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Long Day's Journey was the “Wrong” Play
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
“I don't think I'll have anything very interesting to tell you.”
When I met and interviewed Karl Ragnar Gierow in his office at the Royal Swedish Academy, Stockholm, February 27, 1973, he at first expressed skepticism about whether there was any Eugene O'Neill story to be told. But I had earlier paid several visits to the archives of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern/ Dramaten); had closely researched the historic O'Neill world premieres (1956–62) while Gierow was Dramaten's General Intendant (Manager); and had been carefully coached by Stig Torsslow, the theatre's venerable Dramaturg, concerning Gierow's exploits in acquiring, translating, and producing four of O'Neill's posthumous plays. These comprised Long Day's Journey into Night (February 10, 1956); A Touch of the Poet (March 19, 1957); Hughie (September 18, 1958); and More Stately Mansions (November 9, 1962). I had come to my appointment with Gierow bearing some essential facts and with plenty of questions about Long Day's Journey and the playwright's widow, Carlotta Monterey O'Neill. Gierow was cordial, accommodating, and forthcoming with marvelous remembered details. I returned to Finland (where I was a Senior Fulbright-Hays Scholar) full of appreciation for Torsslow's avuncular counsel and Gierow's vivid recollections. I carried along voluminous notes from my longsought interview and copies of some O'Neill scripts from Dramaten for the Library of Åbo Akademi.
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References
NOTES
1 Dramaten (lit., “the Dramatic”), i.e., the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm.
2 Inga Tidblad ( 1901–75), one of Dramaten's leading actors since 1932, played Mary Tyrone. Catrin Westerlund (1934–82) portrayed the maid, Kathleen. Lars M. Hanson (1886–1965), a classical and character actor at Dramaten since 1921, was featured as James Tyrone. Ulf Palme (1920-) portrayed James Tyrone, Jr., and Jarl Kulle (1927-) played Edmund Tyrone.
3 By August 1955 only Lars Hanson (James Tyrone) and Inga Tidblad (Mary Tyrone) had been assigned their parts. Mrs. Tidblad, having already agreed to perform in a Spring 1956 production outside Stockholm, was even reluctant to take on the O'Neill role—but eventually agreed to appear in both plays. The casting of the remaining three roles and other production details were worked out between Gierow and Mrs. O'Neill during the manager's first visit to New York in September 1956, and in O'Neill-Gierow correspondence. For instance, Gierow wrote Mrs. O'Neill on December 8, 1955, that he had been unable to engage his first choice of director. “A couple of weeks ago Molander, who is not very well, tired and sleepless, told me that he couldn't in his present condition make justice to ‘Long Day's Journey’… Now the helmsman will be a man, Bengt Ekerot by name, a comparatively young stage director but already rather promising, not to say famous, especially for his production of Strindberg's ‘The Father’ (with Lars Hanson).” Cf. Olsson, Tom J. A., “Eugene O'Neills dramatik pä Kungl. Dramatiska Teatern” (M.A. thesis, Stockholm University, 1970)Google Scholar; “O'Neill och Dramaten,” Dramaten, No. 28, 1972/73; O'Neill’ och Dramaten (Stockholm: Akademilitteratur, 1977); and “O'Neill and the Royal Dramatic,” in Eugene O'Neill: A World View, ed. Floyd, Virginia (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1979), pp. 34–60.Google Scholar The 1970 thesis was an invaluable aid to my archival research of Spring 1973, when Imet Olsson (now Librarian at Dramaten) in Stockholm. The O'Neill-Gierow correspondence, in the archives of Dramaten, comprises “a collection of [200] letters absolutely unique in the history of theatre” (Olsson, , “O'Neill and the Royal Dramatic,” p. 48).Google Scholar
4 Gierow fails to account for Yale University Library's two copies, the transcript formerly in Random House's safe, and the origins of Swedish translator Sven Barthel's copy. Cf. TLS, Donald Gallup to Pat M. Ryan, New Haven, Conn., January 20, 1988: “The O'Neill's gave us [Yale University Library] the original pencil manuscript and a carbon transcript of Long Day's Journey in 1951. Carlotta borrowed both in 1954and returned the typescript in March 1955.[She subsequently returned the holograph MS.] She tried to persuade Random House to publish the play, but Bennett Cerf refused… That copy was a carbon… Our carbon (7 leaves, 133 numbered leaves) was used by Yale University Press as setting copy for the first edition… Because Mrs. O'Neill had returned to us the Yale carbon transcript in March, Gierow, in August 1955, must have had either the original (ribbon) copy or another carbon.” Cf. TLS, Bernard R. Crystal to Pat M. Ryan, New York, March 9, 1988: “The Random House Papers does not haveany manuscripts by Eugene O'Neill only his correspondence with the editors…, given to Columbia University [Library] in 1970.”
