A Moon for the Misbegotten reviews round-up: Almeida Theatre in London starring Ruth Wilson & Michael Shannon [Updated]

"Cabaret director inspires the finest acting you’ll see all year in A Moon for The Misbegotten"

"Rebecca Frecknall presents an evening of exquisite suffering"

"It’s three hours long, and barely anything happens, yet Rebecca Frecknall’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s loose sequel to Long Day’s Journey into Night is utterly spellbinding. It also contains some of the finest acting you are likely to see on a stage this year. Across an evening steeped in pathos, Ruth Wilson, Michael Shannon and a barely recognisable David Threlfall weave a kind of magic from the minutiae of their characters’ ordinary, hardscrabble lives."

"[Threlfall] is simply extraordinary, mining in a dazzlingly multi-layered performance the play’s many seams of wit as a roguish Irish farmer with a fondness for the drink."

"Frecknall wreaths her characters in soft bursts of heavenly music and lights that seem to orbit the stage like stars without upsetting the play’s rugged textures."

"These great mid-century American dramas, with their compassionate emphasis on human frailty, could so easily feel out-of-step with our shriller, narcissistic modern moment – but Frecknall makes them speak anew."

"Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon are mesmerising in A Moon for the Misbegotten at the Almeida Theatre"

"Rebecca Frecknall stages a surprisingly funny revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Prohibition-era romantic tragedy"

"It’s a measure of Ruth Wilson’s talent that she utterly convinces as Josie Hogan, the spirited, rough-talking, Irish-American “ugly, overgrown lump of a woman” in Eugene O’Neill’s 1923-set romantic tragedy, despite being completely physically wrong for the part."

"Wilson is well-matched in Rebecca Frecknall’s starkly involving and surprisingly funny revival by the fine character actor Michael Shannon."

"The sequence where Josie cradles the stricken but sleeping Jim is unbearably poignant, both actors absolutely inhabiting their characters and in the moment. This is a chance to see a challenging American classic with great clarity."

"Aided by a superstar cast of Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon, director Rebecca Frecknall turns in an achingly gorgeous take on Eugene O”Neill’s final play"

"From the first moment, every line is a punch or a jab or a dagger."

"David Threlfall is a hoot as Phil, roaring and whimpering, and giving us some hilarious line deliveries. It’s surprising just how funny these early scenes are"

"... Wilson plays Josie with an almost hoedown physicality that’s impossible not to watch."

"Stick that alongside Michael Shannon’s sloth-like slowness, and it’s like the quick and the dead... that complete lack of hurrying is completely engrossing. My god the man has presence."

"Frecknall handles it brilliantly: she knows how to let the humour ebb away, how to let the anguish build. Maybe there’s a bit too much whisky-swilling and moonlight melodrama, but even when O’Neill’s text sags, the production holds it up with fine-wrought acting"

"Ruth Wilson and Michael Shannon are utterly luminous in A Moon for the Misbegotten"

"If the message is dark, this production of Eugene O’Neill’s swansong is nonetheless full of wonder"

"Rebecca Frecknall’s latest gorgeous resurrection of a mid-century American gem makes spotlights orbit round her cast on rollercoaster-style rails, capturing every shifting phase of their sub-lunar interactions. It’s utterly luminous."

"... although the first act plays as a knockabout comedy about farms and financial trickery, this play is actually an exploration of love, and where its limits can be found."

"... Wilson’s performance is full of fire and nuance – and (much like Frecknall’s casting of Patsy Ferran as an unexpectedly young Blanche in her acclaimed Streetcar Named Desire) this choice shifts the play in an intriguing way"

"... Wilson’s brilliant performance has an inherent dignity that means that the misogyny of the men around her is diminished, shown for what it is. Misery never shone so bright."

"Ruth Wilson performs with a magnetic intensity"

"Ruth Wilson’s magnetic central performance crystallises the subtle dynamics in this powerful revival of O’Neill’s melancholy drama"

"Breathing fresh life and painfully relatable emotion into Eugene O’Neill’s tender, tawdry tragedy of missed connections and unconsummated longing, this riveting revival seethes with unspoken subtext."

"Celebrated director Rebecca Frecknall stages the piece with typical precision and notable restraint, letting the four long scenes gradually gather tension and emotional freight."

"... Michael Shannon skilfully stumbles about the space, alternately beaming mischievously or slouching in shame."

"A pair of lights mounted on circular tracks orbit the stage, mimicking the procession of the moon and casting long, stretching shadows across the space as the action unfolds across a single, shattering night."

"A Moon for the Misbegotten has the best acting a British stage has seen in a long time"

"Ruth Wilson is scintillating in Eugene O'Neill's brilliant but gruelling last play"

"For a masterclass in some of the most superlative acting a British stage has seen in a while, head for that ever-exuberant North London powerhouse, the Almeida."

"Essentially a static three-hander, a sizeable section of the dialogue concerns events that have happened previously, elsewhere. This, however, does not daunt the triumphant trio of Ruth Wilson, Hollywood star Michael Shannon and David Threlfall."

"... the magnificent honesty of Wilson’s performance carries all before it; she is rarely off stage and never less than scintillating, as she at last reveals Josie’s true character."

"... Threlfall is a delight as a rollicking, roaring old boy who might just have more empathy than we give him credit for. This is by no means an easy watch, but acting this fine makes it all worthwhile."

"Ruth Wilson is hypnotic"

"The actress’s performance, alongside Michael Shannon and David Threlfall, compensates for the moments when Eugene O’Neill’s play turns in circles"

"... Rebecca Frecknall’s typically poetic revival unites three remarkable actors in Ruth Wilson, Michael Shannon and David Threlfall. Watching them bring O’Neill’s dialogue to life compensates for all the moments when the play starts to turn in circles."

"... Wilson makes it all utterly plausible. Carrying a club in her hand, she exudes aggression, and even when she changes out of her dungarees into a green dress there’s an ungainly air to her posture. Shannon is no less convincing as the gently soused James Tyrone Jr"

"Tom Scutt’s set evokes the clutter and chaos of a farm that has never really known better days. Yes, the scene where Akie Kotabe’s wealthy neighbour, Harder, has his nose tweaked, slips awkwardly into comedy, but Wilson and Shannon are never less than hypnotic."

"Even Ruth Wilson can’t redeem this long night"

"Rebecca Frecknall’s usually bold directorial hand seems stilled in a glacially paced revival co-starring Michael Shannon and David Threlfall"

"Frecknall has stepped back to let the play do the speaking but this faithfulness lays bare the datedness of the drama, which creaks with age at times. The production itself seems imbalanced too: glacial in pace, it stretches across three hours, not gathering enough intensity and chugging anti-climactically to its end."

"Wilson is, as always, magnetic in her stage presence, in farm-hand dungarees with the hint of Irishness to her American accent, while Threlfall is convincing as the bullish, wayward father. But characters hover between the roguish, melodramatic and tragic, speaking in scheming monologues which arrest psychological development."

"Frecknall is sometimes charged with being too overbearing a director but this production might have benefited from bigger, bolder revisionism."