Home of the FREE weekly email Update

Running time 1:50 - one intermission
A slice of a disappearing aspect of Irish life
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: The pub in a small hotel in Belfast is losing money hand over fist, and the hotel itself isn't doing very well either. The owner clings to one last futile hope of keeping it afloat, even as he sees the end approaching. His wife, the one and only barmaid in the bar, would dearly like to escape the dreary place. Perhaps she could flee with the guy who seems parked at one end of the bar. But he's in a state of denial over his own problems. At the other end of the bar sits a somewhat less dissatisfied customer with his own views of life in Northern Ireland. Add a local handyman who has never recovered full use of his brain after being shot in the head during "the troubles," and you have plenty of things to talk about in the rich Irish voice of a gifted playwright.

As we saw last year with Mojo Mickyo, McCafferty, with his command of the everyday language among the Irish, is a playwright making a significant contribution to the supply of Irish slice of life plays that keep a number of small theater companies in our region stocked with quality material. Keegan once seemed the only company reliably dipping into that supply. Recently the field has expanded. Solas Nua has given us Mark O'Rowe's Howie the Rookie and Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs. Rep Stage took on Marie Jones' Stones in his Pockets. Quotidian did a lovely production of Conor McPherson's The Weir. But still, Keegan has the Irish roots going back the farthest, and with their "new island project" series of smaller, newer works, they keep the faith with this latest foray into the genre.

Bruce Rauscher and Ian LeValley are the first two people seen when the lights come up on George Lucas' detailed small pub set with just one table and about three stools at the bar. It is morning and both are passed out from the consumption of the night before. Soon they are joined by Eric Lucas as a sort of fixture in the establishment in the way George Wendt's "Norm" was a fixture on television's Cheers. Each actor is a delight to watch go through his paces. Kerri Waters Lucas adds her own marvelous way of making a thick brogue understandable. Playing against type is Mark A. Rhea, who has always seemed to do his best work with characters who have a surplus of macho swagger in their makeup (think Stanly Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire). Here he gives a touching and thoroughly convincing view of the stumbling, slow and slightly addled brain-damaged handyman.

One aspect of the production is neither up to date nor realistic, however. A factor in the reported decline in pubs in Ireland is believed, at least by its opponents, to be the ban on smoking in pubs throughout Ireland. That ban took effect last year in Northern Ireland where this play is set. Yet there's Eric Lucas puffing away as only he can do. Lucas has a great way with a cigarette, making the act of smoking seem as essential to his character as breathing, but there's no indication in the production that, when the TV blares news on Obama and Clinton, smokers in a Belfast pub face a fine of about a hundred US dollars for lighting up.

Written by Owen McCafferty. Directed by Eric Lucas and Kerry Waters Lucas. Design: George Lucas and Eric Lucas (set) Dan Martin (lights and sound) Kat Wiskup and Rachel Heyd (stage managers). Cast: Ian Le Valley, Eric Lucas, Kerry Waters Lucas, Bruce Rauscher, Mark A. Rhea and the voice of Matthew Keenan.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:10 - one intermission
 t A Potomac Stages Pick for a history play that is both romantic
 and fascinating
 Performed in the Church Street Theatre.
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: In an Irish-speaking town in the north of Ireland in 1833, a unit of English military arrives on a mission to map all of Ireland, and, in the process, anglicize the Irish place names as part of the overall effort of the English government to force assimilation on the part of the Irish. Serving as a hired civilian translator is the son of the teacher in the local school where the locals gather to learn the three R's in their native language. The conflict of cultures is compounded by the attraction between a young lieutenant who speaks no Irish and a local young woman who speaks no English.

The play is a mature work by Friel, who first came to prominence with Philadelphia Here I Come in 1964, and turned out drama after drama of the Irish experience through the 1990s with such well known works as Molly Sweeney and Dancing at Lughnasa. In his portraits of Irish people he creates characters that are fleshed out, imperfect but understandable human beings who share a common cultural heritage and traits. In Translations, Friel pulls off the intriguing accomplishment of writing dialogue for both the English speakers and the Irish speakers in the English that the audience understands, and yet giving each character a distinct voice and making it clear to the audience which language is being used in any given speech, sentence or exclamation. The dialogue between Peter Finnegan as the young Lieutenant and Susan Marie Rhea as the girl who is so attracted to him is an affecting piece of writing as they try to communicate with each other in a halting, frustrated and even exasperated exchange which, nonetheless, manages to communicate their deepening attraction each to the other.

Friel gives each of the cast of ten characters distinct and interesting personalities, and Keegan's cast takes full advantage of the idiosyncrasies without overemphasizing them. Stan Shulman, as the local who may not know English but can quote the classics in the original Greek or Latin with ease, Kevin Adams, as the heavy drinking headmaster, and Colin Smith, as the young teacher who can't quite connect with the student he loves until it is too late create distinct and distinctive believable individuals. Jon Townson, as the headmaster's son who has returned from years on his own in Doublin, carries himself with the assurance that broadening experience would have given him. Finnegan's Lieutenant is notable for youthful idealism and romanticism while Susan Marie Rhea matches his romanticism but leavens the idealism with the accumulated effects of rural isolation and poverty. Director Mark A. Rhea blends the cast into an ensemble which feels very much like a community.

A note on an event at the performance reviewed: The Church Street Theatre can be an interesting place to be in a rainstorm. With its tin roof, the sound of a downpour reverberates through the space. Add thunder claps, and it can be difficult for an audience to hear what is said on stage ... that is, unless the cast adjusts their own volume and their enunciation to compensate. About half way through the first act of the Sunday, April 20 matinee, the heavens opened and the roar was impressive. What was more impressive was the reaction of Kevin Adams who happened to be making a speech at the time. He raised his volume without changing his dramatic demeanor. The rest of the cast followed his lead and, suddenly, the scene was as comprehensible as before the din began. Director Rhea, knowing that storms were predicted and remembering the night they had to stop the show for a similar downpour during Keegan's production of Side Man here, had alerted the cast to the possibility of a problem and asked that they "be aware and project." The adjustment was so smooth that it didn't interrupt the flow of the play - a tribute to the professionalism of the entire ensemble.

