TWILIGHT OF A LONG DAY

Translation: JACEK LUNEDA

Eugene O'Neill, winner of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Literature, wanted this unique, strongly autobiographical text to be published no earlier than a quarter of a century after his death and never exhibited. His will was not fulfilled — he died in 1953, TWILIGHT was released three years later and was recognized as a masterpiece, as confirmed by, among others, the Tony Award for Best Play and the posthumous Pulitzer Prize in the field of dramaturgy. The most personal, unique drama of one of the classics of American realistic drama, in a completely new translation by Jack Mondayek, you will find in the repertoire of Teatr Nowy from April!

How much can you survive and suffer in just one summer day — from dawn to dusk? The members of the Tyrone family will see it the hard way. James — an actor, once famous — burdened with the trauma of a childhood lived in utter misery, tyrannizes the family with his excessive stinginess. Mary, his wife, is still unable to cope with the death of one of the children, which once led her to become addicted to morphine. Their eldest son falls into the abyss of cynicism and alcoholism, his younger brother, the author's alter ego, struggles with tuberculosis that requires expensive treatments...

The inevitability of fate plunges all four into a trap with no way out: a vicious circle of mutual torment and justification, accusations and acts of forgiveness, smooth lies and brutal truths...

* *

We have always given each other love! And we always will be! This is the only thing that counts, and let us not try to understand what cannot be understood, nor to fix what is irreparable. What happened to us in life cannot be explained or justified.

(fragment of art)

For Carlotta on the twelfth wedding anniversary

Dearest,

accept from me this manuscript of art written in tears and blood about old misfortunes. This is a seemingly unfortunate gift on the occasion of such a joyful holiday, but you yourself will understand. It is a tribute to your love and your tenderness, which allowed me to believe in love and gave me the strength to finally bend over my dead. And to write with compassion and regret this play in which I forgive the four tormented Tyrone.

These twelve years, My dearest, have been a journey towards light — towards love. You know how grateful I am to you. And how much I love!

Génie

Tao House, July 22, 1941

(author's dedication)