5 Sven Barthel (1903-) is a Swedish journalist, novelist, and author of popular travel books. He has contributed fluent translations of O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, Beyond the Horizon, The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day's Journey into Night, A Touch of the Poet, Hughie, and More Stately Mansions.
6 The first actually preceded, rather than followed, publication. Cf. Olsson, , “O'Neill and the Royal Dramatic,” p. 49Google Scholar: “Gierow received permission from Carlotta to set the date of the world premiere for the 10th of February, 1956, and not wait for the day of publication in the United States on February 15.” Yale University Press's official publication date was February 20, 1956.
7 “The New-bridge pier.”
8 Gierow was appointed in early 1950—thus, Spring 1950.
9 “The New-bridge Street.” Nybrogatan runs north-northwest from Strandvägen (“the Shore Road”). The stage entrance to Dramaten is on Nybrogatan, while the theatre's main entrance fronts along Nybroplan (square) and Strandvägen, facing Nybrokajan and Stockholm's harbor.
10 Lars Hanson co-starred with Lillian Gish in The Scarlet Letter (MGM, 1926) and The Wind (MGM, 1928). Gierow had earlier reported this conversation in his foreword to Barthel's translation of O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1957), pp. 5–6Google Scholar, also published as a program note to Dramaten's production.
11 Gierow's title signals the essay's recollection that in establishing contact with Mrs. O'Neill he had followed up Hanson's tip. The former manager told me that when he wrote to Random House, the playwright's publisher had assured him there were “no O'Neill plays left—they were all destroyed.” He repeats this understanding here. In the foreword to Sven Barthel's translation of A Touch of the Poet and in program notes for the March 1957 production, he had cultivated a myth of his great surprise at discovering O'Neill's posthumous plays. “In fact George J. Nathan, in an article of October 9,1946, gave a clear and complete account of the unpublished writings,” as Ebbe Linde asserted in his review. “To depict this endeavor as some detective exploit is baffling.” As early as January and February 1929 O'Neill himself had publicly announced “the Big Grand Opus” he was planning; and in an October 1946 Life interview, he had guardedly described his multi-play cycle and explicitly mentioned Long Day's Journey into Night and A Touch of the Poet. Critic and confidant George Jean Nathan also authoritatively reported on these enterprises in October 1946: “He…completed… A Touch of the Poet [and] not only outlined in minute detail eleven plays of the cycle… but… definitely completed… Long Day's Journey into Night [and] By Way of Obit.” Martin Lamm and Stig Torsslow had relayed some of these details to Swedish readers in, respectively, “The Problem of Eugene O'Neill” (1947) and “Eugene O'Neill's Lost Plays” (1951); and Stockholm critic Ebbe Linde informed Dagens Nyheter's readers in Spring 1957 that A Touch of the Poet belonged to a dramatic six-part family saga intended for performances over eleven nights. Cf. “Stockholm Revives Eugene O'Neill,” p. 19; Gierow's Foreword to O'Neill, , Eu stycke poet, trans. Barthel, Sven (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1957), pp. 5–7Google Scholar; Linde, Ebbe, “O'Neills Eu stycke poet,” Dagens Nyheter, March 30, 1957Google Scholar; O'Neill, Eugene, “The First of a Trilogy,” American Mercury, January 1929, p. 119Google Scholar, and “O'Neill's Dynamo,” program, Martin Beck Theatre, New York, February 11, 1929, p. 6; Prideaux, Tom, “Eugene O'Neill—Most Celebrated U.S. Playwright Returns to Theater after 12 Years,” Life, October 14, 1946, pp. 102–116Google Scholar; Nathan, George Jean, “Eugene O'Neill,” The Theatre Book of the Year, 1946–1947 (New York: Knopf, 1947), pp. 93–111Google Scholar; Lamm, Martin, “Problem Eugene O'Neill,” Bonniers Litterära Magasin, October 1947Google Scholar; Torsslow, Stig, “Eugene O'Neills fölorade pjäser,” Stockholms-Tidning, July 4, 1957Google Scholar; and Gierow, Karl Ragnar, “Eugene O'Neill's Posthumous Plays,” World Theatre, 7 (Spring 1957), 46–53.Google ScholarCf. also “Dramatenchefen hemma med tva O'Neill pjäser,” Svenska Dagbladet, September 29, 1955; “Tva O'Neill pjäser i Gierows bagage,” Göteborgs Handels-och Sjöfarts-Tidning, September 29, 1955; “Dag Hammarskjold ordnade motet med Mrs. O'Neill,” Dagens Nyheter, September 30, 1955; “Två nya opublicerade verk av Eugene O'Neill blir Dramatens egendom” (Gierow interview), Svenska Dagbladet, March 11, 1956.