Written by Brian Friel. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Kelly Peacock (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Megan Thrift (stage manager). Cast: Kevin Adams, Erin Buchanan, Peter Finnegan, Matthew Keenan, Daniel Lyons, Susan Marie Rhea, Samantha Sheahan, Stan Shulman, Colin Smith, Jon Townson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:45 minutes - one intermission
Something to chew on for a rainy night
Performances at Theater on the Run

Storyline: In a dying town in the west of Ireland, an amateur theatre group comes together for the first read of their final production. As a developer threatens to devour everything in the town, including their beloved theatre space, the individuals begin to remember their pasts and soon enough the hidden from view takes over and leaves all of them torn asunder.

Lucas has written a script that arcs from a comic opening scene and then transforms itself to take the audience into a world of hurt. What starts as a piece of whimsy veers off into dark places as each of the characters speaks of sad underlying issues in their lives and that of the community. They find themselves under assault from outside developers. What begins as pressure to destroy and redevelop old buildings and farms slowly unravels families. Under the direction of Leslie Koyblinski, this is a piece that requires close attention, for it is all small gestures, facial expressions and voice modulations. There are no grand gestures. There are small moments throughout in which the well tuned cast shows naturalistic, real feelings.

Kerry Rambow is a natural for her role as the wife, mother and the only piece of femininity in this production. She plays with an understated sense of genuine caring until she is finally broken and leaves her husband in total despair. Bruce Rauscher’s detective is a man on a mission to find the truth. When he finds it, he decides to hide it rather than hurt the folk he comes to care for because his own life is one of hidden despair and loneliness. Rauscher delivers some haunting lines in several monologues. He is low key and generally believable. Gerald Browning, as the husband, moves from pompous, overbearing ass, to show himself to be a father so hurt by the actions of his son that he has no notion of how much he is responsible for his son’s outlook on life. That outlook has the son hateful, vengeful and, worse, cold to his parents. Kevin O’Reilly is one cold son-of-a-bitch for a son. He is stiff, and with little emotion, he delivers line upon line showing his hatred for everything that made him, his family, his neighbors, and his community. Jon Reynolds is the obligatory comic foil to keep the proceedings from falling into a multi-Kleenex venture. John Brennan is the sad middle-aged man who failed to reach out to the woman he loved for fear that he was not good enough for her, and does the same one other time in his life, so that only his sheep and his satellite TV keep him company.

This is very nice, small scale ensemble work, and the Theater on the Run black box space is appropriately used for the piece. The set is just a table and some chairs, with three panels behind to give a sense of the Irish countryside. The lighting carries the audience around from soft and bright, to well-accomplished spotlighted scenes.

Written by Eric Lucas. Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski. Design: Terry Lucas (set) Kevin Lane (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Rose M. Kobylinski (stage manager). Cast: John Brennan, Gerry Browning, Kevin O'Reilly, Kerri Rambow, Bruce Rauscher, and Jon Reynolds.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:40 - two intermissions
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a balanced blend of good time revelry and Irish theatricality
Performances in the Church Street Theatre.
 Click here to buy the script

Storyline: In Dublin in 1958 a strange collection of under-class Irish folks live under one roof in this brothel/pub. There’s the pub-operator; the cheap whore and her customer, a Russian sailor; the homosexual whore and his customer, a cynical pianist, the former Irish Republican Army officer still blowing his pipes. The IRA has captured an English soldier and holds him hostage in this house, threatening to execute him if the English go through with their plan to execute an IRA prisoner.

Behan’s play is performed with two intermissions separating the three sections which aren’t exactly three acts. Behan’s effort to avoid the strictures of structure kept him from traditional labeling. The first section is essentially an extended introduction to the characters and their types with a great deal of attention to creating the atmosphere of the place. The second introduces the hostage, a young man who only slowly understands the peril he is in. The third carries the story, such as it is, to its conclusion. All of this takes place at a leisurely pace with little dramatic or comedic force to move it along during the first two and a half sections. The final confrontation seems to descend into confusion with just who is doing what to whom and why not clearly delineated by the staging.

The characters are all quirky and colorful and the ensemble that Keegan has assembled features strong performances highlighting the very oddity Behan envisioned. As it was in 2003, the strongest among them is David Jourdan as the song-singing leader of the pack who serves as sort of an anti-establishment master of ceremonies with a guitar, a bottle or three of stout and a ready song. This time out it is Joe Baker who plays the hostage, and he is appealingly innocent with a youthful charm that seems to capture the affection of the motley crew. His cockney accent stands in stark contrast with the Irish brogue of the rest of the cast. It should be noted that few of the accents are thick enough to keep the audience from understanding all of the dialogue.

Both David Jourdan's music and Melissa-Leigh Douglass' choreography have a natural feel to them. The dances just seem like the way these people would move to the rousing jigs and folk-sounding songs sung in many an Irish pub, and the use of authentic, often familiar melodies delivered with open honesty and camaraderie enhances the good time spirit. This, in turn, enhances the contrast between the mundane humanity of the regulars of the brothel and the bizarre officiousness of the IRA operatives. All of this takes place on a two-story set by George Lucas that feels perfectly at home in the distressed brick and wood interior of the Church Street Playhouse.

Written by Brendan Behan. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Music adaptation and music direction by David Jordan. Choreographed by Melissa-Leigh Douglass. Design: George Lucas (set) Carol Baker (set dressing) Shadia Hafiz (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Christina Coakley (stage manager). Cast: Kevin Adams, Carolyn Agan, Joe Baker, Christina Coakley, Sally Cusenza, Shadia Hafiz, Sheri S. Herren, Jim Howard, Michael Innocenti, David Jourdan, Mike Kozemchak, Timothy Hayes Lynch, Rich Montgomery, Roger Payano, Jane E. Petkofsky, Susan Marie Rhea, Jennifer Richter, Colin Smith, Daniel Steinberg.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:35 - one intermission
The US premiere of an Irish play detailing the phenomenon
 of a local rugby team's triumph 
Performances at Arlington's Theatre on the Run
Price range $15 - $20

Storyline: On October 31, 1978 the rugby club Munster, Ireland, defeated the world-class New Zealand "All Blacks" who had remained in Ireland for one last exhibition game after having defeated the best that the British Isles had to offer. In two acts, six actors portray the game and the events surrounding it for the members of the team, their families and their community.

Playwright John Breen was one of the people affected by the 1978 contest between his home town team and the titans from the other side of the world. He captures many facets of the impact of this event on the people he cares about. The play he wrote is a highly theatrical thing. As directed by the Lucases it is a series of special effects including slow motion, choreographed rugby scrums (those violent struggles over possession of the ball that mark rugby as one of the most strenuous contests of the football family) and exaggerated postures to create nearly instantaneous impressions of different locations and characters.

