Bristol Old Vic and Fiery Angel present
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
by Eugene O’Neill
- MATTHEW BEARD, RORY KEENAN AND JESSICA REGAN WILL JOIN JEREMY IRONS AND LESLEY MANVILLE IN THE WEST END TRANSFER OF RICHARD EYRE’S ACCLAIMED BRISTOL OLD VIC PRODUCTION
- U.S. DATES ANNOUNCED TODAY. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT WILL PLAY BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (8-27 MAY) AND THE WALLIS ANNENBERG CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS (8 JUNE – 1 JULY)
- EUGENE O’NEILL’S ICONIC PLAY WILL HAVE A STRICTLY LIMITED 10 WEEK SEASON AT WYNDHAM’S THEATRE FROM 27 JANUARY TO 7 APRIL 2018
Full casting and U.S. dates for Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night are announced today. Jessica Regan will return to the role of Cathleen, having played her in the 2016 Bristol Old Vic production. Matthew Beard and Rory Keenan will join the company as Edmund Tyrone and James Tyrone Jr alongside the previously announced Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville, who will play James and Mary Tyrone in Richard Eyre’s acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production.
Considered one of the most powerful American plays of the 20th century, the production will play a strictly limited 10 week West End season at Wyndham’s Theatre from 27 January to 7 April before transferring to Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater (8-27 May) and theWallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts in Los Angeles (8 June – 1 July).
The Tyrones’ summer home, August 1912. Haunted by the past but unable to face the truth of the present, the Tyrones and their two sons test the bonds of a family caught in the cycle of love and resentment. As day turns to night and the family indulge in their vices, the truth unravels leaving behind a quartet of ruined lives.
Matthew Beard will play Edmund Tyrone. With credits across stage and screen, Matthew is best known for his work in film, including the roles of Guy Bellingfield in The Riot Club, Peter Hilton in The Imitation Game, Howard Raymond in The Look of Love and a young Blake Morrison in And When Did You Last See Your Father? Other screen credits include One Day, Chatroom, Acid Burn, An Education, Panic Buddy and Singularity. Matthew made his stage debut as Edward in Skylight(Wyndham’s Theatre) starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award when the production transferred to Broadway.
Jeremy Irons plays James Tyrone. A Bristol Old Vic Theatre School graduate, he began his professional career on the Bristol Old Vic stage in 1969. After years of success in the West End, Irons made his Broadway debut in 1984 opposite Glenn Close in The Real Thing, which won him a Tony Award. An internationally renowned actor, he is well known not only for films such as The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Mission, Being Julia, Lolita and Reversal of Fortune for which he won an Oscar, but also for the variety of his work – everything from The Lion King to The Borgias. He is one of only a handful of actors to have won an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy for his body of work.
Rory Keenan will play James Tyrone Jr. Keenan has a rich list of television credits, best known for the role of Bilibin in the latest BBC adaption of War and Peace, Simon in Stan Lee’s Lucky Man and Donal in Peaky Blinders. Other screen credits include Primeval, Birdsong, The Clinic, Aristocrats, Dear Dilemma, a leading role in two series of On Home Ground, Intermission, Ella Enchanted, Reign Of Fire, Close, Gun and Benedict Arnold. As well as his extensive credits in film and television, Rory has starred in a variety of stage shows including Welcome Home Captain Fox directed by Blanche McIntyre (Donmar Warehouse), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me directed by Michael Attenborough and Liola directed by Richard Eyre (National Theatre).
Lesley Manville plays Mary Tyrone. An award-winning actress, she is a frequent collaborator with director Mike Leigh, winning the London Film Critics’ Circle Award for British Actress of the Year for her work in both his 2002 film All or Nothing and his 2010 film Another Year, for which she also won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actress. Manville’s extensive stage career includes roles in Top Girls (Royal Court 1990), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (RSC 1986), His Dark Materials (National Theatre 2005), Pillars of the Community (National Theatre 2005) and Six Degrees of Separation (Old Vic 2010). In 2012, she was nominated for an Olivier Award for her role in Leigh’s play Grief (National Theatre 2011), before going on to win the 2014 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role in the revival of Ghosts (Almeida 2013) directed by Richard Eyre.
Jessica Regan will reprise the role as Cathleen from the 2016 Bristol Old Vic production. Until recently, Jessica played regular Niamh Donoghue in Doctors for the BBC, for which she has won Best Newcomer at the British Soap Awards. Other theatre credits include Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Liola for the National Theatre (directed by Richard Eyre), Stars In The Morning Sky for Belgrade Coventry; The Kitchen, The Cherry Orchard and Blood And Gifts, all at the National Theatre, and The Flags at the Royal Court Liverpool.
Director Richard Eyre is widely considered to be the UK’s greatest living director. Eyre was director of the National Theatre between 1987 and 1997. His most noted theatre productions include Hamlet (twice), with Jonathan Pryce at the Royal Court in 1980 and Daniel Day-Lewis in 1989; Richard III with Ian McKellen; King Lear with Ian Holm; Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman with Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave and Eileen Atkins; and numerous new plays by David Hare, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Griffiths, Howard Brenton, Alan Bennett, Christopher Hampton and Nicholas Wright. He also directed the musical Mary Poppins in London and on Broadway. He has been the recipient of numerous directing awards including five Olivier Awards, including an Olivier Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards from The Directors’ Guild of Great Britain, the South Bank Show, the Evening Standard and the Critics’ Circle. In November 2013, he once again won the Evening Standard Award for Best Director for Ibsen’s Ghosts starring Lesley Manville at the Almeida Theatre. This production transferred to the West End and to Broadway.
Richard Eyre is joined by set and costume designer Rob Howell who has designed sets and costumes for numerous plays and musicals in the UK, in London and on Broadway over a 20-year period. Howell has won three Olivier Awards for Best Set Design. The most recent of these was for his work on the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Matilda the Musical, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award.
International Lighting Designer Peter Mumford has been working in theatre for over 40 years. He is a two-time Olivier Award winner, with work in the West End including Top Hat, Much Ado About Nothing, An Ideal Husband, The Lion in Winter and Absent Friends. He has recently worked with Chichester, Sheffield Crucible, Royal Court, Almeida and the Peter Hall Company.
Sound Designer John Leonard ran the sound department at Bristol Old Vic from 1970 to 1976. He went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company and in 1984 he was made the company’s first head of sound and an associate artist of the company. He works regularly for the Almeida Theatre in London, for whom he is Sound Associate, as well as the National Theatre and in the West End.