‘Long Day’s Journey’

Each new production of the Eugene O’Neill masterpiece “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” can be an exultant dark journey into self-examination. The Tyrones (autobiographical to the marrow) are that kind of family.

The production at the Skylight Theatre is, by and large, solidly crafted by director Michael Logan. John Aniston’s crumbling grandeur as the father, John Tyrone, convincingly catches the man’s patriarchal pretenses, his heartiness and his softness.

The production has a good sense of the characters’ gathering guilt and their probing for that lost “something.”

But two of the performances are subtly off center and blur the gathering crescendo. Julie Adams’ rationalizing, drug-addicted mother mirrors the requisite helplessness and despair. And when she materializes in her faded wedding dress at the end of the play, it’s a haunting moment. But earlier, Adams is not shark enough. There’s insufficient attack and bite in her performance.

Nor does John Cardone’s performance as Edmund, the consumptive younger son, suggest a youth who’s been to sea and had a mystic experience. A touch of self-pity blunts the character. Edmund should be strong. He’s not.

As self-despising, alcoholic, sneering older brother Jamie, actor Kevin McDermott grows into the role as the play progresses and actually compels you to look at this character anew. Can’t ask more than that.

In a curiosity, the most natural acting belongs to Holly Cardone (sister of the aforementioned John Cardone) as the housekeeper Cathleen, of all people. Her hesitant, expressive hands and her natural Irish accent take a nothing role and fill it with life.

Costumes (K. Pikke Allen) and lighting design (Lawrence Oberman humorously captures the father’s stingy feeling about burning light bulbs) are nicely textured.

Performances at 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Saturdays 3 p.m., Sundays 7 p.m., through Feb. 26, with a special performance in American sign language this Sunday . Tickets: $12. (213) 466-1767.