Co-director Eric Lucas also appears as "fourth actor" which means he is a child, a fan, a coach, a player, a family member and a spectator at different times. That is a typical list of characters for each of the cast of six and each gets the opportunity to make a strong impression in at least one character because the Lucases' blocking tends to draw the audience's attention to a single character at a time except for the big group effects such as a scrum or a break-away running play in the rugby game. Eric Humphries and Mandy Moore have characters that are the most distinctive - Moore, the pregnant wife of one of the players who goes into labor during the game, and Humphries a dog who sniffs and licks in a distinctly canine manner. All six, however, make the transitions from character to character swiftly and clearly.

The design team doesn't help the performers much, but that seems to be a choice by the Lucases rather than any sort of failure. Dan Martin doesn't have different lighting effects for scenes featuring Munster's team on the one hand and New Zealand's on the other. The lighting is simply sufficient to illuminate the playing space and provide some sense of change for the switch from one locale or time to another. Martin is also the designer of the soundscape which includes a clip of the theme from "Chariots of Fire" making a bit of a predictable point. An anachronistic distraction is the presence on stage of four modern plastic bottles of water which seem so twenty-first century for a play set in 1978.

Written by John Breen. Directed by Eric Lucas and Kerry Waters Lucas. Design: Dan Martin (lights and sound) with costumes provided by Matt Godek Rugby. Photography by Ray Gniewek. Cast: Gerald B. Browning, Joe Baker, Brandon Cater, Eric Humphries, Eric Lucas, Mandy Moore.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:45 - one intermission
The musical re-telling of our nation’s creation
Co-presented with Runyonland Enterprises
Performances at the Church Street Theatre.
Click here to buy the CD

Storyline: In a hot and humid hall in "foul, filthy, fuming Philadelphia," the delegates of the 13 colonies debate everything from opening up a window to declaring independence. Central to the cause of separation are John Adams who is "obnoxious and disliked" but devoted to the cause, Benjamin Franklin, "a sage, a bit gouty in the leg" who understands the importance of crafting coalitions, and Thomas Jefferson who, at age 33, has "a remarkable felicity of expression." The audience knows what the outcome of the debate will be, but there is tension and drama aplenty along the way to the final vote.

The real magic of this piece is the way Stone and Edwards manage to communicate the complexity of the issues and avoid making simplistic cartoons out of the majority of the characters they portray. Richard Henry Lee is treated with less respect than most, being a comic popinjay of an egotist, and Doug Wilder is a lot of fun as he works his way through "The Lees of Old Virginia," but the adherents to the heritage of the British nation are shown as earnest, honest men who have sincere differences of opinion. Indeed, Stone writes a marvelously moving moment at the end when the victorious John Adams pays tribute to the defeated John Dickenson who, in Kevin Adams heart-felt if slightly stiff portrayal, has fought with all the energy and passion at his command in a cause he holds dear. Even the question of slavery, which was finally resolved on the side of human dignity only by bloody civil war decades later, is presented with both sides landing telling blows in the argument.

Musical theater isn't exactly the strength of the Keegan Theatre, but they have collaborated here with Runyondland Enterprises, the group that put together the fine production of this show at Alexandria's old West End Dinner Theatre in 2003 which featured Tinder in the same role he plays here, and they brought along JoEllen Borton as Musical Director. With a weak accompaniment emerging from the side of the wing-less stage, and actors cast more for their acting than for their singing, this production is musically only acceptable, but does hit a satisfying stride from time to time. The opposition to the Adams/Franklin/Jefferson team gets the short end of the musical stick. David Jourdan's portrayal of slavery-defending Edward Rutledge is dramatically effective but his singing of the emotionally charged "Molasses to Rum" falls a bit flat and the choreographed caricature of conservatism, "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" is more effectively danced than sung. Still, the message gets through.

There is a trend of late which deserves some attention and discussion. It is the moving of intermission with little regard for the impact on the dramatic structure of a play. At Arena Stage both Cabaret and She Loves Me were done with intermissions in places that their creators never intended. Both were the worse for it. Now we have a 1776 with an intermission following what had been scene six of a seven scene, one act show. It was a lengthy one-act, to be sure. When it was revived on Broadway in 1997 it was presented with an intermission at the end of scene five, sending the audience out for its break right after the emotionally charged "Mamma Look Sharp." That had been the original plan of its creators and that is the way it was presented at Ford's Theatre in the excellent 2003 revival. The placement of the intermission made dramatic sense. Here, it seems more a function of the fanny fatigue factor - when the audience gets uncomfortable enough in the tightly packed seats of the Church Street Theater they are provided a stretch break. Better it had been where it made some dramatic sense as well.  

Written by Peter Stone. Music and Lyrics by Sherman Edwards. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Music direction by JoEllen Borton. Choreographed by Elena Velasco. Design: Mick Tinder (set) Emily Riehl-Bedford and Patricia Carlson-Tinder (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Christina Coakley (stage manager). Cast: AJ Ackleson, Kevin Adams, Carolyn Agan, Todd Baldwin, Chris Borton, Bob Cohen, Joe Cronin, James Finley, Jim Howard, Dave Jourdan, John Robert Keena, Rick Kenney, Rich Clare, Jon Lawlor, Robert Leembruggen, Randahl Lindgren, Bruce Lugn, Tom Lynch, Daniel Lyons, Richard Montgomery, Colin Smith, KJ Thorarinsson, Mick Tinder, Patricia Tinder, Doug Wilder.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:35 - one intermission and a pause
Tickets $15 - $20
Performances at Arlington's Theatre on the Run
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: An English gentleman lives a staid and proper existence in the country but adopts a second identity in the town so he can be free of some of the conventions of society. One of his friends in town maintains an equally fictitious friend in the country in order to avoid society's demands. The two fictitious identities get mixed up as both men woo women who had always wanted to marry men named Ernest. Both men are so smitten they would go to the extent of re-baptizing themselves as true Ernests. It is learned, however, that the country gentleman was abandoned as an infant and, when his true identity is revealed by his former governess, it is revealed that that he really is Ernest.

