Oh, the Draw of Show Biz
2013-09-26
For a wonderful evening, check out “The Cripple of Inishmaan” at TheatreWorks New Milford.
The theater itself is a charming antique building in a residential neighborhood. The walls of the downstairs lobby are lined with beautiful photographs of productions from the group’s 47-year history. Upstairs, the brand-new patio provides a nice place to sit before the show or during intermission.
As the custom is now in so many theaters, there is no stage curtain, so once you’re seated in the cozy, comfortable stage space, Richard Pettibone’s lovely reproduction of a general store in Ireland in the 1930s is on display before the actors even step onstage.
By now, regular theatergoers are used to sets that are fixed in place for the entire show. This one, though, changes to accommodate scenes set on a beach, in a bedroom, and in a small-town movie theater.
The setting is reinforced when a folksy fellow (John Bolster) ambles onto the stage, and, lamenting the lack of an Irish fiddle, plays traditional Irish music on the banjo. He chats with the audience, and sings (literally) the praises of Guinness.
Martin McDonagh’s tale of small-town life on the island of Inishmaan is hilarious. It’s not pretty, but it’s funny as hell. Which is the weakest epithet in the script — be prepared for some shites and a whole lot of fecks. But be prepared to hurt yourself laughing as well.
Inishmaan is full of people with names like Slippy Helen, Johnnypateenmike and the title character, Cripple Billy (John Russo).
Clearly, political correctness does not exist in this time and place. These people gripe, bicker, fret, complain and argue with each other. McDonagh has the ear to make it all believable, and the wit to make it funny. Still, it’s easy to understand why the younger characters grasp at even the slimmest possibility of a ticket out of this life when it presents itself in the form of a Hollywood crew filming on a neighboring island.
The cast does a marvelous job of making a collection of unpleasant people both sympathetic and enjoyable to watch. Top marks go to Russo as Billy, who completely inhabits the role, both physically and emotionally. And praise, too, for the script, which throws us a few surprises and shows us the good that can sometimes be found inside even small, petty people.
It’s true that none of the Irish accents are authentic, here, but they are believable anyway. And yes, a couple of the actors might not be quite as good as the others. The material could have been mined for greater realism and even more laughs. And director Richard Pettibone probably should have given his actors more stage business and had them do less standing and talking. But given that he also designed the set and the lighting we can cut him a little slack.
As for the rest of those caveats, they matter not a whit. The “Cripple of Inishmaan” is a clever, thought-provoking, gut-busting show with heart.