A sure sign that you've experienced a great production is when, after almost three hours in the theater, you find yourself still thinking about its characters and wanting to spend more time with them. Seanachai's latest offering is that rare exquisite experience that both moves you and then haunts your memory long afterwards.
Equal parts excellent writing by Owen McCafferty, sensitive direction by Scott Cummins (complete with exceptional Irish dialects) and solid, fully realized characterizations by this skilled acting ensemble of 21 combine to create one unforgettably moving evening of adult theater. At first, the story doesn't sound all that exciting: a glimpse into the lives of about two dozen modern-day Belfast citizens during a 24-hour period (the fact that this play's set in Ireland is inconsequential since all of these tales could happen in any city around the world). But through a Robert Altman slice-of-life style of presentation, we witness several seemingly unrelated events involving a number of characters of varying ages and walks of life that, by the end, have all connected to each other. The final curtain offers no epiphany or instant solutions but we find ourselves sharing in the characters' pain and celebrating in their joy.
Given the huge cast—for this is truly an ensemble performance in its finest tradition—it's difficult to cite any one actor for his excellence. Kat McDonnell and Thomas Vincent Kelly as a childless couple whose marriage is on the rocks, Margaret Kustermann and Don Blair as a loving shopkeeper-couple in the autumn of their lives who are trying to cope with urban violence, and Sarah Wellington and Jeff Christian as a couple ripped apart by the mysterious disappearance of their young son provide each enough drama and pathos for any one play.
Yet add to this mix an arrogant drug dealer soaring high on power, his sweetly naive, ill-used girlfriend, an innocent young man trying to find himself amid the destructive, grimy urban setting, a lovely barkeep whose secret affair with a married man is going nowhere, two estranged brothers brought together by their father's death, three old friends who rekindle allegiances and navigate differences at the nearby pub, two heartless punks attempting to assert themselves in a hopeless setting and one dear, elderly gentleman who is pining for his long-departed wife as the sky showers him in falling stars and you have a stirring saga of the human condition. Making the production tighter and more communal, the cast serve as stagehands, prop masters and silent observers of the action. This play should not be missed because once seen, this Irish reality drama will not be forgotten.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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