Director Dorothy Neumann varies the pacing as the evening progresses and keeps the focus quite clear, which is important for a convoluted comedy. She works with the three-act version of the play. It was originally a four-act piece but is certainly best known in this semi-streamlined edition. The play is brimming with the wit and charm of Oscar Wilde. Much of that wit requires a precision of delivery which it gets here in only some of the performances. The rendition of the two central characters, the two upper-class British gentlemen, are a bit too relaxed and easygoing to get the most out of Wilde's wildest concepts. 

Christopher Dinolfo and Mike Innocenti play the two gentlemen caught up in their own machinations. They are energetic and spirited but rarely seem very upper-crust British. Barbara Klein, on the other hand, is the very essence of a haughty society matron as the insufferable Lady Bracknell. When she's on stage, you can believe this comedy of class is targeted with precision. The girls who want to marry Ernests are Erin Buchanan and Suzanne Edgar. Each crafts her own character with care and they create a chemistry between them that sparkles. The secondary roles of the governess and her own suitor are given sharp performances by Rosemary Regan and John F. Degan, whose persona is so reminiscent of classic comedian Victor Moore that it makes you wonder if Moore ever played the role himself. He would have been fabulous. As it is, the team of Regan and Degan is memorable for the way they look deep into each other's eyes.

While the set consists principally of an archway that is moved from one spot on stage to another to hint at different locales from London to the country, the costumes by William Pucilowski are hardly simple hints at the fashions of the day or the class. While the men make do with mildly period suits, the women are decked out with colorful gowns of sumptuous fabrics that are distinctly late nineteenth century English society. Suzanne Edgar is resplendent in a pink confection which ties to the script when Innocenti compares her to a pink rose in act three.

Written by Oscar Wilde. Directed by Dorothy Neumann. Design: Eric and Kerry Lucas (set) Bill Pucilowsky (costumes) Katrina Wiskup and Carol H. Baker (properties) Dan Martin (lights and sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Daniel Chavez (stage manager). Cast: Erin Buchanan, John F. Degen, Christopher Dinolfo, Suzanne Edgar, Melissa Hmelnicky, Mike Innocenti, Barbara Klein, Rosemary Regan.

 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:45 - one intermission
Performed at the Church Street Theatre
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a superbly engrossing
 and moving drama
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: In the reign of Henry VIII, Sir Thomas Moore rises to the exalted rank of Lord Chancellor and advisor to the King. When Henry declares himself the supreme head of the Church of England and breaks with the Roman Catholic Church in order to divorce the first of his six wives in search of an heir, Moore's conscience will not allow him to accede to the King's demand for support. His steadfast refusal leads to his execution.

This is another of the marvelous, intellectually satisfying dramas of the middle of the twentieth century that came out of the flirtation with repression which is now often just regarded as the Red Scare of McCarthyism. It was 1954, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible had just opened on Broadway, when Bolt's play was performed on the BBC in England where the furor over Klaus Fuchs' conviction as a Soviet spy had only recently calmed down. Conscience in the face of authority seemed to need championing (doesn't it always?). The success of the radio play convinced him to convert it to a full theatrical play, which opened in London and then was produced successfully on Broadway, winning the Tony Award for Best Play in 1962. There followed a movie with Paul Scofield winning an Oscar for his performance, and a made-for-television movie with Charlton Heston taking on the role. Now, memories of Scofield and Heston can blend with Lynch for those who see this production, for his performance will certainly linger long in the mind.

Lynch is the focus of so many of the scenes, his must be the performance that gets the bulk of the attention, and, thus, the bulk of the praise. He's both superbly human and tremendously principled - no mean feat. His explanations of his reasons for being true to his convictions ("you could as well ask me to change the color of my eyes") could sound so stuffy from one who seems filled with the pride in high office. Instead, there is a real humility here that makes his adherence to fundamental beliefs completely natural and sympathetic. Leembruggen comes to the fore time and time again to keep the play moving along and to act as the audience's guide to what is happening. After all, the events took place almost five hundred years ago, so audiences need some way to put some of the offices, relationships and duties into perspective. Leembruggen also provides some of the much-needed comic relief. Indeed, he strikes just the right comedic tone with his very first line, the opening line of the entire play.

The supporting cast offers performances of varying quality. Some, like Charlotte Akin as Moore's wife and Jon Townson as his sovereign are simply marvelous. Akin's portrayal of the progress of Alice Moore's steadily escalating sense of panic over her husband's fate is fascinating, and Townson gives us an all-too-brief look at the young and virile Henry VIII, so unlike the old man in search of a sixth wife we so often see. Carlos Bustamante is very good as the corruptible Richard Rich, as is Jake Call as the Spanish Ambassador to Henry's court. Unfortunately, Mark Rhea never seems even English let alone a member of the English court as Thomas Cromwell. Trudi Olivetti makes a fine contribution in the small part of the woman who gave Moore a gift that plays in the plot, but she makes even more of a contribution as the production's dramaturg, for she created a fascinating study guide which many will want to consult after being challenged by this challenging play. It is available online at Keegan's website.

Written by Robert Bolt. Directed by Susan Marie Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Kelly Peacock (costumes) Katrina Wiskup (properties) Dan Martin (lights) Timothy S. Shaw (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Christina Coakley (stage manager). Cast: Kevin Adams, Charlotte Akin, Carlos Bustamante, Jake Call, Melissa-Leigh Douglass, Jim Howard, Mike Kozemchak, Robert Leembruggen, Timothy Hayes Lynch, Trudi Olivetti, Mark Rhea, Jon Townson.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

January 18 - February 17, 2007
The Tempest
Reviewed by William Bryan

Running time 2:30 - one intermission
An enjoyable production of Shakespeare’s last play
Performances at the Church Street Theatre.
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Deposed Duke Prospero, abandoned on a desert island lo these dozen years, sees his opportunity for justice when his usurper passes by in a ship. Prospero, who has used his time studying sorcery, conjures up a fierce storm during which his usurper's party abandons their foundering ship and washes up on his island. Prospero's daughter falls in love with the usurper's son. The usurper and his entourage get involved in many schemes as Prospero's revenge proceeds, but all are reconciled through the love of parents for children and children for each other.

Director Timothy Shaw stages an admirable show and brings out the best in each of his performers. The lead, Prospero, and the “airy spirit” Ariel, are the two best in the show. Robert Leembruggen, as the deposed Duke, brings with him a long history and many performances of Shakespearean work. He has clearly studied his craft and his Prospero sets a high standard of excellence not matched by all of the cast. Courtney Weber, however, is outstanding as Ariel. Her mannerisms and movements, from a stilted walk to a habit of closing her eyes for long periods of time, go a long way toward suspending disbelief and letting us see the other worldly creature she represents.

