Too divine

Four actresses earn the plaudits this month, for parts ranging from Sarah Siddons to Charlotte Bronté

WOMEN suffering, resilient, oppressed and themselves sometimes oppressive dominate theatre this month. The first thing to say about the fine revival of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night at Wyndham's is that there should be no surprise that Patricia Clarkson's performance as Mary Tyrone has led the reviews: she is one of a long line of hailed Marys, including Jessica Lange, Laurie Metcalf and, most recently, Lesley Manville.

My own view of O'Neill's monumental play written in 1940 and first performed in 1956-has been heavily shaped by a review written by the American critic Harold Clurman in 1971. Clurman's argument was that the play is ultimately about loss of faith.

Mary Tyrone has lost her faith in God that sustained her in her convent upbringing. Her actor husband, James, is a devout Shakespearean who has sacrificed his belief to achieve success in a popular hit (as did O'Neill's father in The Count of Monte Cristo). Her elder son, James Jnr, has lost faith in his mother, whose profound loneliness has driven her into morphine addiction, and her younger son, Edmund, is a would-be poet seeking an ecstasy that he only realised during a year spent at sea.