Long Day’s Journey into Night, the latest adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s posthumously Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name, will have its premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival (20 February-2 March) before continuing on to screen at the Glasgow Film Festival (26 February-9 March) for its UK premiere. The work marks the feature-length directorial debut by Jonathan Kent, a British stage director for theatre and opera, who also directed the 2016 Broadway production of the work.

The tragedy centres on the Tyrones, a dysfunctional family whose volatility and resentment come to a head over the course of the titular one “long day” in Connecticut in 1912. Long Day’s Journey into Night has received multiple adaptations throughout history, most notably the 1962 production by Sidney Lumet of nearly three hours, starring Katharine Hepburn as Mary Tyrone. World-premiering in Sweden in 1956, O’Neill’s semi-autobiographical play featuring four actors is considered by many to be the acclaimed playwright’s magnum opus. The script for this newest adaptation directed by Kent was penned by US playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole and double Tony Award wins for the musical adaptation of his play Kimberly Akimbo.

US actress Jessica Lange reprises her Tony Award-winning role of the morphine-addicted matriarch Mary Tyrone from the 2016 Kent-directed Broadway production. She is joined by Oscar-winning US thesp Ed Harris, who plays her penny-pinching ageing actor of a husband, James Tyrone. The two leads will also be honoured at Dublin with the festival’s Volta Award, named after the city’s first cinema, founded by James Joyce, and celebrating career achievement in world cinema. Rounding off the cast are US actor Ben Foster (Leave No Trace) and Northern Irish thesp Colin Morgan (Belfast [+lee también:
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Long Day’s Journey into Night is a co-production between Magnolia Mae Films (UK), BK Studios (UK), Brouhaha Entertainment (UK) and Fetisoff Illusion - Europe (Cyprus), co-produced with Four Provinces Film (Ireland). The production has pushed its way through a period of hardships, including critical pieces of investment having fallen through one day after shooting commenced, leading BK Studios to jump on board. Shot on location in Ireland, filming wrapped in November 2022, but the project’s future remained in limbo for nearly two years until now.