The Church Street Theater lacks wing space and this imposes limits on the set designer and director alike. The set by George Lucas is admirable in its single-structure solution to the confines of the small stage, but the result that all the scenes use the same space. Scene changes are often signaled by some creative lighting effects by Dan Martin, bit it takes a concerted effort by the audience to accept some of these different settings. The best feature is the ship of the ill fated voyage that opens the saga. It collapses through some clever construction to become the home of Prospero and his daughter for the remainder of the play. The lush vegetation, and the subtle but ever present sound effects of a living jungle, all blend together to make a fantasy island in a limited space.

Since all of Shakespeare’s works are way beyond copyright, each theater can change what they will. There are some changes here that worked well and others that did not. Shaw chose to make one sailor a southern drunk, and this works to hysterical effect. Not so his casting a female as the King’s brother. While she was not disguised as a male, neither was she dressed female, so her obvious sexual difference caused an abrupt clash each time some reference was made to her gender. But these are minor flaws, and as a whole the night is worth the trip downtown for an intimate setting and some unique experiences.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Timothy S. Shaw (and sound design). Design: George Lucas (set) Kit Sibley and Jean Schlichting (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Ray Gneiwek (photography) Helen Lynn (stage manager). Cast: Joe Baker, Jeremy Brown, Jewel Greenberg, Mike Gregorek, Rob Leembruggen, Sarah Melinda, Eric Messner, Tim O’Kane, Guy Palace, John Porter, Laura Quenzl, Ally Raber, Courtney Weber, Alia Williams.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:10 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an energetic, entertaining hour
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: Two young boys on the streets of Belfast may be from opposite sides of the religious troubles enveloping Ireland in the 70s, but their shared fascination with Hollywood male bonding films, especially Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, forms the basis for a friendship strong enough to provide escape from the dangers and terrors of the violence that surrounds them.

McCafferty's play is a relatively new addition to the body of Irish slice of life plays that seem to capitalize on the colorful nature of not only the local brogue but the romantic mindset that values ability to build stories out of small details. It shares the source of fascination and enjoyment of Mark O'Rowe's Howie the Rookie, Marie Jones' Stones in his Pockets, Conor McPherson's The Weir and even Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs. It revels in its own theatricality and reveals the impact of domestic strife through the accumulation of tiny details. Here the world is viewed through the eyes of kids too young to understand the historic importance of their times but old enough to feel the pains of both normal growing up and of the adult conflicts that circumscribe their world.

The seventy minutes fly by at a carefully established pace. It seems pell-mell but is, in fact, carefully controlled and cleverly modulated. Director Eric Lucas keeps adjusting that pace so it is not so fast that it is as exhausting for the audience as it must be for the performers, and certainly not so fast that there isn't time for the careful listening required due to the Irish brogue they sport. But it is always fast enough to keep the tempo impressive and the energy level high. Part of the reason the pace seems so right is that moments of movement punctuate explosions of dialogue, giving you time to translate the Irish street vocabulary into meaning without any apparent pause. Through it all, the focus on the progression of the boys' tale is clear and precise. This is directing that is worthy of study.

The performers, Dinolfo and Innocenti, mesh so well that it is difficult to discuss their individual contributions to the piece. If Mojo and Mickybo are "Mojo Mickybo" then Dinolfo and Innocenti are "Dinolfo Innocenti." They rely on their own physical differences - as well as the fact that their characters' nicknames are written on their shirts - to help the audience keep things straight and lose themselves in the energetic cavorting of young friends at play. What is more impressive is that their creation of the adult characters in the kids' story is consistent with the children's view. These are adults as seen by their children, not as they really are. But children are incredibly perceptive so their versions of the adults are insightful in fresh ways. The script gives them the material and they run with it - literally!

Written by Owen McCafferty. Directed by Eric Lucas. Designed by Kerry and Eric Lucas. Lighting by Dan Martin. Photo by Ray Gneiwek. Cast: Christopher Dinolfo, Michael Innocenti.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time: 2:25 - one intermission
An intriguing display of acting skills in a quartet
 of lyrical monologues
Performances are at Theatre II in the Gunston Arts Center
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: An Irishman who has made something of a career traveling the back roads of Wales and Scotland holding healing sessions, often with no more than a dozen or so participants, tells the story of when he returned to Ireland with his wife (if wife she was) and his manager for what turned out to be his final tour.

Monologue plays are always tricky, because, while one monologue can be fascinating, four can be too much of a good thing. Each monologue must have a dramatic structure of its own, building to a climax as well as creating a character. The challenge for a playwright is to give the entire play a dramatic structure building to its own climax. Friel is best known for his language. His ability to capture the lyric beauty of the Irish way of speaking has never been more evident than it is here. His language works on three levels: There is the beauty of the sound; there is the joy of the wordplay; there is the story itself. Friel’s other plays often feel a bit mechanical in their plots and a monologue play could easily fall prey to this weakness. Instead, the formal structure of four monologues (the faith healer opens and closes the play with the wife and the manager flanking the intermission) turns out to be a help as he places plot details within the narratives.

Both of the Lucases deliver Friel's language with strong Irish brogues. Kerry Waters Lucas is the most understandable as her brogue is lyrical and musical without being thick or dense. Eric Lucas, on the other hand, does slip into a density from time to time that forces the listener to concentrate on interpreting the sound in the way you might have to identify a foreign word or phrase before turning your attention to its meaning. It is challenging to keep up with his meaning, but it is rewarding. Mick Tinder sets himself apart from the pair by adopting a slightly cockney tinged English accent appropriate to the manager of tours on the eastern side of the Irish Sea. All three succeed in capturing and holding the audience's attention.

In establishing their "gray palate," the Lucases have designed a simple stage - planking with a single strand of lights, a curtain and a poster announcing the faith healing session. Eric Lucas' "Frank" owns the center - the center stage where he delivered so many of his messages of faith, while Kerry Waters Lucas' "Grace" is off to one side - cast away from the center of her man's life, and Mick Tinder's "Teddy" on the other, trying to maintain his own separation from the fate of his friend/partner/stranger. The whole is flanked by two tellingly empty chairs. Dan Martin's lighting merges the disparate parts.