12 Eugene O'Neill died November 27, 1953, at Boston, Massachusetts. Gierow's account (here, as elsewhere) of Moon's—also iceman's—prior history in America is problematical. In fact, Moon had opened in Columbus, Ohio, February 20, 1947 (four months after Iceman's New York debut), was banned by the police in Detroit, and closed on the road early in 1948. The Theatre Guild had called off this play's projected New York premiere in the wake of its unsuccessful try-out tour, but as late as 1951 Guild directors Lawrence Langner, Armina Marshall, and Theresa Helburn all urged the playwright to bring his script to Broadway. Although The iceman Cometh (October 9, 1946) encountered mixed reviews, the Guild's production had played 136 performances, achieved commercial success, and afterwards toured. Cf. Gierow, “O'Neill (undated MS.), Archives of Dramaten—extensively excerpted by Tom Olsson in “O'Neill and the Royal Dramatic,” pp. 46–47: “Moon… was a real flop, or nearly so…. Here [when] the play was released and produced by us, it was unanimously hailed as one of the author's major works and one of the masterpieces of modern drama.”
13 Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61), the son of a former Swedish prime minister, was successively an economist, government official, and Secretary General of the United Nations. He had served the Swedish delegation to the U.N. from 1951 to 1953, and was elected Trygve Lie's successor as Secretary General in April 1953, about one year before his first conversation with Gierow about O'Neill's posthumous plays.
14 It was substantive to Gierow's managerial fortunes that the remarkable triumph of Olof Molander's Dramaten production of A Moon for the Misbegotten (April 24, 1953) became widely known; American correspondents relayed these signs of life back to newspapers in the United States; and, as Carlotta Monterey O'Neill later told Gierow, “sick and dying, O'Neill got this faint glimpse of a hope that his works were going to survive. ‘Perhaps something is understood there that is not understood in America.’” Thus, while some of Gierow's recollections may now be perceived as factually inaccurate, they preserve a painful psychic “truth” of these events as the playwright himself and Carlotta O'Neill privately experienced them. Cf. Gierow's paraphrase in Heintzen, Harry, “O'Neill's Last Premiere,” New York Herald-Tribune, January 29, 1956Google Scholar (excerpted in Dagens Nyheter, February 2, 1956); and Ryan, , “Stockholm Revives Eugene O'Neill,” p. 19.Google Scholar
