Long Day's Journey into Night

Apollo Theatre

7 May

 

Here is a quiet, slow parade

of one long day;

a long, extraordinary journey

into night.

The room is treacle-coloured wood

and whisky light

imbued with silence

and the ebb of hope.

Here are the threads of stories

strange and sad,

and others rainbow-bright

with long-remembered seams of happiness.

One long, tall, tragic night of lingering

and listening in the dark,  

of drinking, playing cards

and waiting for the fog to clear

and the woman overhead to stop herself

and go at last to bed. 

One lovely moment when we talk about acting,

and a few upon a table top.

There is much here on appearances

and other things

you cannot talk about.

Much patting of hair and changing of coats,

coughing and silence.

There is no real looking

for the glasses she has lost,

and she has lost her sight

in other ways now too.

But it does not leave me sad.

It is not a portent,

but a sight of what we must not. 

Long Day's Journey into Night plays at the Apollo Theatre until 18 August

http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/apollo-theatre/long_days_journey_into_night