Written by Brian Friel. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Design: Kerry Waters Lucas and Eric Lucas (set) Dan Martin (lights) Ray Gneiwek (photography) Mike Innocenti (stage manager). Cast: Eric Lucas, Kerry Waters Lucas, Mick Tinder.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 2:00 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for three fine performances in an emotionally charged intellectual drama
Performances at the Church Street Theatre
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: A dead infant has been discovered in a wastebasket in the convent bedroom of a nun. A court-appointed psychiatrist tries to reach the truth in the case by interviewing both the nun and her Mother Superior.

John Pielmeier's play does include answers to many of the questions confronting the nun, the Mother Superior and the psychiatrist, but placing any sort of emphasis on the clues embedded in the text does a disservice to the confounding complications that define human relationships. Especially those between these three characters, one wise in the ways of the world, one wise in the ways of the church, and one naive in both worlds. Each raises issues that neither of the others can resolve completely. This is the key to both the theatrical magic the play can work and to the intellectual and emotional honesty that marks Rhea's approach. In pursuing this approach she places her confidence in the three actresses.

That trust is not misplaced. Sheri Herren carries herself with the assurance of professional success in the secular world. Linda High contrasts Herren's semi-haughty self assurance with a sense of command as the Mother Superior tempered by a worldly wisdom of a woman with years of marriage preceding her taking of vows. Ghillian Porter has an emotional charge within her naivety that makes her claims of innocent confusion affecting. High delivers the most complex performance of the three. Herren has a bit of a problem with her character's addiction to nicotine. Smoking on stage is always difficult for a non-smoker. We don't know if Herren is a non-smoker, but she uses cigarettes on stage as props rather than something to hang on to the way nicotine addicts do.

One secret of the success of this production is the spare but elegant setting. Nothing distracts your attention from the intellectual issues being presented, but nothing seems either cheap or excessively theatrical. Using just draped flimsy curtain material to flank a plain playing area furnished simply with a chair and an ashtray, with a prayer station on an upstage platform, attention is focused on the three performances and the issues presented. While a touch of music emphasizes the locale of a convent, the sounds in the production reinforce but in no way distract from the interplay of intellectual debate or the interrelationships of the characters.

Written by John Pielmeier. Directed by Susan Marie Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Maggie Butler (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Rich Montgomery and Susan Marie Rhea (sound) Ray Gneiwek (photography) Megan Thrift (stage manager). Cast: Sheri S. Herren, Linda High, Ghillian Porter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Running time 1:40 - no intermission
A comedy of ideas by Steve Martin
Performances in Theatre II at the Gunston Arts Center
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: In the Paris of 1904, in a small neighborhood bar called the Lapin Agile, which actually exists in Montmontre, the local patrons include an as-yet undiscovered artist named Pablo Picasso and an as-yet unpublished physicist named Albert Einstein. Over glasses of wine they explain to the other patrons their views of what the new century holds, a century they each believe will be defined by their gifts. However, they are joined by two others who may be icons of the new century.

Martin wrote this diverting piece in 1993 and it has had a remarkably steady series of productions in small professional and community theaters ever since it premiered as the inaugural production of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. It was greeted as full of optimism, wit and insight, dealing with sometimes weighty issues without being weighed down by any pomposity, and without taking itself too seriously. The play continues to offer just those delights. Scott Pafumi directs this production with an eye toward the more intellectually interesting issues Martin chose to deal with, but, perhaps as a result of some casting choices, misses with some of the lighter, more "wild and crazy guy" touches.

The casting offers two very fine fits. Most specifically, Susan Marie Rhea, who has demonstrated a flair for light comedy before, especially in her very first outing with Keegan, the western-themed The Taming of the Shrew back before the launching of Potomac Stages. She is a bright delight as the barmaid who is the bartender's girlfriend. Also doing fine light comedy work is Eric Lucas as Einstein. We are more used to seeing him do heavier parts but he throws off light lines here with aplomb. That light touch comes clearest in Martin's crucial exchange between Einstein and Picasso over the meaning of their work. (Picasso: "... yours is letters." Einstein: "Yours is lines." Picasso: "My lines mean something." Einstein: "So do mine." Picasso: "Mine touches the heart." Einstein: "Mine touches the head." Picasso: "Mine will change the future." Einstein: "Oh, and mine won't?")

That light exchange with such important concepts works best when both Picasso and Einstein are tossing off the lines in rapid repartee. Unfortunately, in Mark Rhea's hands, the Picasso side of the equation gets bogged down in a touch of angst that Rhea just doesn't seem to be able to shed from his normal stage persona.  The extremely wide playing area of George Lucas' set is a challenge that Pafumi doesn't really solve in blocking the piece. Almost all of Lucas' good lines are delivered across the stage, hidden from those sitting on the right side of the house, while many of Rhea's shoot across the opposite direction which makes them hard to catch from the left.

Written by Steve Martin. Directed by Scott D. Pafumi. Design: George Lucas (set) Maria Vetsch (costumes) Katrina Wiskup and Sheri Herren (properties) Dan Martin (lights and sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Helen Lynn (stage manager). Cast: James A. Howard, Mike Kozemchak, Katie Loughnane, Eric Lucas, Kerry Waters Lucas, Rich Montgomery, Brian Randall, Jackie Reed, Mark Rhea, Susan Marie Rhea, Jennifer Richter, Mick Tinder.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed April 29
Running time 2:00 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages pick for a fine ensemble performance of an absorbing drama
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: A woman and her grown daughter live next door to a young woman with children in violence-marred West Belfast at the height of "The Troubles" where they try to maintain some semblance of normal life despite the fact that all of the men in their lives have either been killed or imprisoned. Into the yard between them wonders a waif with more than a passing connection to their pasts.

Munro's play is smoothly plotted with details of the relationship of the four women emerging slowly out of small details in the dialogue. The concentration is on the creation of the characters and  the establishment of their relationships to each other - at least among the three residents of the war torn neighborhood in West Belfast. Rhea allows tiny details in the action to match the details in the dialogue to create a sense of reality, especially within the one house where most of the action takes place. A glance out a window, a weary shudder at a distant sound, a short search for a cigarette - these are the unremarkable everyday actions of life in this place at this time. As the more dramatic revelations emerge late in the play, the pace accelerates and the intensity escalates but Rhea makes sure that the escalation never gets ahead of the story.

