The Mountains Look Different

B-

Jonathan Bank, Mint Theater Company’s artistic director and excavator of neglected plays, has unearthed yet another play that was a hit in Dublin but never made to America. This time it is an 1948 melodrama by Micheal mac Liammoir, co-founder of the illustrious Gate Theater, about Bairbre (Brenda Meaney; Indian Ink, Incognito), a woman from the west of Ireland who returns home, newly married, after 13 hard years in London. Her naive husband Tom (Jesse Pennington; Uncle Vanya, Bootycandy), whom she truly seems to love, is unaware that, having no skill for domestic work, she was forced to support herself as a prostitute. Tom’s crusty father Martin (Con Horgan; The Beauty Queen of Leenane), a farmer, takes an immediate dislike to Bairbre and claims to have met her before. The bad blood between the two of them escalates to a dangerous level. The action is set on St. John’s Eve, a pre-Christian fertility invocation marked by building bonfires. We also meet Bairbre’s uncle Matthew Conroy (Paul O’Brien; Is Life Worth Living?); Bartley (Daniel Marconi), Martin’s impudent servant; Bridin (McKenna Quigley Harrington), a young girl; Maire (Cynthia Mace; Skintight), an old woman with a troubled grandson, Batty Wallace (Liam Forde; Much Ado about Nothing); and a priest (Ciaran Byrne; The Dead 1904). After a solid first act, things go somewhat awry after intermission. The introduction of four new characters late in the play dissipates the claustrophobia that was building up. The drama rapidly turns into melodrama. The strongest reason to see the play is the riveting performance by Ms. Meaney. One feels her pain. The other two principals do not fare as well. Mr. Horgan is insufficiently menacing as Martin. Mr. Pennington does not seem to have a grasp of Tom’s character; his movements are strangely crablike and he barely opens his mouth when he speaks. Vicki R. Davis’s (The Suitcase under the Bed) opening set of a stone farmhouse exterior with a mountain vista in the background turns around to reveal the main room of the farmhouse. Andrea Varga’s (The Suitcase under the Bed) costumes fit the characters very well. The lighting design by Christian DeAngelis (Hinkle Wakes) is an asset to the production. Director Aidan Redmond’s direction seemed choppy at times. The play is an interesting curiosity but not a must-see. Running time: two hours including intermission.

NOTE: The program contains an extended note on the life of the author that make him seem worthy of his own biographical drama. In addition to co-founding the Gate, he was esteemed as an actor, playwright, set designer and painter. He and Gate co-founder Hilton Edwards were prominent as a gay couple long before that was fashionable or even legal. Finally, 12 years after his death, it was revealed that the ultra-Irish mac Liammoir was actually Alfred Willmore, an Englishman whose love of things Irish led him to transform himself into an Irishman. 

LaBute New Theater Festival 2019

C+

This year’s edition of the festival, once again presented by St. Louis Actors’ Studio, differs from previous years in that all the plays —a  two-hander sandwiched by two monologues — are premieres by LaBute himself. In the first play, “The Fourth Reich,” Karl (Eric Dean White), a mild-mannered middle-aged man laments that Hitler gets a bad rap because some of his mistakes have been allowed to erase his accomplishments. His prized possession is a watercolor by Hitler in which he sees the promise of a bright future. If LaBute intended to provoke, his circumspect treatment has undermined that intent. In a sense, Karl’s polite demeanor and failure to raise his voice makes his words more chilling, but it doesn’t make for lively theater. In the second play, “Great Negro Works of Art,” we meet Jerri (Brenda Meaney; Indian Ink, Incognito) a thirty-something white woman, and Tom (Keilyn Durrel Jones; SummerShorts), a light-skinned black man, in a museum on their first date after connecting on an online dating site. Their attempts at light banter repeatedly trip over political correctness and racial sensitivities, revealing that LaBute’s knack for dialogue that is both amusing and revealing is still intact. The final and, in my opinion, least successful work is “Unlikely Japan.” While half-watching the news, Katie (Gia Crovatin; The Money Shot) learns that an old boyfriend was one of the victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting. Rather than feeling sad, she feels bad and that makes her sad. Got that? She relates the story of their high-school romance including the really cruel way she ended it and wonders whether a change in her behavior then might have produced a different outcome now. There did not seem to be a clear point to the story. As is often the case with LaBute, the women do not come off well; one is a bit dim and the other lacks compassion. I don’t see how it unites the plays, but a quotation from John — “the truth shall make you free” — is used in each. In all three plays, LaBute seems to be holding back and showing a muted, less confrontational side. The actors in all three plays were first-rate. The first two plays were directed by frequent collaborator John Pierson and the third, by the playwright. The bare-bones set is by Patrick Huber and the costumes, by Megan Harshaw. Before the play, I had a conversation with LaBute, who was most accessible and congenial. I learned from him that the Davenport Theater will close after this production. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

NOTE: The first play had a particular resonance for me. At the Ufffizi Gallery, I once wandered into an exhibit of attractive watercolors. Apparently, i had inadvertently entered through the exit, so it was not until I reached the far end of the gallery that I discovered that the watercolors were by Hitler. It was an upsetting moment that raised the difficult question of whether we can or should distinguish between a creation and its creator.