Long day's journey.....

Mum and I were in the Gaiety Theatre last Thursday to see Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill. Now I studied this play for the Leaving Cert so I knew it was going to be a marathon performance, but the cast was strong - James Cromwell brought a little Hollywood glamour to the Dublin Theatre Festival, and it's a fine play so we were prepared.

So, following a lovely pre-theatre dinner in Harry's Cafe on Dawson street, mum and I strolled to the Gaiety in readiness for the early curtain-up. Only then did I realise that this play was the unedited version of LDJiN so we were all set for a 4-hour performance with 2 intervals. Now my dear sister Michelle has remarked, on many occasions, that the folk who attend the Gaiety are not of the ilk of, say, their Gate Theatre counterparts so we had a great old chuckle at what she would have said upon seeing the, and I'm not kidding here, giant box of popcorn toted by one theatre-goer. Pints, ice cream, and what I almost mistook for a takeaway (!) in a white paper bag were all around us on the pareterre...'Chelle you would have LOVED it :)

The play was great, but I did flag towards the end and overall the audience was so drained at the end of the show that the cast may have been a bit disappointed by our applause levels. Good, but really I could have done without the unedited version.

So everyone stampeded for the last Luas of the evening....and en route to Sandyford a group of young ones, slightly worse for wear and seemingly hyperactive with it , sit down beside us and start chatting away to mum, complimenting her on her blue scarf and asking about the theatre, and whether she was being collected from the Luas! As I was sitting by the window I was spared the bizarre chit-chat, but it was slightly surreal to say the least :)