ajhlovestheatre

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN 

by Eugene O’Neill

directed by Rebecca Frecknall

Almeida Theatre, London – until 16 August 2025

running time: 3 hours including interval

https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/a-moon-for-the-misbegotten/

The majority of Eugene O’Neill’s classic American dramas are known for their punishing length as much as their poetry and Rebecca Frecknall’s glacially paced but stunningly well acted revival of this, his last play, reinforces that twin impression. A sequel of sorts to Long Day’s Journey Into Night, A Moon For The Misbegotten shows some of what happened next to James Tyrone Jr, the boozy, tormented elder son of the family in turmoil depicted in the earlier play. 

He isn’t really the principal character here though; that’s Josie Hogan, the tough talking, hard-bitten worker on the Connecticut farm James owns, who, with her permanently soused father is scheming to ensure that the property will be sold to themselves at a reasonable price. Ruth Wilson and David Threlfall as the hardscrabble Hogans are so utterly convincing, unostentatiously inhabiting these difficult characters, every roar of fury, muted demur of affection or muttered aside feeling authentic, that it’s less like watching acting than witnessing real people navigate their fractured lives. Even their accents are spot on: Threlfall uses a flawless Irish accent while Wilson mixes American and Irish to potent effect.

Wilson is atypical of the actresses to play Josie to date. The character refers to herself as a “rough, ugly cow of a woman” and Wilson assuredly isn’t that. Nor indeed were some of the role’s previous interpreters -Colleen Dewhurst and Cherry Jones on Broadway, Frances de la Tour in London, and Eve Best opposite Kevin Spacey on both sides of the Atlantic- yet they were all physically imposing where Wilson is earthy but petite. She compensates by investing her with an angular awkwardness and abrasive attitude, but the woman’s innate kindness shines through. 

O’Neill ups the stakes by having Josie and Tyrone harbouring real, but mostly unexpressed, love for each other. James can only really verbalise his feelings when intoxicated (and this being O’Neill, that’s most of the time: Michael Shannon’s ‘drunk acting’ is gloriously vivid, in another performance of outstanding detail and fascinating choices) while Josie is so defensive that her emotions come out in intense spasms, swiftly quelled. Wilson is extraordinary, succeeding in demonstrating the complex inner workings of a woman who is terrified to let herself be fully known, so we simultaneously get the bawdy, granite-like facade and the bruised heart within. This Josie and James are desperately afraid of being vulnerable and it’s that tension that motors most of the human interest in this terse, overlong play.

I’m not a massive advocate for cutting down scripts – for instance, the recent Jamie Lloyd Tempest and Much Ado butchered the texts to such an extent that they lost some sense of the originals – but I’d gladly make an exception in the case of A Moon For The Misbegotten. There’s so much repetition here, so much push-and-pull, people telling lies or half truths then backtracking, that it could easily lose twenty minutes out of each act without the play being drastically compromised. 

Despite the quality of the performances and the striking theatricality of the design team’s work (Tom Scutt’s multi-levelled wood set resembles a carpenters workshop rather than a farm but is constantly interesting to look at, and Jack Knowles’s lighting is stark and haunting), meandering occasionally threatens to turn into interminable. Although it’s of the period, the constant references to women as “tarts” and “pigs” is pretty hard to listen to in 2025, and doesn’t do anything to endear James Tyrone to us.

Frecknall’s staging is less gimmicky than her earlier Tennessee Williams revivals here at the Almeida, the only really notable embellishments being NYX’s ethereal, unsettling music and a light circling the playing on a track like a cross between the titular moon and a searchlight, both of which add length to an already epic playing time but are captivating nonetheless. If anything, A Moon For The Misbegotten is a play that, for 2025, might benefit from a bold, unconventional directorial concept. As it stands, it’s an even longer day’s journey into night, albeit a feast of phenomenal acting.