Renegade Nell. She is currently starring as Agnes in Dancing in Lughnasa at The National Theatre.
Jeremy Herrin trained as a theatre director at both the National Theatre and the Royal Court, where he became Deputy Artistic Director in 2008. Between 2000 and 2008 he was an Associate Director at Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne. Jeremy replaced Rupert Goold as Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre in September 2013. In 2007, he directed the UK premiere of David Hare’s play, The Vertical Hour, as well as Polly Stenham’s award-winning That Face at the Royal Court. That Face later transferred to London’s West End, where it starred Lindsay Duncan and Matt Smith and was produced by Sonia Friedman. Two years later, in 2009, Jeremy directed Polly’s second play, Tusk Tusk for which he was nominated for an Evening Standard Best Director Award. Other work at the Royal Court includes EV Crowe’s Hero, Richard Bean’s The Heretic, Kin, Spur of the Moment, Off The Endz and The Priory, which won an Olivier Award for best Comedy.
In 2012 Jeremy directed the Olivier-nominated This House, written by James Graham, at the National Theatre. The production was revived at the Garrick Theatre at the end of 2016 and toured the UK in 2018.
In 2014 Jeremy directed the critically acclaimed adaptations of Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies for the RSC and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Director. The productions transferred to the West End at the end of 2014 and opened on Broadway in April 2015. He also directed the Broadway production of Noises Off which opened in January 2016. His production of People, Places and Things at the National Theatre transferred to the Wyndhams Theatre in March 2016 and then to St Ann’s Warehouse in October 2017. Jeremy directed James Graham’s Oliver Award Winning Labour of Love which opened in November 2017 and his production of David Hare’s The Moderate Soprano transferred from Hampstead Theatre to the West End in April 2018.
Most recently Jeremy directed Noises Off at The Garrick Theatre, The Visit at The National Theatre and After Life at The National Theatre and The Mirror and The Light at the Gielgud, West End, and The Glass Menagerie at the Duke of York’s Theatre. For TV Jeremy directed Talking Heads and Unprecedented for the BBC.
Jeremy has most recently directed the West End production of Best of Enemies starring Zachary Quinto and David Harewood at the Noël Coward Theatre.
Lizzie Clachan designs for theatre and opera in the UK and Internationally and was nominated as Designer of the Year at the International Opera Awards 2020 and 2022. She also co-founded the performance company Shunt.
Theatre includes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Malmo Stadsteater); Fever Syndrome (Hampstead Theatre); Blindness (Donmar Warehouse/ International & UK tour); A Number, White Noise (Bridge Theatre); Far Away and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Donmar Warehouse); The Son (Kiln/ West End); The Nico Project (MIF/ Melbourne Festival); Rutherford and Son, Absolute Hell, As You Like It, Treasure Island, Edward II (National Theatre); Cyprus Avenue (Public Theater, New York /Abbey Theatre, Dublin / MAC Belfast), Adler & Gibb (Royal Court); Drei Schwestern (Stadttheater Basel, Berlin); Ibsen Huis for (Toneelgroep/ Avignon Festival); Yerma (Young Vic/ The Armoury, NYC/ Schaubuhne, Berlin); The Life of Galileo, Macbeth, A Season in the Congo (Young Vic); Carmen Disruption (Almeida).
Opera includes: Lucia Di Lammermoor (The Metropolitan Opera/ LA Opera); The Blue Woman, Seven Deadly Sins/Mahogany Songspiel (Royal Opera House); The Mask of Orpheus, Orphée, Orpheus in the Underworld and Orpheus and Euridice (ENO); Jenufa (Dutch National Opera); La Traviata (Theater Basel/ENO); Pelléas et Mélisande (Festival d’Aix/ Warsaw/ Tokyo); Le Vin Herbé (Staatsoper Berlin).