15 O'Neill was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936.
16 The Swedish premiere of Anna Christie occurred at Dramaten on October 25, 1923, with Tora Teje in the title role, for a scant twelve performances. It evoked politically charged, mixed reviews. But this event was not the first O'Neill premiere on the European continent. A German-language version of Anna Christie, translated and staged by Hungarian director Melchior Lengyel and with Käthe Dorsch in the title role, had preceded it on October 9, 1923, at Deutschen Theater in Berlin. For this play's Stockholm reception, see Björk, Lennart A., “The Critical Reception of Eugene O'Neill in Sweden 1923–1963” (Ph. D dissertation, Princeton University, 1966), p. 9.Google Scholar Tentative plans to stage Gustaf Hellström's translation of O'Neill's The Emperor Jones at Dramaten in 1923 had not materialized. Hellström was incidentally the author of the first notable Swedish essay on the playwright, “Eugene O'Neill,” Dagens Nyheter, March 25, 1923, in which he asserted: “He was not merely America's greatest playwright… He broke through national boundaries and became just as much a European as an American dramatist.” For the German critical reception and stage history, cf. Kommer, Rudolf, “O'Neill in Europe,” New York Times, November 9, 1924Google Scholar, and Frenz, Horst, “Eugene O'Neill in Deutschland,” Euphorion (Heidelberg), 50 (1956), 307–327.Google Scholar Kerstin Birgitta Steene was perhaps the first to advance the claim for Dramaten's primacy, in her Ph.D. dissertation “American Drama and the Swedish Theatre 1920–1958” (Seattle: University of Washington, 1960).
17 Dag Hammarskjöld wrote to Gierow from New York on May 31, 1955: “I have not forgotten your wish to break up the gates of the O'Neill treasury. I hope you will try it and succeed, thus giving Stockholm a new chance to reveal what O'Neill's countrymen do not dare to produce.” He also enclosed a letter (copy) from New York critic Joseph T. Shipley, who disclosed: “One finished piece is in the manuscript: Long Day's Journey into Night.” Carlotta O'Neill wrote to Hammarskjöld that she herself had intended to write Gierow about the possibility of producing Long Day's Journey at Dramaten. Then, on June 20, she confided to Gierow that her late husband had wished the work to be produced in Stockholm: “For many months I have wanted to write you about producing the play, but felt I would put you in rather an embarrassing position if you did not wish to produce it.” It would thus appear that the gist of Mrs. O'Neill's answer to Gierow's burning question had come to him by mail prior to his first New York meeting with the playwright's widow. He had first publicly reported the widow's scenario upon his return voyage from New York in an interview aboard the Kungsholm with Göteborgs Handels-och Sjöfarts-Tidning, published September 29, 1955: “Just before his death the author was asked by his wife whether there was anything special that he desired, and he then told her about his Dramaten plans.” Mrs. O'Neill's own words, in letters to Gierow dated June 16 and August 19, 1955, tend to corroborate that account: “You asked me why O'Neill had the desire for your theatre to be the first of all theatres to produce ‘Long Day's Journey into Night.’ He felt that you would understand the tragic overtones of the play - and not produce it as a sensational melodrama He told me to publish the play if I saw fit - and as, I wished it to be done. But, under no circumstances was it to be produced in the theatre in this country Then he smiled and said, ‘Don't forget - Sweden gave me the Nobel Prize!’ The Scandinavian Peninsular [sic] is dear to me and was to him. They kept us going in 1953 when this country wasn't interested in O'Neill!” But Carlotta O'Neill was an unreliable witness. She once claimed, without supporting evidence, that her husband had withheld Long Day's Journey from publication at his elder son's request, then revoked His moratorium. Cf. TLS (in English), Dag Hammarskjöld to Gierow, New York, May 31, 1955; TLS (copy), Joseph T. Shipley to Hammarskjöld, New York, May 27, 1955; TLS (copy), Carlotta O'Neill to Hammarskjöld, New York, n. d.; TLS, Carlotta O'Neill to Gierow, New York, June 16, June 20, & August 19, 1955 (all in Archives of Dramaten); Peck, Seymour, “Talk with Mrs. O'Neill,” New York Times, November 4, 1956, Sec. 2, pp. 1Google Scholar, 3; and Sheaffer, Louis, O'Neill: Son and Artist (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), p. 635Google Scholar: “Documentary evidence contradicts Miss Monterey's assertion that her husband reversed himself about Long Day's Journey [etc.].” Cf. also prefatory note to Gierow, , “Eugene O'Neill's Posthumous Plays,” World Theatre, 7 (Spring 1958), 46Google Scholar: “O'Neill expressed the wish shortly before his death that the world premiere of this play should take place at the Dramatiska and he actually donated this play to the theatre”; and Gierow, , “Why O'Neill Opened Here,” Industria International, 9 (1957–1959), 94Google Scholar: “on his deathbed, the playwright had expressed the desire that it should be entrusted to the Royal Dramatic Theatre…as a gift.”