Fine ensemble work is the hallmark of this production. The four actresses work together smoothly to create the sense of reality and to help each other establish characteristics that mark each character. They listen to each other and react to each other's lines in visible but never showy ways. Ghillian Porter covers the widest range of emotions in the central role of the woman raising her children without her husband. She nicely avoids excesses early in the play in order to set up the impact of her explosion later on. Helen Pafumi and Linda High seem to communicate in the recognition of small signs as a mother and daughter can, picking up on each other's gestures, postures and tone of voice. Coming as the stranger to this trio of women who know each other so well, Carolyn Agan enters the world of the play tentatively and even furtively. She becomes a major force rather than a furtive presence when the plot allows, covering a range of emotions in the final revelation scene.

George Lucas' set spreads out along the wide side of the rectangular black box of Theatre II with Porter's house on the right and a structure on the left that becomes the club the girls escape to for one night out as "Bold Girls" trying to ignore if not escape the reality of the danger and violence filling their world. Between the two structures, he's placed a ramp that is part alleyway, part hillside and part no man's land. The final lighting effect as dawn brings a new beginning is beautifully realized.

Written by Rona Munro. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Maria Vetsch (costumes)  Dan Martin (lights) Tony Angelini (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Megan Thrift (stage manager). Cast: Carolyn Agan, Linda High, Helen Pafumi, Ghillian Porter.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed January 24
Running time 2:45 - one intermission
Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize winning tragedy
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: At the end of a career as a traveling salesman, each of Willy Loman’s dreams turns sour. He looses his job. His children turn out not to be the successes he dreamed about. He has a loving wife but he hasn’t been faithful to her. He comes to believe that he is worth more dead than alive, at least until the next premium on his life insurance policy is due.

Hemmingsen uses too many gestures, postures and mannerisms that draw attention to the fact that he is acting. From his first entrance as Willy, as he sets down his salesman's sample cases, he deflates in a move so dramatic you almost look to see if this Willy thinks there is someone in the house watching. He is surrounded by some fine talent. Charlotte Akin does nicely with the role of his wife and her final, graveside scene is quite affecting. Mike Innocenti successfully tackles the always difficult role of the oh-so-shallow youngest son who can abandon his father in the midst of an emotional breakdown to chase a skirt. Mark Rhea has his moments as the older son who sees the truth behind the lies that have made up his father's life, especially his final confrontation scene when he calls his father's bluff and intones the mantra "I'm a dime a dozen, Willy. A dime a dozen!" Rhea looks strangely small next to the towering Hemmingsen, which enhances Rhea's ability to portray the son's realization that he isn't the giant of a man his father thinks he is.

Some of the finest performances come from outside of the Loman family. David Jourdan delivers a nicely crafted rendition of the next door neighbor who tries to help Willy without embarrassing him, and Christopher Dinolfo grows from teenage neighborhood nerd to mature success as the Jourdan's son. Susan Marie Rhea finds the balance between seductiveness and crass manipulation as the buyer's secretary at one of Willy's out of town stops. She is very good in her one full scene, a crucial one which reveals both Willy's adultery and the crisis with his son.

The play has often drawn some of the most interesting incidental music to underscore its raw emotions. The original Broadway production had a score by the great Alex North that is still available on a CD for use in local productions of the play. Keegan uses original underscoring composed by Matt Rippetoe which is both evocative and effective. In addition the atmosphere is enhanced by playing recordings by the Washington Saxophone Quartet of music by Bela Bartok and Aaron Copland to create an eerily contemporary American feel before and after the performance. (Was there a bit of Piazzolla mixed in there as well?)

Written by Arthur Miller. Directed by Dorothy Neumann. Incidental music performed by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. Design: Stefan Gibson (set) Maggie Butler (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Matt Rippetoe (sound and music) Ray Gniewek (photography) Sean Corcoran (stage manager). Cast: Kevin Adams, Charlotte Akin, Jake Call, Christopher Dinolfo, Jewel Greenberg, Brian Hemmingsen, Mike Innocenti,  David Jourdan, Callie Kimball, Mike Kozemchak, Mark Rhea, Susan Marie Rhea. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed November 19
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
Performances at Gunston Arts Center
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a pair of  stunning performances by a single actress
Click here to buy the script
Click here to buy the script

Storyline(s): (Portrait of a Madonna) An aging former Southern Belle with a history of  mental instability reaches the end of her rope. Living alone in an apartment before World War II, she is tormented by hallucinations of intrusions and rape. Her demands for increased security serve only to bring her condition to the attention of the outside world. (Suddenly Last Summer) In her garden in New Orleans in 1935, the mother of a young man who was killed on vacation summons her niece who witnessed the death, and a doctor who is developing a new psychological treatment: a lobotomy.  The story the niece reveals is devastating to the mother who wants it suppressed even if by surgery.

While some of his better known works (A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie) may have been produced often enough that audiences no longer hear the dialogue with fresh ears, these two short pieces let us hear again, as if for the first time, Williams' astonishing capacity to create imagery in the briefest of descriptions and capture essential concepts in brief statements. So often, writers use an example from Suddenly Last Summer of his ability to encapsulate a mind set in a brief statement -- the twelve words "We all use each other. That's what we think of as love." However, they often neglect the sentence that follows it which says that not being able to use each other is what we call "hate". Its that quick reversal, seemingly so redundant but profound in its effect, that changes a lecture into a thought process.

Suddenly Last Summer is not really famous because of its success as a play but because it was adapted for a movie and the movie broke more Hollywood taboos per foot of film than anything since the establishment of the Hayes Office, that legendary exercise in self-censorship the industry adopted one step ahead of governmental intervention. Portrait of a Madonna, on the other hand, isn't famous at all. Both provide star parts for a female lead. Three years ago when the Port City Playhouse presented these two together they had different actresses in the two parts. Here, instead, Kobylinski entrusts both parts to Herren. She had reason for her confidence having directed her in Harold Pinter play Betrayal. Herren's twin performances justify the confidence.

Marybeth Fritzky has the other strong female part (this one in Suddenly Last Summer) and she acquits herself well although she is just a bit restrained in her final breakdown as the niece who is facing the possibility of a lobotomy because of the knowledge she holds in her brain. Timothy Hayes Lynch does a splendid job of being sympathetic toward the decrepit old woman in Portrait of a Madonna without seeming mawkish. Kudos as well go to the design team, especially Keith Bell whose sound design could well be used by other better financed companies as a guide to making both off stage and on stage sounds seem authentic.

Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Leslie A. Kobylinski. Design: Grant Kevin Lane (set and costumes) Arthur Rodger (hair and make-up) Suzanne Maloney (properties) Franklin C. Coleman (lights) Keith Bell (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Donna Reynolds (stage manager). Cast: Marybeth Fritzky, Kathryn Fuller, Maggie Glauber, Scott Graham, Jewel Greenberg, Sheri S. Herren, Timothy Hayes Lynch, Mike Sherman, Chuck Whalen.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed November 3
Running time 2:45 - one intermission
Performed at the Church Street Theater
A classic of the American theater
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: After having lost the family estate and her welcome in the small Mississippi town of her birth, fragile Blanche DuBois has no place to turn for sanctuary other than her younger sister's home in the French Quarter in New Orleans. When she arrives she's shocked to find her sister's home is a rundown two-room flat where she lives with her decidedly blue collar, rough-around-the-edges husband. As she spends a summer on the couch she's stripped of her remaining pretensions of gentility and even sanity.

Streetcar burst into the public consciousness in 1947. It was a time when the American theater played a greater role in popular culture than it does today, so it may be difficult today to imagine the reaction to this tale of lust and love at the edges of sanity. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, earned a Tony Award for Jessica Tandy as its Blanche and a life magazine cover for its Stanley, Marlon Brando, whose anguished scream "Stella!" became a catchword for a generation and material for impersonators for half a century. It was the second hit for Williams. The Glass Menagerie had preceded it and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth were still to come.

Kerry Waters' Blanche enters with more physical strength than many other actresses show, but with her emotional weaknesses already evident. Her emotional deterioration is well modulated but so many of Williams' mellifluous lines written for this deteriorating southern belle seem swallowed in her rather unusual cooing accent. At the same time, her reactions to her new surroundings seem somehow less horrified, less repulsed than simply upset over the inconvenience of it all. She is surrounded by three very strong performances. The Rheas make the relationship between Stanley and Stella a clear case of can't-keep-their-eyes-off-each-other love. Susan Rhea adds a lovely sibling affection and even a sense of loyalty toward her older sister that works well, while Mark Rhea emphasizes the affection over the sense of possessiveness that underlies their relationship. Lucas' Mitch grows from shy and retiring to hopeful and even slightly daring before being crushed by reality in a splendidly balanced performance. The supporting cast includes an unsatisfying portrayal of the couple upstairs by Rich Montgomery and especially Jennifer Richter, and a strange doubling by Joe Baker.

George Lucas' multi-level set, which must have been designed to accommodate the many different size stages for the production's Ireland tour, sits quite effectively on the Church Street stage. The lighting and sound designs seem a bit mechanical, however, as lights dim or shine and train sounds roll by and whistles whine abruptly on cue. The feeling that sounds and lights are in accordance with the cues in the script lessens any feeling that the action is taking place in the open cacophony that was New Orleans French Quarter, with swarming sounds of jazz, commerce and life. And, the choice of music seems way too formal, as if the jazz heard on Bourbon Street was the same as the dance bands of Manhattan.

Written by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Eric Lucas and Mark A. Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Shadia A. Hafiz (costumes) Dan Martin (lights) Tony Angelini and Matt Rippetoe (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Lisa Shogren (stage manager). Cast: Carol Hood Baker, Joe Baker, Mike Kosemchak, Eric Lucas, Rich Montgomery, Mark A. Rhea, Susan Marie Rhea, Jennifer Richter, Kerry Walters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed June 30
Running time 2:05 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for four strong performances of an emotionally charged play
 Click here to buy the script

Storyline: In a cottage in the small town of Leenane in the west of Ireland, a grumpy elderly woman is tended by her forty-year-old spinster daughter who has all but given up on finding a mate, when one of the local men who have gone off to find work in England returns for a visit and shows an interest in her. The spiteful relationship between the women is exacerbated and even descends to ugly violence in the tug of war between the daughter's hopes and the mother's fears.

Leenane is a tiny village in County Galway, about as far west as you can get in Ireland. Now, as in the early 1960s when this play seems to be set, there just aren't many opportunities for young men and women, so most leave in the search for jobs. Those who remain have a fierce, if frequently unspoken, attachment to the place mixed with a fatalism and a lack of expectations that things will improve. Just keep on keeping on seems to be the rule. Linda High captures much of that, and the underlying anger and regret, with just her glances and her posture in her depiction of the mother who is either victim or victimizer  - or both. It is all there in the opening scene and it fascinates throughout the evening. Nanna Ingvarsson, on the other hand, lets her character's essence come into focus much more slowly, giving a hint here and a hint there which combine into a rich portrayal that has its own fascination.

While the relationship between the two women is the heart of the play, the impact of the local man briefly returned from London, and that of his younger brother, are the engine that move events along. Scott Graham, as the local man who went off to find success in London, layers the terse local attitudes with the energy of the big city so well that it is quite understandable how Ingvarsson's character would come under his spell, even if it weren't for the fact that she sees him as an unexpected last chance at a life of her own. His Act II opening monologue - a letter he composes to her - is a stand-alone gem of a scene which would make terrific audition material. A maturing Joe Baker, as his younger brother, turns in some of his best work for Keegan since Waiting for the Slow Dance.

As usual, George Lucas' finds the right look for the bleakness of the western Irish country in his set design. His single-room set has the feel of the poor rural life of the west of Ireland which sits comfortably in the exposed brick and rough hewn timber ambiance of the Church Street Theatre. It is complimented nicely by both Dan Martin's lighting and by Maggie Butler's just-right costumes. Only Eamon Coy's sound design seems out of place, using early 1960s top forty type tunes to cover strangely lengthy scene changes. The songs are appropriate for the time but they break the mood of the place.

Written by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Mark A. Rhea. Design: George Lucas (set) Dan Martin (lights) Maggie Butler (costumes) Eamon Coy (sound) Ray Gniewek (photography) Lisa Shogren (stage manager). Cast: Joe Baker, Scott Graham, Linda High, Nanna Ingvarsson.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 

Reviewed May 8
Running time 1:55 - one intermission
General admission seating at the Church Street Theatre
t A Potomac Stages Pick for moving performances and emotional impact
Click here to buy the script