Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten is a character-focused slow burn. This production at the Almeida Theatre stars
This production is home to a phenomenal
cast. Ruth Wilson, Michael Shannon and David Threlfall have all
managed to craft brilliantly transformative performances. A Moon
for the Misbegotten is not to be missed if you want a masterclass in character
acting. Unfortunately this is perhaps the only redeeming quality of this
production.
The production is just shy of three hours long and it certainly feels it. A lot of passages seem almost redundant, and you would think director Rebecca Frecknall would have the initiative to trim the fat, but clearly not. When the more intense or interesting scenes did appear, I found myself worn out, and unable to view them with the necessary enthusiasm and focus.
The first half of the play is truly a slog. The majority of the time is devoted to father-daughter conversations that can essentially be boiled down to: "ooh you have a crush!" "nuh-uh." Which is a shame as the dynamic between the two could have been far more fleshed out. Listening to your own friends gossip about crushes is often boring at the best of times, and how one can be expected to part with their money to watch this is beyond me. I cannot understand why O'Neill is so unrelenting in ramming this point home. In the second half, things seem slightly better, its slower scenes felt more pensive than wholly dull.
The set is broadly good, and utilises the silo-like raw brick wall at the back of the Almeida. There are some nice little details in the play's direction: Wilson's character snatches a whip and bowler hat, which really cements her as a woman in control, a woman with guts. Moi Tran's costume design is superb, with great attention to detail, even down to including sock suspenders - obviously hidden for 99% of the play.
However some directorial and set design choices don’t seem to add up. For example one of the structural posts of the Almeida has been replicated in the set. Additionally the cast walk through the aisles of the audience. These read as pseudo-fourth-wall-breaks and not in a good way. If the goal here is to immerse ourselves in 1920's rural Connecticut, the elements that remind us that we are in fact in the Almeida Theatre, 2025, break that immersion - taking us out of the action rather than thrusting us into it. There is the rather beautiful lighthouse-like lighting, which coveys a passage of time as well as a kind of spatial vastness, but again having the lighting rig exposed is yet another immersion breaking element.
For me A Moon for the Misbegotten just does not do enough to hold interest, and despite some incredible acting, the source material itself in combination with the way it has been interpreted is simply unenjoyable. ★★☆☆☆
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