In July, 1940, Eugene O'Neill was working on Long Day's Journey into Night, the most autobiographical of all his plays. Legault's O'Neill is a fable based on the following premise : what happens when autobiographical fiction clashes and fuses with real family relationships, to the point where we can no longer distinguish between the living and the dead, between fiction and reality?

« JAMES O'NEILL : Well my boy, your play doesn't show it. You've got a hard heart. Why did you imagine some stranger in your part? Why isn't it you here, like you were when you were twenty-three? / JAMIE : If you can't picture yourself in the play, imagine what it's like for us. / O'NEILL : That's got nothing to do with it! »