Long Day's Journey Into Night presented by Polarity Ensemble Theatre at Josephinum Academy

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"... The first act feels breathless, but Bryan Breau and Eric Damon Smith ultimately spark like flint and steel as the Tyrone brothers. And Caroline Latta portrays mother Mary's drift into narcotic oblivion with understated craft."

Time Out Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Director Padveen has a deft touch with the family’s cycles of rage and retreat, passive aggression and suffocating love, particularly in the second act. Over cards, James (Kevin Kenneally) rehashes to Edmund (an appealingly spectral Bryan Breau) the wretched childhood that schooled him in miserly behavior, and Jamie (Eric Damon Smith), after exhausting his five-buck liquor allowance in town, reveals his terrible nature in a scorching, self-hating tirade. Smith’s rubbery grin and flawless inhabitation of the character’s dime-store novel slang and shallowly lodged fury are a knockout. And batty, ruinously lonely Mary can always be sensed in the rooms above, a constant reminder of the dividends of spiritual homelessness."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...Director Susan Padveen uses the stage at the home of Polarity, a makeshift theater upstairs at  The Josephinum Academy located at 1500 N. Bell quite well. Her set, designed with a great deal of reality  by Ashley Ann Woods, with lighting by Karen M. Thompson is quite realistic and Angela M. Campos has done a supreme job in assembling props that truly complete the picture that Padveen has drawn from the script. This is a top notch production that clearly delivers every line that O’Neill wrote, thus it is 3 1/2 hours including a 10 minute intermission. For many audiences, in particular those not really into O’Neill, this may be a little long which would of course make it a Long Days Journey at the theater. It is definitely a play that leads you towards self analysis of your own life and the choices you have made or will make soon."

Chicago Theater Beat - Somewhat Recommended

"...Long Day’s Journey into Night is a powerhouse play. Requiring thorough, battle-ready actors, the experience should be a punch in the throat. Padveen’s production is not a powerhouse. The lying isn’t believable enough, the delusions aren’t thick enough, and the family’s utter inability to communicate isn’t fully fleshed-out. The volatility needs to be wrenched up. O’Neill allows little room for tepidness."