Robert Hedley has been through it all before. Forty years ago, then a relatively new assistant professor in the theatre department at Villanova University, Hedley directed a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”
It was the first production in Villanova’s Vasey Theatre and, by all accounts, a huge success.
Now Hedley—who has since moved on to become head of the Playwriting program at Temple University, co-founder of The Philadelphia Theater Company, artistic director of the Iowa Shakespeare Festival, and holder of the Barrymore Lifetime Achievement Award—is taking a fresh look at O’Neill’s master work in a new production at Villanova.
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is considered an autobiographical work, and it documents the torments and travails of a dysfunctional Irish-American family over the course of one day. It addresses some fairly well-known themes in Irish-American life, such as drink and Roman Catholicism. To summarize the play in such a Cliff-s Notes fashion, of course, does it a grave injustice
The play, which opens Villanova’s 50th season, runs from September 23 to October 5, 2008.
Hedley also serves as director of International Education for the School of Communications and Theater at Temple, which includes the Dublin program—so Irish themes do tend to resonate a bit.
We chatted with Hedley about the play, O’Neill, families—and Philadelphia’s large and appreciative Irish theatre audience.
Q. You first directed “Long Day’s Journey” at Villanova forty years ago. I’m told it was the first play staged in Vasey Theatre. Where were you in your career then?
A. I was a young assistant professor then. I was, I think, in my third year of teaching in the United States. I’m from Canada. I was moving into the Philadelphia area and got the job at Villanova. (He became the chairman of the theatre department.) It “Long Day’s Journey”) was the first play in the present theatre. Then, it was just a lecture hall with a high stage at one end and wooden fixed desks. We took over that space.
For me it was a tremendous experience, all in all, even though we were rushing to make that hall a do-able space for theatre.
Q. Tell us about that first show, 40 years ago.
A. I remember we had an unusually large Irish audience. I was surprised. Everyone in the play, of course, is of Irish descent. I never thought we’d find that particular audience. Night after night, those people would come up to me and talk to me about the play. I saw some of the same faces in the audience, every night.
Q. What does it mean to revisit the play so long after directing it the first time?
A. It’s a really powerful piece. Coming back to it after all these years, it’s [still] an extraordinarily intense look at a time in one family’s life.
Someone asked me whether I thought this play had a contemporary relevance. I said, it is probably more present now than it was 40 years ago. It has to do with morphine and addiction through medication, for example. (Mary Tyrone, the mother, is addicted to morphine.) That’s in the news today. And it’s about disjointed, disengaged families. It addresses questions like: How do you cope with family members not living up to your expectations, or following in your footsteps?
It’s such a human play. It’s the only play I know that is this intense among the four family members.
Then I went back to it, it was not only “present” to me, but I was frankly surprised at how contemporary it seemed.
Q. Why do you think this play has such a lasting presence?
A. What has sort of guaranteed its lasting is that it is really extraordinarily, brutally honest. People say things to each other that are pretty shattering. You have people who are suffering—in Mary’s case, because of addiction, or, in (son) Jamie’s case, because he’s never lived up to his father’s expectations. You look at that and how siblings are related, and it’s really powerful stuff. We go home exhausted.
Q. How else is this production different for you?
A. Last time, 40 years ago, I had a couple of professional actors and a faculty member up there, and a couple of students. It’s very much the same lineup (now) as before. Still, the productions are very different.
In the theatre 40 years ago, all the members of the audience faced the stage, and that meant that you were looking at it almost the way you look at a movie. For a director, that’s sometimes a lot easier.
In this case, though, most of the play takes place around a table, and with the theatre in its present configuration, were playing very far down front, There are audience members along the sides, and some practically behind us. That means that you feel like you’re really inside it. You’re very, very close. You can have the most intimate sort of things happening. You can have actors genuinely whispering and you can hear them just fine.
I love the notion that you have a play unfolding, and you are close enough to it to pick up the smallest nuances, the smallest flicker of emotion in somebody’s face.
Q. How did you get into theatre?
A. I’ve told this story many times.
My mother Wanted to be a concert pianist. She taught piano. My father was a pretty good musician, but he was also a painter and a photographer. My sister was a very good pianist. My brother had an opera program.
When I went to university, there was a requirement that you take one of the arts courses. Well, my family had covered all the other bases. There’s no way I was going to go into one of those areas that my family was already good at. So I chose a course in theatre. As soon as I got into it, it felt absolutely right. I was very, very comfortable in it. I just enjoyed everyday going into those classes.
For details on the Villanova production, visit the university Web site.
